Is there a geek in the house?

[swee'pea99]

Just got a new (ie old) MP3 player, and have run into a bit of a brainteaser.

Windows can see 11ish gb of the 20ish are occupied, but if you double-click on 'Storage Media', you just get an empty screen. In Linux, again, it can see the HD is largely occupied, but reports the contents as 'nothing'. And again, there's no way to access the folders etc that must be on there.

Fortunately the contents have so far proven mostly pretty sound (apart from rather too much, which is to say any, Don McLean), but it would be good if I could get in to do some editing/add new stuff.

Gut instinct suggests a hardware failure (it's an old player, so it would come as no surprise) but I thought someone out there might have an idea. (There's a factory reset option, which I've already tried, BTW. Same difference.)

 

[MontyVeda]

You could try a bit of 3rd party MP3 software such as mediamonkey* or similar... it could be a software failure??

*if it still exists

 

[Edwardoka]

Windows will automatically mount a media device using the Media Transfer Protocol, it looks like linux is doing the same. This is not the same as having direct access to the files. (The main benefit is that with MTP you can unplug it while it's in use without corrupting it)

To gain full access you'd need to mount it as an actual drive, how you do this depends upon the device.
(You can see the same thing at work if you plug an android phone into a computer, the phone will usually get a popup saying that it is mounted as a media device but you can choose to change it to "Mass Storage" which will allow access to the inner filesystem)

There will be a lot of things on the device that won't appear over MTP. Just be careful when deleting them, you could easily brick the player. And you will need to "eject" the device before unplugging it, or else you risk corrupting its filesystem.

 

[sleuthey]

^ wot e said

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks, but I can't find any way to mount it as a drive. I have two other identical units which both seem to be connected by MTP, but on those you can see the content. I think I'll have to resign myself to the existing content and just keep skipping Don McLean. Thanks for your help anyway - much appreciated.

 

[newfhouse]

Is the original Zen software still on the internet somewhere?
Is it possible the drive was formatted as something odd, Apple maybe?
In Ubuntu, does gparted see it as a drive?
Clutching at straws...

 

[swee'pea99]

Is the original Zen software still on the internet somewhere?
Is it possible the drive was formatted as something odd, Apple maybe?
In Ubuntu, does gparted see it as a drive?
Clutching at straws...

The original software is indeed available from the Creative site...but it can't be loaded because Windows can't 'see' the player - at least not properly. (The .exe prog just keeps saying 'connect your player'.) It's possible the drive has been oddly formatted, but highly unlikely I would think - why would you? and also, it does work as a player, which I doubt it would if the format wasn't right.) I'm afraid as far as Linux goes, I'm pretty much a write-off - I installed it at the behest of a friend, but have never really used it, finding it rather too techy for my taste. I don't know what gparted means, eg.

Thanks again, but like I say I think it's probably hardware - hardly surprising given its age (10 ys+) - and I'm resigned to using it as it stands.

 

[newfhouse]

I'm resigned to using it as it stands.

Fair enough, enjoy your American Pie

For some reason I am reminded of Pratchett’s & Gaiman’s “Good Omens”

“Crowley was currently doing 110 mph somewhere east of Slough. Nothing about him looked particularly demonic, at least by classical standards. No horns, no wings. Admittedly he was listening to a Best of Queen tape, but no conclusions should be drawn from this because all tapes left in a car for more than a fortnight metamorphose into Best of Queen albums.”

 

[swee'pea99]

Fair enough, enjoy your American Pie

I read once that Don McLean responded to an interviewer asking what American Pie means by saying 'It means I'll never have to work again'.

 

[ColinJ]

I read once that Don McLean responded to an interviewer asking what American Pie means by saying 'It means I'll never have to work again'.

I was just thinking about that interview!

It must be lovely to be in that position, well before pension age.

 

[Edwardoka]

The original software is indeed available from the Creative site...but it can't be loaded because Windows can't 'see' the player - at least not properly. (The .exe prog just keeps saying 'connect your player'.) It's possible the drive has been oddly formatted, but highly unlikely I would think - why would you? and also, it does work as a player, which I doubt it would if the format wasn't right.) I'm afraid as far as Linux goes, I'm pretty much a write-off - I installed it at the behest of a friend, but have never really used it, finding it rather too techy for my taste. I don't know what gparted means, eg.

Thanks again, but like I say I think it's probably hardware - hardly surprising given its age (10 ys+) - and I'm resigned to using it as it stands.

I didn't see in the screenshots that it was a Zen. You are likely to struggle to get support, the entire line is past end of life support for several years now.
There is a Zen player/utility for linux called Gnomad. You could try installing that and see if it has any more luck than the Windows software.