I think I have had to reformat 1 card a couple of times. But, I am wondering if another thing that may be involved is that I have noticed that certain brands of memory cards seem to have more issues with having to be reformatted occasionally. For example, I have gotten to the point that I hesitate to purchase Lexar memory cards or thumb drives because I have seen their memory have more chances of having problems with files becoming corrupted. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Carter" <r-carter@xxxxxxx> To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 2:46 PM Subject: [bookport] Re: FILESYSTEM MUSINGS : Hi All, : : I have had one flash card go bad. It would not work in a pc or camera : or anything after it failed. I doubt that the Book Port is causing : these problems as I, like Joni, am a very heavy user and almost never : have to format a card. : : Robert Carter : : At 02:39 PM 10/25/2005, you wrote: : >For what it may be worth, which may not be much, I am an extremely heavy : >user of the Book Port and have used it since May 2004 and have never had to : >reformat a flash card. Now I know I have jinxed myself and will be doing it : >tomorrow. : > : >Joni : >----- Original Message ----- : >From: "Richard Ring" <ring.richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> : >To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> : >Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:56 AM : >Subject: [bookport] Re: FILESYSTEM MUSINGS : > : > : >The only issue I would take with your assumption is this. I have had to : >reformat a card twice in the past two years. Why then, do I not : >experience these same problems that some (not all) Bookport users seem : >to report? : >If I did in fact have to reformat a CF card every six weeks, I would be : >quite unhappy, so if this is the behavior that the majority of Bookport : >users are experiencing, then the problem is a severe one. : > : > : >-----Original Message----- : >From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx : >[mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brian Buhrow : >Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:50 AM : >To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx : >Subject: [bookport] FILESYSTEM MUSINGS : > : > : >Hello. I've been reading this list for a couple of months, and : >have : >noticed what seems to be a somewhat common thread which appears to match : >my : >experience, and which, if it's true, raises issues which I think should : >be : >addressed in order to make the user experience for the bookport an even : >happier one. : > From what I can tell, there are a number of users who purchase : >their : >bookports from APH, get them home, load them up with data, read from : >them, : >and are completely happy with them. Then, after a month or two of use, : >when books have been cycled through the unit, and the user is feeling : >more : >comfortable putting more and more on the Bookport, he begins : >experiencing : >difficulties when transfering data to the Bookport. Flash cards fill : >unexpectedly during transfers, users encounter file coruption during the : >reading process, or weird errors just happen, seemingly from no where. : >the advice on this list, generally, seems to be that flash cards : >get : >corrupted, and they either have gone bad, or need to be reformatted : >before : >they work again for another month or two. : >My experience coincides with this description. I have had my : >Bookport : >for about four months, and have had to reformat the flash card I use : >most : >often at least once. It's now been about six weeks since I last : >reformatted my flash card, and I'm now beginning to see anomolous : >behavior, : >which I suspect will go away if I reformat my card yet again. : >All of this is to say that I think there is a subttle filesystem : >bug : >in the Bookport which no one yet quite understands. On clean, i.e. : >newly : >formatted flash cards, things work well. Then, as material comes and : >goes : >from the filesystem on the flash card, some of it written by the host : >computer, some by the Bookport itself, the filesystem becomes "dirty" in : >the way that most filesystems become "dirty" over time. Directories : >become : >fragmented as items are deleted and inserted, disk block allocations : >become : >fragmented as well, and the efficiency of the filesystem on the flash : >card : >becomes less over time. All of this is normal, and should be expected. : >The rub is that the Bookport appears to not deal well with this loss of : >efficiency, and as a consequence, becomes very fickle in its operation : >as : >the filesystems on its flash cards age. : >While, as someone suggested, running defragmentation programs : >against : >the filesystems on one's flash cards for Bookport might aleviate the : >problem, I'm not convinced this will totally help because I don't think : >defragmentation programs zero out blocks they free up on the filesystems : >they fix. The behavior I observe with my bookport leads me to believe : >that : >the firmware makes certain assumptions about what is in its various file : >buffers, and reuses them without necessarily properly cleaning them. : >For : >example, I have an MP3 file on my bookport right now which reads fine, : >except if I query the percentage status while the file is playing, and : >I've : >read more than 50% of it. If I hit the 8 key when the latter half of : >the : >file is playing, I get an FS buffer panic, followed by a bunch of audio : >file read error messages, accompanied by choppy sound until I either : >stop : >the bookport, or it comes to the end of the file in question. : >Let me stress, though, that I'm not trying to suggest that I : >know what : >the problem is, or how to fix it. However, I believe there is a : >problem, : >and that it should be looked into. The bookport should be able to deal : >with filesystems which pass chkdsk or scandisk, but which aren't : >necessarily pristine in terms of not having been used, and users : >shouldn't : >have to regularly reformat their flash cards in order to preserve : >usability. : >I love my bookport, but this issue, what ever it is, certainly : >adds to : >my level of frustration using it, and makes it downright inconvenient at : >times, while I cajole it into working. : >-Brian : :