sansa e280 w/mac unbrick - *PANIC* Updating size on empty dir entry 71 - HELP!

[jazzage]

I could really use some help with to unbrick my Sansa e280, which I am using with a Mac OS 10.4 (logged in with admin privileges).

In September, I successfully installed Rockbox 3.0 on this player, using the RBUTIL mac installer. Since then, I have used it with no problems, mostly listening to MP3 files on the microSD card, until:

In early January,  I started getting the startup message, "cannot rebuild database." After a few weeks, the player froze during MP3 playback, with the message, "*PANIC* Updating size on empty dir entry 71". For a time, it would only freeze on MP3 playback (not FM radio), but the problem got progessively worse.

I tried updating the player to Rockbox 3.1 via the latest version of RBUTIL (1.0.9), and got a successful install message, but the player continued to boot into Rockbox 3.0, then freeze. I then tried uninstalling both the bootloader and the program with RBUTIL, which again reported success, but even after uninstall it still boots into Rockbox 3.0. I tried reinstalling both the bootloader and Rockbox 3.1 with the same results.

Now, the player freezes a few seconds with the same message, "*PANIC* Updating size on empty dir entry 71," even before I attempt playback or FM.

There are two invisible directories on the player, "/.rockbox" and "/.rockbox.1." For some reason these don't appear in the Mac OS "find invisible" utility: they do appear when I used an invisibility toggler utility (Visibility.app), which I have used to try and delete these directories, but they don't delete.

I also tried to delete the directories using Terminal, with the same result (the files don't delete).

The player boots with no problems into the original Sansa firmware.

Does anyone know how I can reinstall Rockbox and get this running again? Any ideas why I get the PANIC message, or why I'm unable to manually delete the program files?

HELP and THANKS! Tim

[Chronon]

It sounds like you suffered some rather severe file system corruption.  You can find information in the SansaFAQ page that should help you.

[jazzage]

Thanks - but I checked the FAQ and couldn't find something to deal with this problem. I can still boot into the original OS with no problems... so it's not fully "bricked"... but there's no way I can get Rockbox to either run or remove it from the system. Is there a reason why I can't delete these from a Mac? Why does the installer think it's removing the files when it's not? Do I need to follow the complete "unbrick" process at this point, or can I just replace Rockbox somehow?

[Chronon]

Hi, sorry about that.  I was probably unnecessarily vague.  Have you run any filesystem check on the disk (I think on OSX you can use Disk Utility)?  The inability to delete files from the disk (as well as the "Updating size on empty dir entry) suggests a corrupted file system to me.

[dangerousd777]

If that doesn't work you might want to back up everything and format. That should correct the file system if all else fails, but it might take a bit.

[(V)3@7Y]

If that doesn't work you might want to back up everything and format. That should correct the file system if all else fails, but it might take a bit.

Isnt there a hidden partition that you need to watch out for?
Format that and you'll have even more problems....

[Chronon]

Formatting should be done via the player's own recovery mode to avoid things like that.