Brand new 8G clip zip. Plugged in, charged battery, copied a folder of music into the “music” section, transfer stalled about half way through, clicked “cancel”, text comes up on clip zip screen saying “fat file is corrupt. plug into pc and repair fat file”. plug into pc and both devices recognize each other but no idea how to “repair the fat file”! Also tried updating the firmware and it doesn’t recognize a sandisk device in order to update. Not a good way to start at all. Thinking of just returning it to amazon instead of dealing with it. Is this something simple?
Yep. Format it.
Right-click on the player’s drive in Windows Explorer and select Format… > FAT32.
OK. Did that. Waited for about 20 minutes while it is reformatting. Dialogue box pops up saying “windows is unable to complete formatting”. Sounds like I am SOL. Yes?
Not yet. Did you try resetting the device first? Press and hold the power button for (usually) 20 seconds. If this doesn’t help, try holding for longer . . . up to a minute for stubborn cases. Then see if it will restart normally.
Formatting should only take a few seconds.
If you connect the Clip Zip in MSC mode manually, you can check the File Allocation Table (the FAT) for errors. When you format the drive, you are placing null characters into the memory, effectively erasing the data area.
The File Allocation Table is the master list that tells the computer which memory locations are available. If the FAT is corrupted, you may get the response “the format could not be completed”.
You can manually force the device to connect in MSC mode, where the sansa is seen as a memory device, by starting with the Sansa turned OFF. Press and hold the center select button while plugging in to the PC.
The Sansa will show up as a flash drive in Windows Explorer / My Computer. Right click on the device and selct properties , then click on the Tools tab, and then click on Check Volume For Errors. You should then be able to right click and select format.
Or if you’re familiar with the MS DOS prompt, you can use the chkdsk utility.
For the 8GB model, or any device over 2GB, use FAT32. (The basic 2GB is FAT format.)
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
I just reset my SanDisk Clip and it worked. :smileyvery-happy:
Try this:
First, if you have a memory card inserted into the SanDisk Cip, remove the micro SD memory card. My Computer > right click on device > format > fat32. You’ll be able to get back into your SanDisk once that has been formatted. Takes only a few seconds.
Second, insert your memory card. Another device will be added to your My Computer drive location. Right click on the device > format > fat32. This takes only a few seconds to do also.
That’s it! It should be ready to go. Good luck to you!!! :womanvery-happy:
Hi GM,
Once you formatted the card all files will be deleted from it and so if you want to to restore fat files, you can use FAT file recovery software. When I am faicng the same problem, I have formatted the card and I was able to recover all deleted files just by using this software. So, first you can download trial version of this software and check it.
Plerase take note of the date of a post before replying to it. Responding to a year old thread serves no purpose and helps no one.
And FYI, your recommendation is dangerously close to spamming, something we do not tolerate here. Personally, I think that it IS spam, but the fact that you mentioned there was a free trial version at least implies and warns that the software will cost someone wanting the full version. A grey area to be sure so a word to the wise, be careful how you word your advice if it involves a link to somewhere else. 
All of your posts have been helpful, I am trying to fix my Clip, I just bought it and it has a FAT corruption. I have tried holding down the power button on the top of the device for 20+ seconds and it has not reset, I have connected it to my computer and it freezes my computer and cannot find the device… does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?
If you just bought it, and are having problems out of the box, why don’t you return it? I certainly would.
