Ondio FM Error "Save Failed No Partition?"

[dmilamj]

Greetings,

I'm getting a "Save Failed No Partition?" Error on my Ondio 128 FM. The error occurs whenever I change a setting (so I imagine it must be Rockbox trying to write the settings info to the settings area. ) Interestingly enough, the setting is changed after the error, but is not persistent after a power cycle. I also get the error when I play an mp3 file (occurs more or less continuously) but I seem to be able to record okay.

This happens with both 2.4 and the daily build from Jan 20th (both running from flash).  I have tried reformatting as FAT but that doesn't seem to do help anything.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Regards,

Dave

[dmilamj]

Okay, I'm replying to my own post but...

I've tried formatting with both Dos, Win 2k, and XP. Always FAT16. The "Save Failed No Partition?" error keeps coming up.

I was looking through the Debug menu and I came across the "partition info" menu. Huh. There are some strange partitioning things going on with this Ondio.

Ondio partition results:

P0: S: 6F727265
T:69 82367 MB

P3: S: 0
T: 0 1677301 MB

P2: S:A0D
T:74 0 MB

P1: S:656B2079
T:73 913028 MB

The same menu on my Recorder (I have a 10 gig drive in this recorder...it's a long story)

P0: S:3F
T:C 9590 MB
 
P1: S:0
T:0 0MB     (P2 and P3 are the same)

So, is this debug menu applicable for the Ondio? If so, there's some stange info written in the partition area of my Ondio.

Anyone know how I can take care of this wierd problem?


Dave

[amiconn]

Hi Dave,

I've tried formatting with both Dos, Win 2k, and XP. Always FAT16. The "Save Failed No Partition?" error keeps coming up.

I was looking through the Debug menu and I came across the "partition info" menu. Huh. There are some strange partitioning things going on with this Ondio.

Ondio partition results:

P0: S: 6F727265
T:69 82367 MB
...

The file system is definitely not the problem. It looks like you accidentally formatted your Ondio in "superfloppy mode", i.e. the file system starts at the very beginning (sector 0) of the disk.

Usually flash cards and the Ondio itself are formatted like a hard disk, i.e. with a partition table. In this case there are some unused sectors (the rest of one track) between the partition table and the start of the file system. Rockbox uses one of these sectors for saving the configuration.

Since with superfloppy mode there is no room before the start of the file system, rockbox is unable to save the configuration, and gives you this message every time.

To get rid of it, you'll need to recreate a disk layout with a partition table somehow. This is very difficult to achieve with Windows. Back then when I was testing the various cases, I also formatted in superfloppy mode. To get back to the partitioned layout, I ended up rewriting the first track with a very lowlevel tool. If you have cygwin installed, I could provide instructions and a prepared track image file.

Hth, Jens

[[IDC]Dragon]

Jens, do I miss something? On the external MMC, we should be able to deal with superfloppy mode since we have multivolume. The space for the config sector is only needed at the internal memory.

Jörg

[dmilamj]

Jens:

That must be it. I'm glad to hear that it's a fixable problem.

I do have both Cygwin and Linux available. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jorg:

This is for internal flash, so I think Jens has figured it exactly.

Regards,


Dave
 

[dmilamj]

Okay, I seem to have fixed the problem.

I think the problem began when I formatted the internal flash from Win XP using a right click - format command from file explorer. It must default to superfloppy mode, and not include a partition table.

I tried a few low level tools, but what finally worked for me was using the "Disk Management" tool to create a new partition. I didn't try this immediately, only after some thrashing around in which I had zeroed out the existing first sector with a partition table editor, so I don't know if "Disk Management" would create a new partition on top of a superfloppy or not.

Thanks for the help Jens and Jorg.  I've learned a good bit about hex editors and partition tables.


Dave

[vincent]

Hi,

i'm new here and I've got the same problem :
my ondio sp crashed during usb transfert and then I tried to format it using windows. Now I have the message : 'save failed, no partition ?'
I tried to format it using disk managment but without success.
Could you help me please ?

thanks,

vincent

[dmilamj]

Vincent,

I used Windows 2k disk management, and I don't really remember much more than that.

Have you tried a few different methods from the disk management window?

I would try deleting the existing partition then creating a new basic partition with Fat16.

As I noted in my post, I had completely destroyed the partition table area of the internal flash with a low level hex editor, by writing it with all zeros. I don't know if that was helpful or not. Probably not, I'm thinking now.



Dave

[bob le bucheron]

I had the same problem on 2.5 on a JB Recorder20.

• A: The win xp disk management tool doesn't support FAT16
• B: FAT16 is not a good solution, doesn't go over 2gb(maybe by some elaborated way but none that I know)
• C: I resolved the problem using swissknife http://www.compuapps.com/Download/swissknife/swissknife.exe
  

Swissknife instr :

• 1 detele the floppy partion
• 2 format in FAT32
• 3 work fine now

[/list]

[vincent]

Hello !

Thanks for your replies Bob le bucheron and dmilamj but that did not work.
I tried Swissknife but doesn't do better than Disk Management.
I think the low level tool you used dmilamj was the key. Could you tell me what you used if you remember ?

Thanks,

vincent

[bob le bucheron]

Vincent

do you remeber your exacte procedure with swissknife ?

 I remember fooling around a bit before getting rid of the "floppy" partition (fooling around = 15/20 minutes)

[vincent]

Hello,

well, with swissknife, I didn't find many options I could use and effectively I didn't find to get rid of the floppy partition....
I just used the FORMAT button under the partition and I could not change format option.
Do you remember how to get rid of the floppy partition ?
Thanks a lot !

vincent

[Greg]

Please help!
I have installed the latest version of Rockbox on my Ondio and things don't stop getting worse!
This Message has been returned for a good while, and I have tried to fix it with swissknife.exe, but I couldn't delete the floppy partition.
After that, I have reinstalled the classic archos firmware 1.32c, but it wouldn't work aymore.
My player keeps returning me the following message:"flash error found please restart"
Is he dead?

[amiconn]

No.
It seems you accidentally formatted the internal flash with the wrong file system (FAT32 or even NTFS). It must be FAT16 formatted. See the archos Ondio FAQ:

http://www.archos.com/support/customer_support/faq/de/faq_ondio_128.html
Topic: "What file system does the Ondio require if formatting the drive?"

With rockbox it doesn't matter if it's FAT32, but I wouldn't use FAT32 for the internal flash anyway.

Hth

[Greg]

Thanks a lot for saving my little pal.
He now works normally.
But the problem with rockbox is still here: I don't have the possibility of getting rid of the floppy partition with swissknife. Maybe...with some of your help...