Need help with BOP version

SanDisk MP3 players SanDisk® Clip Sport
#1

Background

That is correct, I said BOP version. For those unfamiliar with that acronym, it stands for Bureau of Prisons. The Gov allows you to buy the Sport Clip for $85, and average song cost is $1.25 per unit. I have 2795 titles on mine. And clearly I was released, as I am talking to you here.

Issues

While Windows 10 see the drive connected, it cannot access it. Even using a 3rd party tool that will show(normally)all hidden files, the response is allows the same, drive not found, connect device. All I what to do is transfer the songs I paid for(all $3493.75 worth)the to drive of my new Surface 4, then to my new iPod . The BOP tells us to send it to SanDisk, but and no offence intended but the idea of after spending approximately $3500 on a $30 Mp3 player and 2795 songs at $1.25 each I shouldn’t have to.

Requested Help

How can I accomplish the above described task.

Personal Info

For those that my be curious, or even judgemental about helping a adjudicated felon(not convicted plead out) I will say the I served 29 months(of a 37 month sentence) and my charge involved marijuana and interstate commerce. And to those that do not know there has been changes under the Patriot Act. When accused of a crime buy the Feds, you are no longer innocent until proven guilty, you are guilty, period. There is only the amelioration, of your sentencing guideline’s, if you are lucky. And should you decide to fight it, you face the chance of what is referred to as upwards departure from the guidelines. In other words if I fought and lost(Fed conviction rate is 98.2%)the judge could have ignored the guidelines and sentenced me to up to 180 months.

Thanks in advertence for any help that may be offered.

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#2

I have seen one or more hacks online to free a BOP Clip from its restrictions–you can try searching–but, candidly, it all looks much more complîcated and iffy than simply sending one’s player in and having it unlocked for a small fee.  Personally, I wouldn’t risk the hacks with a large $ investment such as yours.

SanDisk deinstitutionalization info.: 

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12839/kw/unlock%20prison%20clip

1 Like
#3

First off thank you for replying. The only issue I have with that, is the including insured registered mail, they want $25.00. Quite frankly they bleed enough mony out of me. Charging $1.25 -$1.50 per track for 192 bit rate is out right extorsion. I just joined Soundike where I am paying 09 cents per 320 bit rate, unedited track. In addition others have told me of sending theirs in, and being told it was lost or damaged, and the tracks where unrecoverable.

Let us be blunt here, any company that can treat there customer they way they do, could care less about end user satifaction.

#4

I would agreee . . .but it boils down to do you want it de-institutionalized/unlocked or not? They are the only game in town. There are no other choices. :cry:

#5

Sounds like the CO(AKA Turn Key)that when asked where my identiftion(SS card ect)that we are told to take the required Re-entry course to obtain,"I don’t f------- know, either sign the papers and leave or go back to your unit. Which is odd concidering being with out ID is a violation under the Patriot Act.

Tells me alot about WD corp though.

Thanks though

#6

Perhaps think of it this way–one last payment and you’re done.  And you’ve preserved a pretty hefty music collection, at a pretty low fee, to enjoy for the next few decades . . . .     :wink:

#7

If you are looking for a fix to your problem I posted an easy solution to get the music off at least.  

http://goo.gl/0ucVir

I am currently working on the firmware to be able to use the sandisk sport again but this will be slow going, even the jtag on the front of the board was locked down so this may or may not work.  My feelings of anger towards any company trying to fore you to pay additional money for something you already bought is what fueld me to find this.

Just noticed how many songs you are trying to pull, I would recommend going to the website of the icare product to see how to get the code for unlimited data transfer for free, simple and should take a moment to complete.  Can verify from my own experience they will do what they promise.

When you have the mp3’s do not be thrown off by the names, the mp3 tag data is still there so once you drop them into an android or iphone all the names will re-appear.

#8

@wipedout wrote:

If you are looking for a fix to your problem I posted an easy solution to get the music off at least.  

 

http://goo.gl/0ucVir

 

I am currently working on the firmware to be able to use the sandisk sport again but this will be slow going, even the jtag on the front of the board was locked down so this may or may not work.  My feelings of anger towards any company trying to fore you to pay additional money for something you already bought is what fueld me to find this.

 

Just noticed how many songs you are trying to pull, I would recommend going to the website of the icare product to see how to get the code for unlimited data transfer for free, simple and should take a moment to complete.  Can verify from my own experience they will do what they promise.

 

When you have the mp3’s do not be thrown off by the names, the mp3 tag data is still there so once you drop them into an android or iphone all the names will re-appear.

If the file names simply have been renamed to something else, they easily can be brought back to “normal” using freeware MP3Tag, a well-regarded tag editor, which has an option (among others) to change file names to what is in the title ID3 tag.  Easy and fast, and can be done for a whole collection at a single time.  http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html

By the way, it is not SanDisk that it charging for the unlocking of the BOP Clip (as far as I am aware, and unless SanDisk is related to Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), the company seemingly doing the unlocking and administering the program)–that is the structure that was put in place by the BOP and its vendor(s) in the program that was set up. 

#9

Milkerman thanks for the intro to a great app. Bought a single user licence for $69. It scanned and found all the files. Saw them where even and old reliable tool like Windows Commander failed. I know it will come in handy in the future.

Now the bad, and I mean VERY bad news. Well for me and others in my shoes. You can get the files off, sure easy peasy. That’s when you find out, you really don’t have MP3 files, what you(or in my case because of the number of files)are multiple gig SWF files, and 300 KB MP3 files as “pointers”

Those venal, petty, grasping, lying, thieves made sure(after telling us that $1.55- 31 TRU units per was because we had to pay for licence rights) that $4000 plus worth of music will only play on this piece of junk Sport Clip, or a 3rd SWF video player,  or maybe not . Because we have no rights, we are criminals.

I have 5 WD Raptor drives in a Raid 5 configured in my water cooled super tower. I have all ways liked and respected WD. The fact that they are a part of this fraud though, is unforgivable.

#10

Candidly and personally, and as painful as it might be, I would just pay the $25 unlock fee (basically, the price of 2 CDs) and get my music back free and clear, along with the player–you’ve already invested thousands of dollars.  And then consider the chapter closed and give it to more thought.  But that’s me.

P.S.  Giving credit where it’s due, WipedOut had the iCare data recovery solution.

#11

Clearly my error, sorry WipeOut thanks for the assist.

Milkerman, why would I give them $25.00 now? I have the files. They are worthless. Can only play on that player.

No will meet with my attorney and consider holding all parties responsible for consumer fraud.

They advertise the files as “192 bit rate MP3 files” Which just about any man on the street would expect he could play on any MP3 player. Certainly an Apple iPod. But they lied, hat is NOT what they are delivering. They will either refund or produce what they said I was purchasing.

#12

Kurt,

No problem bro, can’t even see where anything would have offended me but just glad to help the community out.

Yes the true downside is the 128 bitrate but for some people who just want the music they paid for it will probably suffice just for that purpose.

The renaming of the files using the renamer isn’t really required if using the newest android os but if you were going to stream them from a windows pc that utility mentioned above would well suit the purpose, may edit the original post with that.

You know what bothered me more than the $25 was the fine print states it is actually $35

  1. Total Fee: Based on selections made, specifically the insurance. a. $25.00 (Service Fee + $10.00 shipping and handling)  Include Money Order issued by USPS, Western Union or MoneyGram for the total payable to ATG.

Plus they use the most expensive options for the money orders so add another $4-$5 on that for an even $40.

Greedy people I do say.

Hope someone finds this trick useful ;).  Should have an update on the firmware issue in the next week or so. 

#13

@kurt045 wrote:

Clearly my error, sorry WipeOut thanks for the assist.

 

Milkerman, why would I give them $25.00 now? I have the files. They are worthless. Can only play on that player.

No will meet with my attorney and consider holding all parties responsible for consumer fraud.

 

They advertise the files as “192 bit rate MP3 files” Which just about any man on the street would expect he could play on any MP3 player. Certainly an Apple iPod. But they lied, hat is NOT what they are delivering. They will either refund or produce what they said I was purchasing.

Ah, I thought that if you paid the fee, the files would be unlocked and you freely could use them wherever–on the SanDisk, on another player, etc., and as a “normal type” of file such as in mp3 format.  Not the case? 

(I know that you had discussed otherwise, but I thought that that was when you used the iCare recovery software; in which case I thought, it might just be best to pay the sum and get the music files free and clear.) 

If the files still are “crippled” (not transferable to another device, and not in a mainstream format) after paying the fee, yep, I can see why you would be ticked off.   

#14

@miikerman wrote:

 

Ah, I thought that if you paid the fee, the files would be unlocked and you freely could use them wherever–on the SanDisk, on another player, etc., and as a “normal type” of file such as in mp3 format.  Not the case? 

 

 

It is my understanding this is the way it works. IIRC the files are protected and once the product is sent to ATG to be unlocked you will get unprotected MP3s.

 

This is ATG though. SanDisk only sells the actual product to ATG. Any issues with the content or how it is unlocked I would recommend contacting ATG for support. 

#15

Hey guys,

The files have zero protection on them.  The protection level that ATG put in the software just hides the devices storage volume from being able to be displayed and therefor from being removed.  Using diskpart, gpart, and every other command based partition tool I was shocked icare was the only one which could see the data through a data dump.  I think this is because the icare software is not a partition software by design but a tool to recover lost pictures and data from a corrupted device.

I believe you are the one who had 2700 songs, if so I would read this page.  I can vouch for the fact they will supply you the code for free so you can get all your music in one download.  With 2700 songs it will take a while to dump the data though you already knew that considering how long it would have taken to get those songs using the bop’s software.

http://goo.gl/qjcGPi

What I still can’t understand are why they include a seperate folder with short 30 second clips of some of the songs.  I am guessing when you clicked on the preview button to listen to the music it actually downloaded that clip to your player but this is only speculation.  

Who would have thought Keefe would have a data division and they would have actually been good at it…now just coffee and whole shebangs folks… they do data well.

#16

OK, I’ll say it another way. There should be 2795 track. Recovered  6 gigs of SWF files(Flash video). With 1700 300Kb files.

How do I convert SWF to MP3? Because SWF will not load on any of my Nano’s or 64 Gig iPod Touch. Are the missing 1075 files in the SWF files?

Icare recovered all data from the player bite for bite.

I should be more precise, I don’t believe Icare converted the files to SWF durring recovery. And the MP3 files of verious sizes,

example one may sat file876.mps  size 17KB and the next one file877.mp3 will be 90KB. Sizes go up to 290KB.

WidedOut, can’t stand Keefe coffee, and no Shabangs on our Pound. :smiley:

#17

This is why I keep on wondering if going the “official” way and biting the bullet and paying the “unlock fee” is just the easier way to go.  But I don’t have the knowledge that you folks do, and I understand the reluctance (having acted similarly in the past myself . . .). 

#18

Just a thought, Kurt:  without meaning to offend at all, are you sure that something in the iCare software wasn’t inadvertently set when you used it, that caused an unintended result?  It’s just odd that music files would end up as swf files, and that all of your music files don’t seem to have been recovered (at least cleanly). 

Perhaps WipedOut will have further suggestions there–I don’t have any experience with iCare. 

#19

Well Milkerman, I saw no offer to “save as” and the last I thing I would have chosen is SWF format. Adobe never really seemed to get on board with Shock Wave after they bought Maromedia, Macromedia Director was one the the very few apps they let die.

Adobe looked at SWF as sort of a red headed step child.(no offence intended to red heads).

Some of the files were extracted to a “lost file Dir” Now those are proper size, not named. IE: 377gh.mp3   12MB. No the app worked as most do, find the files, show you the files, and extracted the ones you want.

The files aren’t locked, the unit is. But again as far as I am concerned it would make a lousy paper weight.  I need a app the will convert the pointer and Shock Wave files to MP3. I have a licenced version of Helium Music Manager(the best IMHO)and it handles all audio files and even it has no idea what to do with them.

I would not mind(too much)having to rename all 2795 files(Helium can hand that)but they have to be “true” standard MP3 files

#20

Kurt,

I am at a loss here, the files should all have been MP3’s and no where on the drive should SWF have even existed.  Are you positive you hit the lost partition recovery?  Can you try this on a seperate computer?  

The files can be played anywhere, I know because I put them on dropbox and stream them to my radio while I am in my car from my Samsung Galaxy.  128K MP3’s meh, it could be worse.  I typically get 320k but before someone jumps into the whole flac debate, I just don’t care for FLAC until the compression goes up.  It would eat up almost all my bandwith driving to and from work on my monthly plan.  Sure I can store it to the phone but my collection is rather large.

When the file dump completed were you left with a huge list of file folders, each one containing 2-4 songs?

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