HELP! Accidentally Windows Formatted Sansa e280 v1

MP3 players All other MP3 players
1

Hello,

I accidentally Windows formatted my Sansa e280 v1 player (I thought I was formatting the external microSD card), and now it boots to black screen and blue ring.

I have a complete backup of what was on the internal player from the root directory down, on my computer.

But when I plug it in, windows gives the audible sound it used to but does not assign a drive letter, so I cannot access it to restore my files from my backup.

Is there any way to get windows to recognize the player?

Anything I can try?

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks.

2

These posts/instructions on Recovery Mode might help:

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-other-MP3-players/I-m-an-■■■■■-recovery-mode-Tried-the-sansa-fmt-folder-but-doesn/m-p/216302/highlight/true#M15629

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-other-MP3-players/E280-recovery-mode-error-then-asked-to-enter-USB2-0-MSD-mode/m-p/111070/highlight/true#M9039

3

Thank you, tapeworm for the links, but I cannot get the player into Recovery Mode.

I tried both methods (HOLD button to right so orange shows), then press and hold RECORD button and either a) plug into computer USB or b) tap the MENU/POWER button.   In both cases, it just goes to black screen & blue ring.

I think that the Windows quick format won’t let those recovery files run (even though QUICK format does not erase the actual files, just alters the file table?). 

If there was some way that I could access the player, I could copy all the root directory files from the backup on my computer, but since windows is not assigning a drive letter, I can’t figure out how to access the player.

Anyone have any other suggestions to try?   I really use this player a lot…    Thanks so much.

4

Try this:

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Sansa-e200-series/Blue-Ring-of-Death/m-p/33817/highlight/true#M12660

Also, you might be able to assign a drive letter to it in Windows in Device Manager.

5

Thanks, tapeworm.

Have you run through his steps?

Looks complicated, but I will give it a try.

Do you think I need to use a version of Ubuntu back like the one he used?  Wondered if syntax he used might not work in newer versions?  

On your 2nd suggestion, I can’t assign a drive letter in device manager because the device does not show up there at all.

6

Does anyone actually know of anyone recovering an e280 player after running windows format on the drive that contains the firmware partition?

7

dma44, I am having this same issue. Did you end up having any luck?