Help needed! How to clear up the sansa e280 memory card?

Hi everybody,

I have got a problem concerning my 8GB sansa e280 mp3 player. I had 1.500 (6,56 GB) music files on it and wanted to delete them all yesterday. However, for some reason, it didn’t work out. I connected the player to my computer and selected the files in windows for deletion. At first, everything seemed to be okay: The files all disappeared in the windows folder there - and on the player as well. There seems to be nothing left there now, but however, the memory card is still occupied to an large extend (it shows: only 2,76 GB of 7,44 GB free). So I cannot put my complete music selection on the player back again. I even tried to format the sansa e280 twice in windows (as well as using the “Reset all” button on the player), but it didn’t help. So how can I clear up the memory card?

Thanks for any help!

“Reset all” doesn’t erase your files, it simply clears all changes you’ve made to the player’s settings (FM region, backlight time & brightness, language, etc.). You want the “Format” option in the Settings menu.

Yes, but there is no “format” option available in the settings menu of my player…

You should be able to format it in Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the player’s icon . . . if you are in MSC mode.

Do you know if you have a v1 or v2 model?

Okay, thanks! Which formatting mode shall I chose: “FAT32 (Standard)” or “NTSF” or “exFAT”? Is is safe, because I’ve read some comments here of users who formated their player and afterwards nothing worked anymore (windows didn’t even recognize it).

How can I find out about v1 or v2 model? What’s the significance?

FAT32.

Look at the top line in Settings, Info. If your firmware version starts with V01, you have a v1 model. If it starts with V03, you have a v2 model.

The two different models have a different processing chip inside, but outwardly they operate the same. the v2 will also have a Format option in the Settings > System Settings menu. V1’s have to be formatted either by Windows or by creating a ‘sansa.fmt’ file or folder in the root directory in Recovery Mode. V2’s do not have a Recovery Mode.

FAT32. Don’t use the ‘Quick Format’ option (it will only take a few seconds).

Look at the top line in Settings, Info. If your firmware version starts with V01, you have a v1 model. If it starts with V03, you have a v2 model.

The two different models have a different processing chip inside, but outwardly they operate the same. the v2 will also have a Format option in the Settings > System Settings menu. V1’s have to be formatted either by Windows or by creating a ‘sansa.fmt’ file or folder in the root directory in Recovery Mode. V2’s do not have a Recovery Mode.

Thanks a lot! That helped! (Have model1)