Accidentally Deleted Partition

[Johnv]

I'm sorry, I didn't know any where else to ask this. After checking out if I could restore a partition it looked pretty gloom, but I want to make sure there's nothing I can do at this point. I don't want my e270 to be a brick

Now the problem started yesterday when I was wiping my computer and starting anew, I put backup information on my sansa(nothing else to put it on) and while I was setting up the hard drive for a new XP install, I accidentally deleted the partition information on my e270 because it was connected and I didn't realize it would recognize USB storage while it was installing a new OS.

Any thing I can do at this point? Or is my mp3 player a paperweight? I was hoping I could figure out fixing the partition for it so I can get my backup information off of it.

For further information I cannot seem to get it to boot into recovery or manufacturing mode. So it seems like it's done for right now.

[saratoga]

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaE200Unbrick

[Johnv]

I've tried what has been recommended on that page, and I can't get windows to detect the player, and the player itself does not respond to anything I try with it. The only thing that is noticeable is that the wheel light is on, but the screen stays black.

[saratoga]

I've tried what has been recommended on that page, and I can't get windows to detect the player, and the player itself does not respond to anything I try with it. The only thing that is noticeable is that the wheel light is on, but the screen stays black.

This means you are in manufactoring mode.  If you deleted both partitions on the device, this is probably where you will end up. 

[Johnv]

I've tried what has been recommended on that page, and I can't get windows to detect the player, and the player itself does not respond to anything I try with it. The only thing that is noticeable is that the wheel light is on, but the screen stays black.

This means you are in manufactoring mode.  If you deleted both partitions on the device, this is probably where you will end up. 

So I'm probably screwed then. Apparently I can't use the e200 tool since I can't boot from a linux cd atm, so am I SOL? Well wait, do you think I could mount a linux cd on daemon or some similar tool and have it boot from that?

[Chronon]

Why can't you boot from a CD?  You might also be able to run a virtualized linux to use e200 tool.

[Johnv]

Why can't you boot from a CD?  You might also be able to run a virtualized linux to use e200 tool.

Well, I can't boot from a CD of linux because I do not own one and I don't have any blank cds to use for it. I honestly don't know much about this area in general(most of the things I do know about computers is self taught, so it's not much), but I'm guessing it's pretty obvious since it got me into this mess in the first place.

I'll try to use Virtual Desktop.

[Chronon]

The show stopper is that you don't own a blank CD-R (or equivalent)?

If you're going to run a virtual machine make sure that it will have access to your USB devices.

[Johnv]

The show stopper is that you don't own a blank CD-R?

If you're going to run a virtual machine make sure that it will have access to your USB devices.

Yeah, it's kind of sad, I know.

Okay, I'll try to do that, but this will be my first venture into Linux. I feel like I have to apologize for being so ignorant 

[Chronon]

Honestly, I think the easiest thing of all would be to scrounge a dollar for a blank CD and download a LiveCD like Knoppix.  You will be able to boot a Linux environment directly from the CD and you won't have to worry about tunneling access from a virtual machine to your actual hardware.

Plus, the LiveCD makes a handy system recovery tool if something bad happens to your system.  It contains some useful partitioning tools and such.

[Johnv]

Honestly, I think the easiest thing of all would be to scrounge a dollar for a blank CD and download a LiveCD like Knoppix.  You will be able to boot a Linux environment directly from the CD and you won't have to worry about tunneling access from a virtual machine to your actual hardware.

Plus, the LiveCD makes a handy system recovery tool if something bad happens to your system.  It contains some useful partitioning tools and such.

Okay, thank you, I'll see if I can get one and I'll post back when I'm able to use the tool. Thanks for the help so far.

[AutobahnSHO]

How does Knoppix compare to Ubuntu??

I loaded Ubunt up and didn't have the patience to search for wireless networking drivers, etc...

Seemed like a great interface though, and I still have the disc in case I have an emergency. I need a bigger HD so I can just keep a separate OS partition.......

[Johnv]

Chronon, you're probably going to hate me for this, but I went ahead and tried the virtual machine.

To be honest that has worked fine and it has USB access.

But I've failed miserably at trying to install libusb. It has been nice messing around in a new OS though, and I personally have enjoyed it.  I'm going to stop for now, I need some sleep. I appreciate the help.

Do you know if the windows version of the e200 tool was abandoned?

[Chronon]

I can only quote this from the download page for e200tool: "Windows executable link removed since it hardly works for anyone. People have a hard time to get this to work on Windows. You need libusb installed, but that's where my skills ends. On Linux this seems to work a lot easier."

[Johnv]

I can only quote this from the download page for e200tool: "Windows executable link removed since it hardly works for anyone. People have a hard time to get this to work on Windows. You need libusb installed, but that's where my skills ends. On Linux this seems to work a lot easier."

Well, I'm not that much in a hurry now, but I'm still having trouble installing things for Linux, do you have any tips for me?

From what I understand I have to build and make my own install file, but I know next to nothing about Linux, so I'm just fumbling around until I get it right.