Well, the good news is you know what the problem is and secondly, I suspect this may be the only time you’ll have it.
That you have already tried formatting the player suggests you are not worried about losing all your files and that you just want to get it working again, is that correct?
You are not able to view your files in the device folder under My Computer because you added them under a USB mode, MTP, which is not transparent through simple Windows folder browsing. Had you added them through another mode, MSC, you would be able to see them. You can read more about advantages and operations of each, both unrelated to your problem, after you find a solution.
Your objective is to release some space, say about 100 MB, by deleting some files.
First, have you removed the microSD from the external drive? If not, remove and leave aside until the issue is resolved. If your player is refreshing on attempted start-ups, this may decrease the size of the index just enough to allow you to fire up the player and to remove a few files.
You mentioned trying to format the player through Windows Media Player: you tried deleting files through WMP as well?
If that doesn’t work, have you another media application which can connect to your player in MTP mode such as MediaMonkey or Winamp? If so, give them both a try, there’s a chance one of them may allow you the deletions that WMP is not.
Failing that, you can try formatting the player with your computer:
1. Connect your player to your computer
2. Navigate back to My Computer
3. Right-click the drive which is connected to your player
4. Choose format and FAT32 and click OK
Next, download the latest firmware to your computer:
http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/fuze/fuze01.01.22.zip
5. Then follow the steps as written on the first page of the latest firmware thread:
http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=9473
• Ensure your battery is > 50% full.
• Extract the .zip file into a folder on your computer.
• Once extracted, drag the file to the root directory of your Sansa Fuze.
• Disconnect the Sansa Fuze and let it begin the firmware update.
• Once it finally finishes doing its update, it will turn itself off.
• Turn the Fuze on Select your language and region preference
• Once its back to the main menu, head to “Settings” > “System Settings” > “Info”, and verify the “Version” is now 01.01.22"x".
Do you know how to extract a zip file? You should already have a program to extract the zipped firmware you just downloaded: click on the zipped file and it should open in an archive application. Click extract and take note of the destination folder. Then drag that extracted file to the root directory of your player as described above. Do not try to engage the Fuze until the update finishes as noted above, it should take under a minute if I recall rightly.
6. Fire up your player and then reformat it again with the onboard Fuze formatter.
May seem a hassle but it should go quickly if you follow the steps.
Let me know how it turns out.
