Sansa Clip+ Frozen, with suspected 2.2TB Bogus "Ghost" Partition

I have a 4GB Sansa Clip+ that recently froze (seemingly while charging via mains) and is now unusable. The MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard that had no problems with it previously now doesn’t normally recognize it - although it does so sometimes, eventually, if I open Disk Utility; it first shows a message saying “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer,” but then the disk shows up if I click through on either Initialize or Ignore.

Here’s where it gets weird: Once I click through, disk utility shows *two* Sansa Clips mounted: one with ~3.96 GB capacity (seemingly normal), and the other with 2.2 *TB* capacity (which I must confess I don’t recall purchasing, let alone connecting, and I don’t see it in the room). The second is obviously bogus, and seems likely related to the freeze. Once recognized via Disk Util, the 3.96 GB version shows up normally in Finder, and I’m able to navigate through the folders, but the second one doesn’t show up.

When I power it on while disconnected, it hangs at the flower. If I plug it into the MacBook, it will eventually begin to act like it is getting back to normal, going to the “connected” screen and indicating that it is charging. When I eject and disconnect, it goes through the “Refreshing” screen, then stops at the FM radio screen, frozen. it doesn’t respond to anything from there but a hard reset or plugging it back in, in which case it cycles through the waiting session again.

I’ve reset many times, waited overnight with it plugged in, with it not plugged in, etc. I’ve also upgraded the firmware during one of the times it was recognized; it went through the upgrade process seemingly normally and powered off, but subsequent behavior is unchanged.

Any assistance appreciated. Bonus points if you can help me get it working and unlock that hidden 2.2 TB in the process…

Is your Clip+ set to MSC mode (Settings > System Settings > USB Mode)? It must be to work on a Mac. When connected in this mode, your computer (Mac) will “see” it as 2 separate drives, the internal memory (your 3.96GB reading) and the memory card slot. This occurs whether there is a card inserted or not.

I don’t know why your card slot is reading 2.2TB. Is there a memory card in it? What happens if you take it out?

It is frozen, so I’m not able to change settings. I believe it is set to auto-detect, but whatever the setting, it has worked fine when plugged into the Mac for ~2 months - i.e., until the freeze.

There is no removable memory card.

For SanDisk Customer Service, and a possible warranty replacement of your player:

http://www.sandisk.com/about-sandisk/contact-us/

This may be all that can be done, at this point . . . .