DS Forums

 
 

Missing folder......


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 07-12-2016, 11:41
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288

I bought myself a 64gb Kingston usb flash drive to copy my wma music collection onto to play in our new car, which has a usb input. All 40+ gb were successfully transferred on my wifes laptop and she checked it by playing a few tracks, no problems.

However, when we put it into the cars usb socket, no files or folders were found! I then put it into my desktop pc, which shows that there are 17gbs remaining and over 40 used, but it shows no files or folders???? When put back into the laptop that was used to copy them, its clearly all there and will play tracks with no issues.

I am baffled. Any ideas anyone as to why these dark matter files can only be detected by their influence on gb available, but cant be seen directly on 2 out of 3 devices?
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 07-12-2016, 12:08
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
Simple thing first.

Have you checked to see if the folder has been "Hidden" by Windows? It is possible that the laptop is set to make hidden files and folders visible while the PC isn't.

If it is that simple then it is relatively easy to set the folder back to being visible again.

http://www.howtogeek.com/194671/how-...rating-system/

If it isn't that then it could get a tad more difficult.
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2016, 12:30
Stig
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Sandy Heath, Beds. UK
Posts: 10,377
Simple thing first.

Have you checked to see if the folder has been "Hidden" by Windows? It is possible that the laptop is set to make hidden files and folders visible while the PC isn't.

If it is that simple then it is relatively easy to set the folder back to being visible again.

http://www.howtogeek.com/194671/how-...rating-system/

If it isn't that then it could get a tad more difficult.
Why would they be hidden?

A better question would be: What disk format is the USB stick, and what formats do the car and desktop PC support?

If the USB stick didn't work on the laptop I would wonder if it had a fake capacity.
Stig is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2016, 12:35
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
Why would they be hidden?

A better question would be: What disk format is the USB stick, and what formats do the car and desktop PC support?

If the USB stick didn't work on the laptop I would wonder if it had a fake capacity.
I'm sort of assuming that both the laptop and PC are running some variant of Windows so are likely to be able to read the same disk formats. Especially as the OP mentions his WMA collection.
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2016, 13:28
Tassium
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: It's Grim
Posts: 24,400
It's a bit of an Agatha Christie isn't it?

The car radio might not support wma, and therefore not display such files. But the desktop would surely know about wma format?
Tassium is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2016, 15:00
JeffG1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Newbury
Posts: 6,749
Just a thought: doesn't one of the car's user manuals detail what file formats are supported? I'm guessing it uses some form of Linux as an operating system.
JeffG1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2016, 15:05
Stig
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Sandy Heath, Beds. UK
Posts: 10,377
It's a bit of an Agatha Christie isn't it?

The car radio might not support wma, and therefore not display such files. But the desktop would surely know about wma format?
Media Player creates encrypted .wma files by default, so a different PC might not be able to play them.

We need more info from the OP.
Stig is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2016, 15:17
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
Media Player creates encrypted .wma files by default, so a different PC might not be able to play them.

We need more info from the OP.
It might not be able to play them but even so it should surely be able to see the folder and the files contained within.

Assuming both laptop and PC are running Windows obviously.

But as you say would be nice to know for certain what operating system the laptop and PC are running and what file system the USB stick is formatted in.
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2016, 22:49
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
MWe need more info from the OP.
Been out all day, sorry for the lack of details earlier, here goes.....

Laptop runs Win 10, PC runs 10 Pro.
WMA's are not encrypted. They were originally ripped on desktop and have been synced to a few devices and storage media, but they are essentially all the same collection.

The usb stick is FAT32

The Seat Alhambra manual says it supports FAT32 (and FAT16, NTFS) and also wma aswell as many other formats. It seems like a good diverse range of media can be read.

I think that's all that was asked, but I will read back over again. Thanks for the input!
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 00:59
Tassium
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: It's Grim
Posts: 24,400
My view on crazy Windows stuff is not to try and diagnose, but just to try things.

Try using a different USB stick and just a few of the wma music as a test (using the laptop)

If it's the same problem then format the USB stick and try doing it with the desktop PC instead.
Tassium is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 01:08
mred2000
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 8,671
Just looking at the car side of things: they can be quite temperamental when it comes to USB sticks, even if everything else is done by the book. Mine won't read anything on Sandisk sticks but is fine with Kingston and TDK... :/
mred2000 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 07:27
Stig
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Sandy Heath, Beds. UK
Posts: 10,377
Just looking at the car side of things: they can be quite temperamental when it comes to USB sticks, even if everything else is done by the book. Mine won't read anything on Sandisk sticks but is fine with Kingston and TDK... :/
64GB is also pretty big, and I would suspect some cars couldn't handle it.
Stig is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 09:31
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
My view on crazy Windows stuff is not to try and diagnose, but just to try things.

Try using a different USB stick and just a few of the wma music as a test (using the laptop)

If it's the same problem then format the USB stick and try doing it with the desktop PC instead.
We pretty much done that last night. I tried a different stick and put one artist on there and it played ok everywhere. I then decided to format the original stick on my desktop and now it wont recognise its existence at all!

The laptop will still read it and so we have formatted it on that and are currently copying the music back onto it to see if it will work in the car. I will post the result of that later.
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 09:38
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
On a not entirely unrelated issue.......the alternate stick I used was a 128gb that I normally use for backing up my docs, have done for over a year. I had an issue 2 weeks ago that required me creating a boot disk, so I used this for convenience. The process wiped my backups, but now it is no longer required I have reformatted it and it now shows as a 32gb stick!!!

How on earth can this happen? Can the format of FAT16 or FAT32 etc change the capacity of the stick? It was originally formatted when I had 7 Ultimate, only being reformatted in 10 Pro last night. My backups were 80+gb and I have been doing them weekly for over a year.,.......
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 10:21
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
On a not entirely unrelated issue.......the alternate stick I used was a 128gb that I normally use for backing up my docs, have done for over a year. I had an issue 2 weeks ago that required me creating a boot disk, so I used this for convenience. The process wiped my backups, but now it is no longer required I have reformatted it and it now shows as a 32gb stick!!!

How on earth can this happen? Can the format of FAT16 or FAT32 etc change the capacity of the stick? It was originally formatted when I had 7 Ultimate, only being reformatted in 10 Pro last night. My backups were 80+gb and I have been doing them weekly for over a year.,.......
It is possible that when you created the boot disk it created a 32GB partition on the USB drive. So if you did a simple reformat it would only format this 32GB partition.

You can check this by firing up Disk Manager and inspecting the drive. That should show if there is a 32GB partition and shedloads of unused space or not. If there is a partition then using Disk Manager you can delete it and make the full capacity available.
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 10:45
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
Where do I fnd disk manager?
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 10:49
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 11:35
JeffG1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Newbury
Posts: 6,749
Where do I fnd disk manager?
Simpler answer: right click on the start button and you'll see a menu entry Disk Management.

Edit: though the link given gives you more info on what it does.
JeffG1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 12:50
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
Simpler answer: right click on the start button and you'll see a menu entry Disk Management.

Edit: though the link given gives you more info on what it does.
Well that's solved that mystery, it has indeed been partitioned. Having followed the steps on the above link I now find I can only undo the partition by buying some software I will likely never need again!!! This is because the 'Extend volume option is greyed out, despite it having unallocated space on the rest of the stick, contrary to what is stated on the link.

Things just go from bad to worse!
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 12:54
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
On the previous issue, the original stick has been reformatted in exFAT (the default on the laptop, only NTFS was also an option) and now works fine in laptop and in car, but my desktop will not recognise its existence in the slightest........

Like I said, bad to worse! I was starting to think it was a dodgy stick, but how can that be if it works in 2 out of 3 places?
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 12:55
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
Well that's solved that mystery, it has indeed been partitioned. Having followed the steps on the above link I now find I can only undo the partition by buying some software I will likely never need again!!! This is because the 'Extend volume option is greyed out, despite it having unallocated space on the rest of the stick, contrary to what is stated on the link.

Things just go from bad to worse!
Ignore the advertising in that link. You can do everything in Disk Manager.

Simply delete the partition altogether and make sure that there are no other partitions on the drive. Then create a new one from scratch taking up the entire capacity of the drive.

http://www.howtogeek.com/101862/how-...ther-software/
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 12:56
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
Just a thought, would it matter that the stick is USB 3.0, which both laptop and car accept, but my desktop doesn't?
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 13:00
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
Just a thought, would it matter that the stick is USB 3.0, which both laptop and car accept, but my desktop doesn't?
Shouldn't matter.

The stick should work OK in a USB 2 port but not at the full speed it could achieve on USB 3. Shouldn't prevent you seeing files on it.
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 16:41
philnavigator
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: West Wales
Posts: 288
Well that's another mystery solved I reckon! The stick that was working in the laptop and the car but not being recognised by my desktop is now not being recognised in the car either. It seems the stick is faulty and will now be returned for a replacement.

That just leaves me with the issue of deleting a partition without paying for software........
philnavigator is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2016, 16:42
chrisjr
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,900
Well that's another mystery solved I reckon! The stick that was working in the laptop and the car but not being recognised by my desktop is now not being recognised in the car either. It seems the stick is faulty and will now be returned for a replacement.

That just leaves me with the issue of deleting a partition without paying for software........
Post 21.
chrisjr is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply



Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 20:05.