Lost capacity after formatting

cmswannabe · 01-26-2009, 10:37 AM

Hi,
I have a generic mp3 mp4 player. when I hooked it up to computer it kept telling me it needed to be formatted but would'nt let me do that with the right click format command. I later had an IT tech where I work do a format through a DOS command. It worked wonderfully, however, now instead of a 60Gb player I now have only a 900Mb player. I have been all over trying to find a solution to get my player back to what it was originally and the techs at work don't seem to know what happened either. As this player was a gift and is a generic brand I do not know who the manufacturer is and therefore cannot call them for tech help. The player is very similar to an apple ipod. Any help or ideas would be greatly! greatly! appreciated. Thanks in advance.
cmswannabe

Molaker · 01-30-2009, 09:34 AM

May or may not help, but assuming a drive letter is assigned when you hook it up, open a CMD (DOS) window and enter HELP FORMAT. That will give you the available parameters in the FORMAT command. Try running FORMAT with the FAT32 option. As an example, if the drive letter is J:, the command would be FORMAT J:/FS:FAT32. If that doesn't work, you may have to increase the allocation unit size and try again. Don't over do it, though. If increasing the allocation unit size works, use the lowest value that works.

Update: Doesn't look good - http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7595_102...rum-w;forums06

01-26-2009, 10:37 AM	#1 (permalink)
cmswannabe Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1 OS: windows xp professional v.2002 service pack 3 v.3180	Lost capacity after formatting Hi, I have a generic mp3 mp4 player. when I hooked it up to computer it kept telling me it needed to be formatted but would'nt let me do that with the right click format command. I later had an IT tech where I work do a format through a DOS command. It worked wonderfully, however, now instead of a 60Gb player I now have only a 900Mb player. I have been all over trying to find a solution to get my player back to what it was originally and the techs at work don't seem to know what happened either. As this player was a gift and is a generic brand I do not know who the manufacturer is and therefore cannot call them for tech help. The player is very similar to an apple ipod. Any help or ideas would be greatly! greatly! appreciated. Thanks in advance. cmswannabe

01-30-2009, 09:34 AM	#2 (permalink)
Molaker Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 16 OS: XP	Re: Lost capacity after formatting May or may not help, but assuming a drive letter is assigned when you hook it up, open a CMD (DOS) window and enter HELP FORMAT. That will give you the available parameters in the FORMAT command. Try running FORMAT with the FAT32 option. As an example, if the drive letter is J:, the command would be FORMAT J:/FS:FAT32. If that doesn't work, you may have to increase the allocation unit size and try again. Don't over do it, though. If increasing the allocation unit size works, use the lowest value that works. Update: Doesn't look good - http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7595_102...rum-w;forums06 Last edited by Molaker; 01-30-2009 at 09:41 AM.