Topic: Microtrack (MT) 24/96 hang during recording

[udovdh]

Update:  Starting again with the Sandisk Ultra II 1Gb card, I reformatted through Windows, selecting FAT32 file system.  Recorded 8 files of varying length, some 192bit MP3, some WAV.    No hangs encountered.

I almost put an exclamation point after that last sentence, but I'd prefer to be cautious, and mildly skeptical about success here.  The FAT32 reformat suggestion seems to have been delivered as a guess, not a definitive solution to an understood problem. 

How did windows format the FAT32 card? (clustersize?)
How would the MT format a card like this? What is the optimal clustersize? (bigger is better I read but does that work for the Microtrack?)

[Frosty]

• Insert CF card in Microtrack
• Connect Microtrack to PC via USB
• Wait for logical device to show up  (it's E: on my PC)
• Right click on drive E:, select format and FAT32

M-Audio tech told me that only CF cards larger than 512Mb can be FAT32.  Presumably smaller cards can be FAT file system, but I have not confirmed that. 

I don't know what kind of filesystem the Microtrack will format to.  I do believe that I tried to read a Microtrack-formatted 128Mb CF card with the card reader in my PC and it was not recognized. My guess is the Microtrack uses natively uses something other that FAT, FAT32, or NTFS which would be familiar to my WinXP system.

[cpatch]

I don't think the MT actually formats the card...I think it just clears all the data on it.

Craig

[udovdh]

I don't think the MT actually formats the card...I think it just clears all the data on it.

Can anybody confirm this?
What would be the best clustersize for FAT32 formatted cards for the MT?

[jtessier]

I don't think the MT actually formats the card...I think it just clears all the data on it.

Craig

I guess it depends on how you define 'format'. To me the MT does format the card. It wipes the directory and sets the file system up as either fat (for cards below 1GB (so effectively cards 512MB and below) and Fat32 for cards 1GB and above.  If you format a 1GB card as Fat under Windows, then put it in the MT and reformat it there, it will change the format back to Fat 32.  And this formatting is a standard format that should always be readable under Windows so I'm not sure what happend to the poster who said they could not read the card in a card reader. My Lexar USB reader reads all the cards that my MT formats.  Not sure about the cluster size question.  I guess the MT uses what it thinks is optimal or what ever the defualt is so I guess just in case the setting has been tweaked in the MT firmware I would format in the MT for best performance.

J.T.

[Frosty]

Update - still no hangs on the Ultra II 1Gb following the WinXP FAT32 format.  Is it too soon to declare victory?   

[rodeen]

Update - still no hangs on the Ultra II 1Gb following the WinXP FAT32 format.  Is it too soon to declare victory?   

Maybe your compact flash needed to be "burned-in" for it to work correctly   

[raddygast]

Hmm. Well, this is encouraging -- when my unit froze (well, really, it just stopped recording... then when I pressed record again, it said "writing file...." and hung on that screen, resulting in my original recording being a 0 byte file) a long while back, it was fw 1.2.0, and I had not formatted the CF card under XP.

I did follow their suggestion to reformat under XP, and since then (with fw 1.2.3), the behaviour is only encountered when you let the recording run to the end of the media. But that seems to be an unrelated problem probably having to do with incorrect space-remaining calculations.

Formatting under XP seems to be a good idea. The main question, though, is this: if you format under XP, then you later use Format on the MT itself, will that still be ok?

The XP formatting is to give it a "backup FAT".... since the MT doesn't appear to do a full format (it does a "quick format" I think) maybe it's fine to do successive formats in the unit itself. I.e. you're on the road and need to clear a CF card before recording.

Anyone know something about this?