mp3 player: used to be 3.6 GB, now only 1.8?
 

Hi,
I just got an Eclipse mp3 player. It said nothing about system requirements, so I thought that it would present itself as a flash drive. I looked in the booklet that came with it, and it confirmed my thoughts. So I plugged it into my laptop (booted into Win8, I'm not very familiar with 7-zip's Linux tools yet) and it showed a capacity of 3.6 GB. I copied all of the pre-loaded stuff (mostly .exe and .msi installers for various unnecessary programs) off of it, then deleted it all. I then rebooted my laptop into Arch. I ran 'ls /dev/sd*' It showed my sda and sdb like normal, and an sdc and sdd. (it has a SD card slot, I think that is what the sdd is for). However, there was not a sdc1. So I opened up Gparted, and it didn't recognize partition table. So I made a new msdos partition table, then added a fat32 partition. It still didn't show an sdc1. When I unplugged the mp3 player, turned it on, then off, then plugged it in, the partition table was unrecognized again. So I thought that the partition table was somehow corrupted, so I ran "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=512 count=1". When I opened up Gparted to re-make the fat partition, it showed only 1.8 GB. I rebooted into Windows, and it showed 1.8 GB as well. I unplugged it, and went into its settings. Even the device itself only shows 1.8 GB.

I've heard of some manufacturers "faking" the the size of a flash drive by making the partition table report more space than the drive actually has. Do you think this is the case? Or is there something that I haven't tried?

Thanks!

EDIT: My sister has one too, is there a safe way to test if hers is legitimately the size it reports, or a different size?

To test it you can copy a large file to the drive with a known checksum (md5, sha1, etc.), then copy it back off and check the checksum or you can check it locally. In this case try a file at least 3 GB in size.

If it is new and under warranty, take it back.

Thanks for the reply!

I just tried re-connecting it to my laptop...now the internal storage isn't showing up at all. I think I will take your advice and return it, if I can. I'll test my sister's and see if I just got a dud or if they are all like that.

For the record, it is an Eclipse 180 G2 Series MP3 player made by Mach Speed Technologies, purchased at Best Buy for about $30.

Usually any storage device that is not detected should be considered dead until proven otherwise.

Whoops...
 

The internal storage issue was my fault, not the fault of the player. I forgot that I had un-mapped the drive letter to the filesystem...but it came with a phone number to call, so I think I'll see what they have to say about the 2 GB that went missing.

I'll still keep the receipt, though.

For future reference: About how much should I expect to pay for a decent MP3 player?

Windows recognizes the partition just fine. It shows up in Disk Manager and everything, just like a flash drive. However, Arch only gives me /dev/sdc, but no /dev/sdc1. Since Gparted fails to recognize the disk label, I would assume that it uses neither GPT nor MBR. Whatever it uses, the mp3 player re-formats it if I try to partition it with a MBR. Are there other, less-common disk labels that I could install libraries for?

Thanks!

EDIT: I just copied slackware and fedora ISO files to my sister's mp3 player, and the md5 came back OK. However, the more I use mine, the less I like it. Every time I turn it on, it gives a nice big popup that I have a memory card inserted that stays up for about 5 seconds. Then, to play from the card, you have to go into deep into the (slow and choppy) menus and specify the directory you want to play songs from. So if I have files in different directories, I can't have them in the same playlist. So I think I'll be making a return trip to Best Buy sometime in the near future.

My used 8gig mini SD card inserted into my used Blackberry 9530 Storm phone makes a hell of a mp3 and mp4 player and the phone I purchased on ebay cost my wife

http://www.smartestcomputing.us.com/...ackberry-9530/

It does not need to be used as a phone but I have a H20 wireless account at 10 bucks for 90 days (internet capable 3g).

I don't go to Best Buy anymore and am surprised they are still in business. They only sell smartphones and tablets now (and TVs), and you can get those in better places.

I recommend you check reviews online before buying anything, especially electronics.

It's funny you should mention that, because my phone can play mp3s, too, and it does a surprisingly good job. The only reason that I'm looking for an mp3 player is that it has a 2.5mm headphone/headset jack, not the standard 3.5. Otherwise, I would just use it instead of blowing $30+ on a piece of hardware that I don't really need. Actually, the only thing that the mp3 player could do that my phone can't do is view "ebooks in .txt format." aka, view text files.

I wonder why zeroing out the MBR triggered the shift from 3.6 to 1.8? Because Gparted didn't return any kind of error when I formatted it.

Ok. I still have my RCA 2 gig MP3 player that transfers files and is seen as a usb device in Linux. I bought it at either the Dollar Store or Big Lots. I can't remember which.
It is sooooo old the the battery is a bit flaky. It was cheap and well made with a small screen.

I swear by designated mp3 players. I just purchased an old model, but brand new Sansa Fuze for $160. It is an exceptional player. I love it to bits. It's only four gig, but it has a micro sdcard slot, which i'm using a 64gb card on.
If you want a good player, expect to look hard because with the introduction of smart phones, mp3 players are becoming a declining wanted item, and in retaliation, manufacturers are trying to find a niche to make theirs stand out. Many are not very good. Just look at what ipods have become to deal with the situation. Buttons are a desired feature for me, and many others whom still use them, but the portability of Android is making many mp3 players adopt touch screen controls. No one wants them! If they did, they'd be using their phone already.

Good luck.

maples, how about a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter?
Knightron, my Cowon A3 has been on its way out for a while now and I'm dreading having to replace it as I want at least 65GB of storage, FLAC support and real buttons and I know it will be difficult to get any of them. I really wish the world didn't revolve around people who like to us slabs of brittle glass to listen to badly compressed (in both senses of the word) music through tinny headphones that leak so that everyone around them hears.
Sorry, will stop ranting now.

I haven't looked into the adapter...if it works, that would be PERFECT! I'm not sure if it supports FLAC, but I'll look it up soon. I usually compress mp3s with the high-quality settigs, so I haven't had any issue with sound quality. But I have a feeling that once I rip a CD to FLAC, I'll never want to go back :D

There are only certain tracks where I can definitively 100% tell the difference between MP3 and FLAC with my current portable. I like to have lossless copies of my CDs so having two sets of the same music with one being of inferior quality would be annoying.

Slightly off-topic, but applies to the disappearing storage theme: my mom got a 32 GB flash drive from Best Buy that day for about $20. I thought it was a great deal, but now I'm wondering what its true capacity is. Would be enough to see if it actually has 32GB? Or should I still copy over a bunch of LiveCD ISO files to verify it?

Thanks!