Can the Fuse be Defragged?

After have the 4gb version I was adding and deleting songs… I had many cds recorded at 256 compression rate and deleted them and re ripped them in 128 rate and when I synced them up to my fuze I seen I could not fit as many in … This makes no sense other then the fuse maybe fragmented…I mean 128 compression takes up much less room!  So would it be wise to run windows defrag after deleting songs before installing new ones? George 

I don’t think it would make any difference. Even if there were still some undeleted files on the player when you added the new ones (so the new ones may have to be split into pieces to fit around the existing data), there is still the same amount of space, whether spread out or in contiguous chunks. Defragging was designed for physical hard drives, because having to scan around to pick up the scattered pieces of a fragmented file actually takes more time with a physically-moving reader mechanism. Flash is all electrical, so there should be no difference from fragmentation.

In your case, it might be better just to run a format on the player once all the files are deleted, so they are written back in the largest chunks possible. Still, I think this might be equally pointless, for basically the same reasons as above. Also, did you rip the 256s and the 128s with the same codec? And why would you go down to 128 to begin with? (Alright, now I’m off topic.)

Message Edited by SilverZero on 08-30-2008 09:21 AM

Both 256 and 128 had been ripped in MP3 in WMP 11.  Before I had the Fuze I knew we would be getting a MP3 player soon so I started ripping…  I have a good ear and thought 256 would give me a better copy better sound but after getting the Fuze I hear no difference between 256 and 128 so I thought I would save some space and rip all the music to MP3 in 128 compression…  Does this help? Thanks! George 

So, the actual 128 files are, in fact, smaller than the original 256 files, correct? If so, I don’t see any reason why the player should hold fewer songs at the lower bitrate. I’d clear it off, try to load the same 10 songs or so in 128 and 256, and then see how much space they are taking up on the player.

Somebody more knowledgeable than I am might also have something to say about potential differences between transferring in MSD (MSC) mode vs. MTP. Actually, let’s make sure you’re not using both modes interchangeably, because that could actually lead to you maybe leaving some songs on the device that were transferred in another mode, so you think there’s less space, when really, they’re just “hidden” in a sense.

I stole this from another thread:

“To make it more clear for you, if you transfer data in MTP mode, then switch to MSC mode, your files from MTP will NOT appear. If you transfer data in MSC mode, then switch to MTP mode, your files from MSC will NOT appear. It’s best to either stick with one or the other because of this.” -Nequissime

Silver Zero,

Thanks again!  I’m still in the learning mode myself…  Yes I’m sure 128 takes up about half the space of 256 files… I followed you link and I’m running it the AUTO mode so I think they agree that’s ok… George…

Any more tip welcome! 

And remember, that defragging Flash memory doesn’t make any sense. Files written on flash memory are fragmented while writing and that is for 2 good reasons:

  1. Flash memory has the same response time at each sector, hence defragging wouldn’t boost speed nor free physical space (remember - they are fragmented when they are written)

  2. Each cell of the flash memory has about 1000 write-erase cycles before it uses up. If files weren’t fragmented, some parts of the memory would use up faster.

Defragmenting the flash memory of the Sansa isn’t necessary, but a related issue is important.

Windows likes to use tiny file allocation sizes, and will format the Sansa’s memory with 4KB blocks.  Thsi can cause decoding issues, as the Sansa is searching for your music using a huge allocation table.

The Sansa’s native format command uses an optimized size, 32KB.  If you format occasionally using the Format command on the device, via Settings > System Settings > Format > Yes, a little spring cleaning goes a long way.

Remember to have backup copies of your music!  Formatting deletes all data from the player. 

Bob  :smileyvery-happy: 

Thanks for all the great info!! I’ll only use the format command in the player! When my player gets here *Next week* I’ll format the wife’s player to clean it up well then she can have it for all her music… I plan on ripping all out music to 128 MP3 in windows WMP 11 then backing it all up to a external hard drive… Sound ok? George