I have a sansa clip + and am using the Mac OSX. My clip is about 2 months old and was working fine until recently. It started by showing me an error message that read: “The item (that i am trying to load) cannot be copied because there is not enough free space” This was when I was trying to drag a file from my computer to a folder on the clip. This was in spite of the fact that there was free space.
Sandisk gives help with a similar problem using windows but I am on a Mac. and those instructions do not work with the Mac. So after some searching I went into my disk utility app and found the sandisk clip and a window for first aid and disk repair. I did that thinking it would be the same as doing the repair that would occur on a PC.
Following that repair I went back to the connected clip and was then able to drag files from my Mac to the folder on the clip and not get the error message. I thought that fixed the problem but when I went to turn the clip on all the folders were empty so I turn the clip off and then back on but when it came back on it would not stay on except for a couple of seconds and displayed a message that the FAT is corrupted, please connect device to PC.
I then connected the clip back to my Mac and now the clip will not even show up as being connected to my computer.
I don’t exactly have an answer for you, but the First Aid portion of Disk Utility is probably not designed to fix Non-Mac problems. If you have erased the contents of your Sansa Clip+, format it using the player and not your Mac. Make sure your Clip+ is in MSC Mode for the USB connection. By default it is in Auto Detect. While that should work, you will have better success using the MSC Mode.
are you using MAC OS 10.6? if so you will have to format the Clip+ differently then you did under 10.5. In 10.6 it sets the partition scheme as GUID by default. the clip+ does not recognize this and will give the error FAT corrupt. you can format it and it should fix it.
go to disk utility and select the clip+ on the left side
click the partition tab
under Volume scheme select partition 1
beside format select MS-DOS FAT
towards the bottom under the box that says Untitled 1 click the options button
Change it from GUID partition table to Master Boot Record
click OK
click Apply
on the window that pops up click partition
this will erase all the data but it should fix the player. hope it helps
drlucky … What makes this a better option than formatting the Clip+ from the player? Unless the Clip won’t activate at all, I suggest using the Settings menu on the player, then System Settings, and Format.
OOPS! My Bad. Guess I didn’t read the original post in its entirety. Since I don’t have anything on my Clip+, I tried your instructions, and they worked just fine. By default, the new partition will be called something like “UNTITLED.” That can be changed, but it is just as easy, once the Clip+ is working again, to format again using the player. Then the Clip+ will get named correctly. I didn’t get to see the screen in operation before purchasing my Clip+. It was brand new that day at Best Buy, and there weren’t any on display. Again, my bad. I can barely see the screen, so I really don’t use it. Should sell it perhaps, but once in a blue moon, I play the radio.
drlucky has the cool Mac to experiment with, I see. Good to know that there’s a difference, as this can create havoc with a flash drive as well. With the device connected in MSC mode, a reformat will repair your FAT by the Nuclear Option, starting with a clean slate.
If you start with the Clip+ turned OFF, hold the center button depressed while connecting to force MSC mode manually.
after getting the ‘FAT is Corrupted’ message I tried formatting my Sansa Clip + on a laptop but I get a ‘Windows could not complete the Format’ message every time I try. the laptop I’m using is an HP
