Category: accessible Devices
As some of you may know, I got a Zenstone a little over a week ago. This is the 1gb model. I read that you could use it with Windows and Mac and simply copy and paste stuff into it. They said you couldn't delete directly from it and yet Creative said you don't need extra software. I was able to paste and delete with the Mac just fine. Then, it got to a point when it wouldn't accept any new files. I thought this was odd cause I'd just deleted alot of things off of it. So I checked the available memory and it said 1.9 mb. So I deleted some more and it still said 1.9 mb. Finally, I got disgusted and deleted everything off the player. I decided to create a folder on it and then copy the songs into it. Well, it created the folder but still wouldn't copy. So I deleted the folder and renamed the drive, thinking I could go upstairs, put it in the XP machine and use DOS to format it completely. I didn't do that yet but when I checked the memory again it said I have 1.7 mb left. What on Earth is going on and how do I fix this? How could it keep telling me I have so little space when there's nothing on the player? Do I need to use Creative's software and if so, is it accessible?
I've had mine for 18 months with no problems, except somehow 10 files managed to go somewhere where I cannot see them in Windows Explorer, nor in the Creative Mediaa Light software that comes with the player.
Creative's suggestion for fixing this is to format the player and then it'll work as expected, right click the player in your Windows Explorer and choose format, or do your dos thing if you prefer. That should not harm the player except any content you currently ahve stored on it disappears.
Can you see any songs, folders or such in Windows Explorer if you connect the player to a Windows Computer?
Hey i had the same problem on a mac when using a similiar product. Here is the solution. The mac OS creates a folder called .trash, when you delete stuff from your player it just moves it to the trash folder on the player much like it would when you delete something in th e OS itself. So empty the trash folder and you should have your space back. and try shift + delete to delete stuf, not sure if this works on amac, but on a PC thats the command to delete something and by pass the recycle bin..
If you choose to go the dos way be sure to use dir /a command, then look for .trashor recycled folder, that would generally be hidden so the regular dir command won't show it to you, then simply cd into that folder and use del *.* and confirm that you want to delete all the files in that folder.
thanks for the tips. I'll definitely try it and let you know what happens. I didn't see any trash file when looking with the Mac. Should I do a simple del *.* in that directory if it exists or a full format? I need to see what it continues the drive too. If not, I'll figure out how to format in the XP way. I love my Zenstone and want it back! *smile*
If you find the directory and cd into it a simple del *.* will do what you need, noneed to format.
Again, do it on dos or xp, I do not know how to show hidden folders on a Mac, or even if there are hidden folders on a Mac, a Mac savvy person can tell you that.
yeah i know when i plugged it into my xp machine the .trash folder showed up and thats how i figured it out. I do believe i usually have my windows machine set to show hidden files and folders though so yeah maybe you have to enable the show hidden files/folders on the mac.
Opa! Fixed it. When I put it in the XP machine it wouldn't even let me see the drive. It said it wasn't formatted and would I like to format now. So I did and then was able to load my stuff back onto it. Very very happy now! Thanks guys. I hate it that the Mac does stupid things like that.