As I looked at my Sansa Clip 1.0 GB Internal memory with Windows Explorer, as it was received, I saw capacities of Used - 21.7 MB and Free - 945 MB for a total of 965 MB. I then loaded some of my music using the sync feature of WMP 11 until the clip was fully loaded giving a mesage of unavailable space for additonal files.
Being not aware of how much the clip would take I then decided to clear the clip of all files and start over. So, I used Windows Explorer to delete all files from the Clip. I made sure that all files were deleted from the Internal Memory files of Music, Playlists, Record and Service with only Rhapsody remaining under Service.
Now, using Explorer I discover that Internal Memory shows Used as 228 MB and Free as 736 MB for a capacity of 964 MB.
Can someone please tell me what is happening and why my available (free) memory has been decreased by so much? Also, will the free memory continue to decrease each time i delete files from the Clip?
Sorry about that. I finally determined how to format and update my Clip. Now, as I look at the used and free space on the Clip Settings Menu (System Info) I get 969 MB Memory and 947 MB Free. So, guess Windows Explorer is somewhat inaccurate when determining capacity sizes on the Sansa Clip? However, I did reformat my clip. Perhaps that had sometime to do with it? Although, Win Exp is still inaccurate. Guess I won’t use WE again in operating on my Clip!
Sorry about that. I finally determined how to format and update my Clip. Now, as I look at the used and free space on the Clip Settings Menu (System Info) I get 969 MB Memory and 947 MB Free. So, guess Windows Explorer is somewhat inaccurate when determining capacity sizes on the Sansa Clip? However, I did reformat my clip. Perhaps that had sometime to do with it? Although, Win Exp is still inaccurate. Guess I won’t use WE again in operating on my Clip!
Ray
It’s not that Explorer is inaccurate…it’s that the firmware takes up a little memory space. You’ll find that using Explorer/My Computer is a great way to manage what’s on your Clip, because you are in control of it.
Thanks for your input. I’m brand new with Clip. Hopefully, my learning process will be fairly painless, especially with the help of this forum. I like WE and, with your encouragement, will continue to use it.to arrange my Clip.
I too am noticing this discrepancy in the file size that Windows XP reports and the memory reported by the clip.
Maybe my calculating method is wrong but I thought if I did Memory - Free = used / number of songs i would get an average MB per song. But i guess this doesnt really take into account memory needed by the device.
And it may depend on the actual song complexity.
When I use 64 kbps I seem to get only twice as many songs as 320 kbps instead of 5 times like I expected. Published data says I believe the capacity should be 1000 wma64kbps songs or 500 mp3 128kbps songs. But I am comparing a 1GB clip with 949 memory, 20 free, 117 songs mp3 320 kbps and a 2 GB clip 1855 memory, 1733 free, 34 songs wma64kbps.Maybe some of the memory is used for something other than songs because the average song size at 64 comes out to 3.6 MB on clip but these songfiles on PC come out to 1.41 MB per song. The mp3 320 mp3 come out to average of 7.9MB per songfile on clip.
I am going to refigure all this because it doesnt make sense.
But I do find that if I play songs from 64 to 320 I cant hear a difference and none sound bad so I did find 64 kbps gives me more songs at acceptable quality.
Remember the space required for Frimware, and the space required for your Database (How the clip navigates). And the thing is an average MB per song is not realisitc based on the space used devided by the number of songs because a 5 minute song could be double that of a 2.5 minute song, or the 5 minute song could be barely any larger than a 2.5 minute song. Song files vary that way.
