Sansa e250 Disk Drive Capacity Issue .

[Roy.A]

First of all im very sorry if this is not the place to post my problem, i had doubts whether to post this on the "Repairing and Upgrading Rockbox Capable Players" forum, but it looked like all the topics there are dealting with much more "Technically & Physically Broken" issues . nothing at my place is broken so . . . ~

It goes like this, i have an old Sandisk e250 2GB Sansa .
Today i was updating my rockbox version because i remembered i hadnt do that in a while .
(I was updating from 3.4 to 3.6)

Everything works fine, i set the settings etc. and threw some music on it ...

Then i noticed something weird that i may never noticed before, i checked to see how much free space i got (Right Click on "Sansa e250 (F:)" > Properties) , and im seeing :
Used Space : 1.79 GB
Free Space : 56.3 MB

But when im marking all of the folders (Including Hidden Folders) inside the drive, and then checking Properties, its saying that it weighs : 0.99 GB
so supposedly i should have more space for music ...
but its not like that - the drive is restricting me .

Now im not much of a tech-savvy guy so, am i missing something here ? 
Thanks for any Help in advance kind people ~

[torne]

Your filesystem is probably corrupted - the free space value you see is not calculated by adding up all the files, but is just stored separately, so if writes are interrupted they can get out of sync.

Open a command prompt, and run:
chkdsk /f f:
and it will check the filesystem and prompt you to fix any errors it finds.

[Roy.A]

Thank you so much for answering me that fast ! ace move dude ~ But ...
like i said .. im not much of a tech-savvy guy 

Can you please explain to me the steps i need to do like you would explain it to an idiot ? (with step-arrows > and stuff)
im deeply sorry for my lack of knowledge in that field .

I read what you wrote and i dont know where i should make those actions .
should i do it through my computer (Click Start > Run > and type "chkdsk /f f:" in there) while the player is plugged to my computer ?
or is it an action i need to do through the rockbox on the player itself, while its plugged to my computer ?

Again thank you for your kind & fast response to my situation, and again sorry for my lack of knowledge .

[yapper]

Do it from your computer (with the Sansa connected to the computer first)

[Roy.A]

Alright, last confirmation for precaution .
i hope im getting it right, so that means the answer is :

" do it through my computer (Click Start > Run > and type "chkdsk /f f:" in there) while the player is plugged to my computer first " ?

is that OK ?
i will comment after i'll try it . thank you guys for your support !

[soap]

Start > Run > "cmd" > (Then in the command prompt that opens type) "chkdsk /f f:"

[Roy.A]

Alright, i did that ... it wrote some stuff ...
" ... Removing nonvalid long folder entry from \MUSIC...
File and folder verification is complete.
Convert lost chains to files (Y/N)?

Should i choose Yes ?
im really afraid i'll screw something, Sorry 

[yapper]

Unless you plan on taking a crash course in file recovery techniques, you should select No (selecting Y will just waste disk space with a bunch of files you won't use anyway).

The fact that you see this option indicates that the disk structure was corrupted in some way.

[Roy.A]

Well dont ask how or why ... i was in a rush and i chose Y before i saw your comment .
i was an ass for not thinking . but those critic stages should be mentioned before ...

Anyway i did that, it ran some checks, but the drive looks unchanged ... i see the same folders inside ... i got my music, and the capacity states are still incorrect .

Now i tried to do that process again (start > run > cmd . . .) only this time i wanted to choose N like you said yapper .
but now its not doing the check it did like in the first time i tried chkdsk /f f: .

Sorry guys i think i screwed something .
i thought about formatting the whole drive but i dont know if this will help + i dont want to lose the original sansa firmware inside, because i dont know how to find it and install it later . . . shoot me  :'(

[saratoga]

Sorry guys i think i screwed something .
i thought about formatting the whole drive but i dont know if this will help + i dont want to lose the original sansa firmware inside, because i dont know how to find it and install it later . . . shoot me  :'(

That option asked you if you want something saved to disk or deleted.  You saved it to disk.  If you want it deleted, go and delete it.  Or don't.  It doesn't really matter.

But yes if the disk check doesn't work, formatting is probably a good idea.

[Roy.A]

Sorry guys i think i screwed something .
i thought about formatting the whole drive but i dont know if this will help + i dont want to lose the original sansa firmware inside, because i dont know how to find it and install it later . . . shoot me  :'(

That option asked you if you want something saved to disk or deleted.  You saved it to disk.  If you want it deleted, go and delete it.  Or don't.  It doesn't really matter.

But yes if the disk check doesn't work, formatting is probably a good idea.

A. What your saying about the Yes or No thing looks contradicting to what yapper said ... he made it sound a lot worse (i'll quote him : "Unless you plan on taking a crash course in file recovery techniques, you should select No") so i dont get it, i thought i messed something up .

B. If you are saying that by choosing Yes i saved something to disk, where exactly this "thing" was saved, because like i said the drive inside looked unchanged, no new folders where created and the real folders total capacity didnt change ... so i dont get that too, Sorry .

C. Is there a way to switch between the USB modes (MSC/MTP) of the player via rockbox ? because i know its sometimes crucial in helping to fix the player if you got some problem ... in fact this reason is the only thing that holding me from formatting the whole drive, because i know i'll lose the original sansa firmware (where if i'll need, i can do the USB switch in the future for sure...)
i dont know where to get and how to install the sansa firmware, so if you guys will tell me that i can do the USB switch via rockbox (and how to do it) - then i won't need the sansa firmware for anything and i could just format the drive and move on without any worries . . .

Thanks for all the help and time you people are giving me !

[AlexP]

a) Yapper's comment meant that if you say yes, then it will save the unknown/broken bits of data it found to disk, which you could then try and recover.  If you say no, then it just removes it and doesn't save them.  This is what saratoga said.  They both agree.

b) Don't know, they should be in the root (top) directory

c) No, Rockbox doesn't have a MTP mode yet.  Formatting the drive will not remove the sansa firmware, it is stored elsewhere on the disk.

[Roy.A]

WOW i guess luck is just not my thing ...

I tried to format the drive ( Sansa e250 (F:) > Right-Click > Format > Start )
then the moment i pressed it, a window popped up saying : "Windows was unable to complete the format"

I checked later "Quick Format" and tried it, worked successfully .
then i wanted to see if the regular format will work, i tried it again and the same "Windows was unable to complete the format" window popped up .

What does it mean ? ...