Losing files on the micro SD card

[kavawava]

Dammit, just happened to me again.

Loaded up 3 movies onto my SD card, confirmed that they were all there. Then later in the day loaded up two more movies and the 3 that were originally on there are now GONE.

Strangely all the movies that are in my internal memory are fine.

UGH, this is so frustrating, anyone have any solutions?

Ok, sorry about the multiple rapid fire posts but I think I might have figured out my problem.

MY SOLUTION: After i'm done loading up my files I make sure to FIRST eject my A70 from my Windows 7 laptop. Then, SECOND I hit the "turn off USB" button on the Archos itself. Seems to be working ok now. (fingers crossed)

[Airedale]

I wish that worked for me. My first assumption was that I damaged the files by improperly disconnecting the USB. It turned out it didn't matter.

I just thought of a way to see if this is a problem with disconnecting from USB improperly. I have about 100 photos stored in main memory. I just copied them to a freshly formatted sdhc card. There is no USB involved.

I'll compare the folders tomorrow to see if they have the same number of files.

[Airedale]

All my files were still on the SD card after copying them from internal memory yesterday.

This morning I plugged in the USB and copied one photo to my SD card. I ejected both the A70 and the SD card from my PC then told the A70 to disconnect. I left the USB cable plugged in.

All of the other photo files are now missing from the SD card. As before, all of the folders are still there. It just deletes the files inside them.

The problem seems only to happen when you add additional files.

I also copied the same photo file to main memory through USB. The main memory files are still there.

I made an inquiry to Archos support on Friday. When they get back to me, I'll post here what they say.

[paulus3476]

There are several different posts in different device sections alluring to the same problem - it looks like its a firmware problem

[eagle1]

wow... this is a biggie then!!!! And this happens with all firmwares?? Or was it part of the Froyo update?

[AllenPapapetrou]

I'm running 1.0.84 with a 32G SanDisk Class 2 w/o file loss.

Allen

[5th Horseman]

Hi!

Before any of this happens to me, can anyone recommend which class of card is the best or does it not matter too much?

Cheers

5th

[paulus3476]

It doesn'r really matter to the Archos - class 2 micro sd (lowest spec) will do whatever its asked - even playback HD video. Where it does make a difference is transferring data onto the card, class 2 is transfer speed of 2mb/s + as opposed to class 10 speed of 10mb/s+ - you get what you pay for , class 10 16gb is pretty pricey and 32gb is prohibitively expensive given that it has little benefit

[5th Horseman]

Paulus!
Thanks for the info.
Cheers
5th

[Airedale]

Archos support replied today and asked me two questions.

"Are you syncing these files to the SD card or are you copy/pasting them? Also what
file format are the SD cards in?"

I told them I was using copy/paste and the cards were FAT32 format when first inserted and then reformatted by the A70.

I didn't know there was another format that the A70 could read. Is there?

[nz]

we have seen something like that happening, we are investigating!

[nz]

as a temporary workaround, you can put a file named ".nomedia" in the sdcard root folder, that seems to prevent the lost files it seems, we are still investigating what happens.

[kavawava]

as a temporary workaround, you can put a file named ".nomedia" in the sdcard root folder, that seems to prevent the lost files it seems, we are still investigating what happens.

So to make this work, do I just name some random file ".nomedia" (i.e. a folder) and place it in the root folder of the SD card? Does it have to be a specific file for this to work?

[DKA]

as a temporary workaround, you can put a file named ".nomedia" in the sdcard root folder, that seems to prevent the lost files it seems, we are still investigating what happens.

So to make this work, do I just name some random file ".nomedia" (i.e. a folder) and place it in the root folder of the SD card? Does it have to be a specific file for this to work?

Correct. I figured half way through the thread that this is what was happening. ".nomedia" tells the tasks auto-scanning for media (jpg, mpg, etc.) to add it to the library to ignore that folder. My guess is that if you also turned off the library auto-updates it would fix this problem as well, as the bugs probably exist in that process. Just a guess, as I am still happily streaming all of my content onto the device and haven't bothered loading anything onto the sd card yet. Depending on what media apps you've loaded on your device, it might even be arising from one of those creating a library instead of archos firmware.

[nz]

as a temporary workaround, you can put a file named ".nomedia" in the sdcard root folder, that seems to prevent the lost files it seems, we are still investigating what happens.

So to make this work, do I just name some random file ".nomedia" (i.e. a folder) and place it in the root folder of the SD card? Does it have to be a specific file for this to work?

create a file that you name .nomedia

what is inside the file does not matter

[eagle1]

Thanks nz!

[Airedale]

I've done some testing using NZ's work around. I'm no longer losing JPG files so it works.

The default gallery application is no longer working but that is a lot better than losing files.

Does anyone know of another gallery app I can use?

[hasido]

I had same problem. However by unmounting sd card before i connected to pc via usb it prevented the loss after properly disconnecting. I was still able to access the unmounted sd card and transfer files. Not ideal but hope fix coming soon.

[Airedale]

Archos tech support emailed me and said that installing the latest firmware would prevent me from losing files off the SD card. I'd already installed the latest firmware so I backed up the SD card and removed the .nomedia file from the card yesterday. I've done two USB transfers since then.

So far, so good. I won't be confident until I do a few more transfers and confirm the file count.

In answer to my own question about an alternative to the gallery program that comes with the A70, I'm using JustPictures!.

It works and Gallery still doesn't. JustPictures! is an acceptable substitute.

[butterflygirl]

Archos tech support emailed me and said that installing the latest firmware would prevent me from losing files off the SD card. I'd already installed the latest firmware so I backed up the SD card and removed the .nomedia file from the card yesterday. I've done two USB transfers since then.

So far, so good. I won't be confident until I do a few more transfers and confirm the file count.

In answer to my own question about an alternative to the gallery program that comes with the A70, I'm using JustPictures!.

It works and Gallery still doesn't. JustPictures! is an acceptable substitute.

I have lost media (.avi) off my sd card with newest firmware.