Slow down for a second.
Formatting removes all the content you have added. Make sure your songs are backed up on your computer.
MSC mode turns the Sansa into the same thing as a thumb drive. You can just drag-and-drop albums over. Make a new folder on it–My Music, Satanic Mud Wrestling, whatever–and put your music there.
MTP mode works with Windows Media Player. But Windows Media Player is a devious dictatorial piece of…software.
First, it has to be Windows Media Player 10 or 11. Windows XP had WMP 9, so look at Help/About/Version on WMP and see if you need to update.
Once you have the right WMP, click on Tools (or if you don’t see Tools, right-click on the very top of the window and
the menu with Tools should pop up). Look at Rip Music. You may, because WMP is so sneaky, be ripping your CDs to WMA with copy protection, which causes all sorts of trouble.
Change the format (in the drop-down box) from .wma to .mp3, and pick fairly high quality, like 192 kbps. mp3 is compatible with everything, and it may solve your problems.
