Format Sandisk Sansa m240 1 Gig

samh · 10-05-2006, 10:58 AM

Hey Folks,

I just got a Sandisk Sansa m240 1 Gig mp3 player and I'd like to be able to use it on both my home Mac as well as my work PeeCee. When I added files to it at home on my Mac I believe it data forks to the file structure (my apologies for my lack of technical expertise).

Would someone be so kind as to give me a hint as to how to format the player to an MSDOS so that I can add and remove files from the player via both my Mac and a PeeCee?

Thanks,
Sam

JDV · 10-05-2006, 11:32 AM

You should format it as a DOS format from your Mac, which is the same as FAT32 on your PC. The data forks may continue to be written by your Mac and show up as odd files when you look at them on your PC, but your actual files will still function just fine. The resource fork can continue to be used by the Mac for its purposes, but they do not affect your ability to play the files on the PC. As this is a 1 GB disk, it really shouldn't matter whether you format it as FAT32 using your PC or using Disk Utilities on the Mac.

Joe VanZandt

samh · 10-05-2006, 12:00 PM

Joe VanZandt, thank you VERY much. I don't mind having a few "funny looking files" showing up when I browse it via my PeeCee so I think I'll give this a go.

Is there anything funny I need to watch out for when formatting this with Disk Utility? I don't want to zap anything important and ruin the poor little machine. I'll look at it after work today and see if it looks self explanatory and ask more questions if need be.

vampduck · 04-20-2007, 02:18 AM

Those "odd files" show up as extra songs in the player with names of "._SongTitle" (with the name of each song) and "unknown" artist and album names. So, for 24 songs copied, the player shows 48 songs in the library. The player hangs on the first phantom song it attempts to play then cycles through them to the first real song. Is there any way to copy only data forks and not resource forks to avoid this issue?

vampduck · 04-22-2007, 06:42 PM

I wanted to follow up on my April 19, 2007, post with a utility -- FinderCleaner http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ercleaner.html -- I discovered that solves this problem elegantly without any coding needed. (I tried the AppleScript/Perl solution posted earlier, and it didn't work on OS 10.4.9.)

10-05-2006, 10:58 AM	#1
samh Triple-A Player Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Bozeman, MT Posts: 72	Format Sandisk Sansa m240 1 Gig Hey Folks, I just got a Sandisk Sansa m240 1 Gig mp3 player and I'd like to be able to use it on both my home Mac as well as my work PeeCee. When I added files to it at home on my Mac I believe it data forks to the file structure (my apologies for my lack of technical expertise). Would someone be so kind as to give me a hint as to how to format the player to an MSDOS so that I can add and remove files from the player via both my Mac and a PeeCee? Thanks, Sam __________________ Mac-head since 1989.

10-05-2006, 12:00 PM	#3
samh Triple-A Player Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Bozeman, MT Posts: 72	Joe VanZandt, thank you VERY much. I don't mind having a few "funny looking files" showing up when I browse it via my PeeCee so I think I'll give this a go. Is there anything funny I need to watch out for when formatting this with Disk Utility? I don't want to zap anything important and ruin the poor little machine. I'll look at it after work today and see if it looks self explanatory and ask more questions if need be. __________________ Mac-head since 1989.

04-20-2007, 02:18 AM	#4
vampduck Prospect Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 3	"Odd files" from Mac OS show up as extra songs on player Those "odd files" show up as extra songs in the player with names of "._SongTitle" (with the name of each song) and "unknown" artist and album names. So, for 24 songs copied, the player shows 48 songs in the library. The player hangs on the first phantom song it attempts to play then cycles through them to the first real song. Is there any way to copy only data forks and not resource forks to avoid this issue?

10-05-2006, 11:32 AM	#2
JDV Hall of Famer Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chicago, Illinois Posts: 3,191	You should format it as a DOS format from your Mac, which is the same as FAT32 on your PC. The data forks may continue to be written by your Mac and show up as odd files when you look at them on your PC, but your actual files will still function just fine. The resource fork can continue to be used by the Mac for its purposes, but they do not affect your ability to play the files on the PC. As this is a 1 GB disk, it really shouldn't matter whether you format it as FAT32 using your PC or using Disk Utilities on the Mac. Joe VanZandt

04-22-2007, 06:42 PM	#5
vampduck Prospect Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 3	I wanted to follow up on my April 19, 2007, post with a utility -- FinderCleaner http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ercleaner.html -- I discovered that solves this problem elegantly without any coding needed. (I tried the AppleScript/Perl solution posted earlier, and it didn't work on OS 10.4.9.)