[Novalug] strange COWON iAudio 7 capacity limit

Theodore Ruegsegger gruntly@gmail.com
Tue Dec 9 13:15:34 EST 2008


Based on previous experience with iAudio media players and some
favorable comments I read on this list, I got my wife a 16GB COWON
iAudio 7 player, primarily to host her collection of ogg music files.

When we connect it to her laptop (Kubuntu Hardy), it shows up as a
removable drive and we can transfer files to it, but only up to a
point. Whether we drag-and-drop from Dolphin or try to mirror the
music folder using rsync, it seems to run out of space. After slightly
over four GB, we get a stream of errors saying the device is
read-only. Sure enough, when I try to create a file on it, I can't.

So we unplug the device, wait a while, then reinsert it, and the above
scenario repeats.

I'm going to try the device on a different machine, since the laptop
is a bit old and its USB sometimes seems a bit flakey, but the fact
that it consistently craps out at the same point makes me wonder about
the iAudio itself.

Oddly, the "Quick Guide" that comes with it says "The iAudio 7 can
recognize up to 200 folders and 2000 files". This seems like a
completely gratuitous limit, especially for a 16GB device. What's up
with that? As it happens, my wife's collection, which is slightly
under 7GB, has fewer folders and files than that, but it's close, and
I'm guessing the various images and other stuff already on the iAudio
count against the total. Perhaps we've just run out of folders or
files, but why on earth should we? It's certainly not a limitation of
the VFAT file system.

I note also that most CD-ripping tools create huge filenames with
embedded spaces and special characters. Could that cause a problem?

Does anyone have any insights to share?

Ted



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