What is the proper procedure to completely wipe everything off my Sansa?

[sidvicious99]

I want to wipe everything off my sansa (including the firmware and the bootloader.) I want it to function as a USB flash drive so I can boot an os from it. So can anyone give me the proper instructions on how to do this? I used easeus partition manager to completely wipe the fuze, but it obviously didn't work because when i plugged it back in my computer, the sansa logo displayed.

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

Why wipe? Just switch to MSC mode and connect as a thumb drive does, you can delete all the files and folders when connect but IIRC the folders are rebuilt on boot up. But all the files will be gone.

[sidvicious99]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Why wipe? Just switch to MSC mode and connect as a thumb drive does, you can delete all the files and folders when connect but IIRC the folders are rebuilt on boot up. But all the files will be gone.

When I write an image file to my sansa, it says "FAT is corrupted, Please connect device to PC and restore FAT." This is expected, but what is not expected is that my BIOS, which normally boots from flash drives, doesn't recognize my sansa. so I can't change my boot device order to my sansa and boot from there. So logically I thought I would need to completely wipe the firmware in order for the computer to recognize it as a flash drive.

[WalkGood]

Does your pc recognize it? If so, I'd format it (FAT 32) and use the panasonic or the sd card formatter program from the sd association.

[sidvicious99]

Can I get a direct link to the sd card formatter, or is there an alternative? Because when I go to the SD website, apparently there is a redirecting loop and i can't view the webpage.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by sidvicious99

Can I get a direct link to the sd card formatter, or is there an alternative? Because when I go to the SD website, apparently there is a redirecting loop and i can't view the webpage.

I just checked and the sd associations website is down now but you could use the panasonic formatter http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...oad/index.html I would use the standard one and not the new beta.

[sidvicious99]

the download link actually leads to the sd website.

[sidvicious99]

oh my. I just received a BSOD from running this.

[WalkGood]

Never heard of anyone receiving a "blue screen of death" from running it and there's many of us here on abi that use it.

[sidvicious99]

Im sure there are many people using it, but i did get a bsod. but, that was the stable version which doesn't support windows 7. i downloaded the beta from an unofficial website and when i ran it, it said that flash erase wasn't supported on my device.

[WalkGood]

can't help you there, I run XP on most machines and vista on a lappy.

[sidvicious99]

So is there any definite way to wipe everything off? I used the tool and it formatted but the firmware is still there. (...?)

[WalkGood]

I don't own a fuze + but if you do wipe it, it might not even connect to your pc.

Edit: most sansa's use a hidden partition to house the fw.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by sidvicious99

Im sure there are many people using it, but i did get a bsod. but, that was the stable version which doesn't support windows 7. i downloaded the beta from an unofficial website and when i ran it, it said that flash erase wasn't supported on my device.

It might say that on the website, that it doesn't support Windows 7, but it works just fine on my computer with Win 7 Ultimate.

[sidvicious99]

well, do you by any chance know how to access that hidden partition?

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

It might say that on the website, that it doesn't support Windows 7, but it works just fine on my computer with Win 7 Ultimate.

He could have meant "flash erase" vs formatting, which I would think is what you use.

[sidvicious99]

I tried SD formatter 2.0 (stable) and it formatted properly, but it could not perform a flash erase. Same with version 3.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by sidvicious99

well, do you by any chance know how to access that hidden partition?

Nope, haven't the faintest idea. Why exactly do you want to do this anyways? Buying a flash drive with enough capacity to boot an OS would be pretty cheap.

[WalkGood]

I don't believe there is a way to access the hidden partition. With older "e" series players you just needed the e200tool and a system running Linux to access it but AFAIK there is no new sansa tool to use now.

Edit: and like I said before, you may find out that if you wipe it, that it will not connect, so what good would it be then

[dfkt]

Here's the current efforts on recovery mode for the Fuze+, but it probably isn't really useful - http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaFuzePlus#Recovery_mode