Tried formatting, tried all of that.

Hi.

Because you are unable to format or delete the partition then I'm afraid that this is a strong indication that you need to replace the hard drive, this is probably due to bad sectors and clusters that the drive cannot read or write to.



Regards.

Make sure you use an SD card, 2GB and smaller, and not an SDHC card.

When the Sansa reads "refreshing database," what it is doing is going through all the songs you've loaded on to it, pulling out the "tag" information (Artist, Album, Song Title, Genre) so it can add this information to its own database which it uses to display the songs to you in its menus.

If it gets stuck during this process, usually it's because of a corrupt song file, or a song file in a format it doesn't understand.

Note that the e280 is only able to play MP3 and WMA audio formats. If you've loaded a different type of audio file onto your Sansa, you'll need to remove them.

If the songs you've recently loaded have all been MP3 and/or WMA, you may have loaded a corrupted file onto your Sansa. Try removing the songs you recently added, and see if the problem goes away.

Some songs or files with extension device can't read, so it takes so long/infinity to refresh. Plug the device to pc, format it.
Good luck

Have you tried booting from a Windows XP CD? If you have one available you can boot from it, delete the partition and format it. Works all the time for me.

1ST: Just try to 'reset' by holding down the main center button AND pushing UP on the lock/off-on button, for about 8-9 seconds,
It will then 'refresh' the database, shouldn't lose anything,
OR:
MANY problems can be fixed ultimately by the following;
REFORMAT the SansaDisk Clip by finding it in My Computer and right click then just 'format' the thing. THEN drag and drop new music into it (or books), DRAG and DROP, you apparently erase the thing with a 'FORMAT' ....BUT - it's .sys files remain and it is like new {as in empty}
This usually fixes almost anything, should even erase a virus (I'm guessing) but shouldn't hurt it.
Good Luck!

-simple 'drag and drop' from my MUSIC folder seems to work just fine for me...

try putting it in MSC mode and formating it and then putting back on MTP mode. Hope that works

You say - The screen now reads "card not intialised" and I am unable to take any further photos or format the card. Help???? Which screen? If it is the computer screen- then open the card and delete the folder. If it is the Camera menu simply reformat Did you format in the Computer - you sholud not have doneso. Do a google for a utuluity that will - Unformat and try this- or try card in another camera Otherwise new card.

Hi tt, First, I would delete all the files in your Sansa>Music folder - you may have a corrupt or un-recognizable file that is stalling your "refresh". Check and see if your player refreshes correctly - if it does, update the firmware (see below). If this doesn't stop the problem, you may have to format your player - Windows Explorer>right click on Sansa Player>Format>make sure it is FAT32 and unclick "quick format">Start. You will lose all files that you have not backed up - but your player should start up correctly. Then, make sure that you have the latest firmware update - here is the place to get the updater: http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1376 - instructions are on the site. After the update, add the files again and see if the unit refreshes - if it does not - it's probably a bad file. The only thing you can do is to add the files singly (or in small batches) until you find the problem file - I hope that you do not need to go this far! Sandisk has fixed most of the software problems that folks encountered in the last six months - IF you keep you keep up with the firmware upgrades. BTW - I have had my Sansa e250 for two months and have had zero problems - I LOVE it! Hope this helps, Steve

The issue with the card is not song format as you said it's the card format. When you put you're it into the CPU I?m assuming that you clicked yes on the warning/and or problem window and it formatted it to the CPU. So what you need to do is find what format the hardrive /and or internal memory is and format the card to that.