Newly formatted E10 won't read hard-drive

[fredronn]

I recently got pmplib to compile on Mac OS, however encountered problems when creating a database due to some files with questionable encoding in the filesystem. Since I couldn't delete them normally I decided to format my e10 using MacOS. I formatted it as MS-DOS Extended (vfat or fat32 if you'd rather call it that) and moved some files over.

After starting the player and trying to browse the device I only get the message "Empty!". This message shows up everywhere except in Pictures, where I see some 40000 items with squares as characters.

After a while I got access to a machine running Windows Vista, on which I installed iriver plus 3, did a "Drive Initialization" as well as a "Database Update", but nothing worked. It seems as if the firmware (1.04 KR) on the device itself can't access the file system. Using Advanced Information on the device it tells me I have 0 MByte space available.

I reformat it using Windows and go through the iriver plus 3 process once more, but this changes nothing.

Has anyone experienced this behavior and do you know how to fix it?

[hendrixvodu]

you should have probably done it via iriver plus 3 in the first place...but shit happenes....it sounds like your mac got rid of everything on your player....i have no clue what to do about this ...maybe try to reflash it with 1.04....idk....call iriver maybe?

[fredronn]

I can't use Iriver Plus 3 normally. I only borrowed a Windows machine to try it out, so no.

And yes, everything was deleted, that was the point.

I think the firmware has gotten crazy over the partition info somehow, I don't know. At this point I'd like someone to try and get me a dump of their working player's partition data, if someone might be so kind.

This really shouldn't happen, I formatted the drive on my old iriver 120 numerous times without incident.

[fredronn]

The solution was infact in the partition table, or rather, the absence of it. The iriver doesn't understand the concept of partitions, and expects the entire volume to be occupied by a single fat32 file system.

Using fdisk I deleted the table and constructed a new fat32 system on the device and it seems to work as before again.

[shambolism]

Ok. I'm a complete newbie to all this. I seem to be experiencing the same problems Fredronn did, only I'm running iriver plus 3 on XP. I get the 'Empty!' message in all my menus, iriver plus doesn't initialize, and I can't get the windows formatter to work either.

What is fdisk, and what are partition tables? Any help would be really appreciated.

["haxx0"]

fredronn: Well done! I have also had some problems with e10 not reading the file system, but that was because i installed the bootloader GRUB onto the first sector.

It is really a strange setup iriver has chosen. It's called superfloppy. Once the file system is not there, it's hard to format the disk so that the firmware is happy using main stream software. Ordinary disk partitioning software does not handle this. I had to use the mkfs gnu/linux command with the -F (force) option... Even though fdisk for gnu/linux seems to be built in into the firmware! That probably breaks the license of fdisk anyway.

It's also not possible to add partitions.
And it's not possible to install GRUB on e10 since that would break the file system.
I have hacked GRUB stage1 for that purpose, but then the real GRUB wont read the file system on e10 as well! Goddamnit!

shambolism:
Is e10 recognized by Windows, i.e. visible in My computer? If it is you should be able to format it. Choose FAT32, and the normal default settings for the other options. If it isnt visible, then you have trouble. Then you have to do some pretty advanced things that may be tricky for a newbie. I will help you if you ask.

If you want to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

[MrWolf]

Hi, I am having the exact same symptoms as fredronn, however it was not due to formatting the drive.

I manually disconnected the E10 before asking the computer to do so through the iRiver plus software (was in a rush). From that point onwards, the E10 did not recognize the 4 gig of music on the drive, and would just state empty. iRiver plus would not transfer anything more than 2 gig, so the files are still there. At the point of disconnection no files were being transferred.

I tried initializing the E10 and updating the database, but this just made it worse - now it does the same as fredronn's - 4000 odd squares in the pictures folder, with no content in any.

My computer acknowledges that there is a portable drive attached, but I cannot access it - computer asks me to format the drive. IRiver plus recognises the E10, but does not show any content on it. When I try to transfer, it claims there is no space.

I'm not a tech head, and the above thread did not make a whole lot of sense to me, so would very much appreciate some advice! Have downloaded the E10.hex file in anticipation that I might need to use it.