Jump to content

Looking for a program...


DeepFreeze
 Share

Recommended Posts

Since I know mostly everyone here knows there way around computers, I figured somebody might have heard of this program I'm looking for. I can't for the life of me remember what its called, so maybe after I describe it, somebody will know.

Basically, it just makes a file, any name you want, that is completely blank. Then you can use this program to inflate the file to take up any amount of hard-drive space you want it to. It's a pretty old, DOS-based program if I recall. I downloaded it at one point, but didn't have a use for it at the time.

You see, it all started when I dropped my mp3 player while it was playing and then all these bad sectors popped up on the disk. According to Norton Disk Doctor, there are only 14 kb of bad sectors, and whenever I reformat the player, it seems insistant on putting the firmware files on this particular 14 kb of space. I've tried everything I could think of to get it working. A bunch of disk utilities and whatnot, until I figured, "Okay, I'll just copy a whole bunch of files onto the player before putting on the firmware. It doesn't matter if the files get corrupted, they just need to block those spots off." Unfortunately, it locks my computer up once it gets about 650 mb in.

The reason I have an interest in this program is because, unless I am mistaken or remember incorrectly, it doesn't actually write anything to the drive. It just expands the boundaries of the file to take up space. So i'm just gonna make a tiny little file on the player, inflate it to a gig or so and hopefully block off all the bad spots, and then put everything on.

If anyone knows the name of the program I'm talking about, or anything similar, that would be most helpful.

P.S.

It's freeware, btw, so I'm not asking for warez or anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mmm. more than likely that area of the harddrive is reserved for the players use. No matter what you do it's going to place the firmware there.

but you could try this to create a big file.

1.)download Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

2.)install and open the program up

2.)pick Microphone up on the upper right

3.)unplug your microphone

4.)hit the little red record button

5.)record for as long as needed to get the right size.

6.)save it as a wav file. may need to change the wav extension to prevent the player from trying to play the file though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, I didn't want to start a new thread so I'm just going to bump this. I'm afraid I just have to come to terms with reality and accept the passing of my poor MP3 player. For those of you who own MP3 players, I'm asking your advice: I'm going to be getting a new one soon, but I'm unable to decide on what I want. I wanted a micro-drive player so that its its small enough to just stick it in my pocket and not drop it like a retard (oh, my poor Samsung. I'm so, so sorry). Not too expensive, but a good 4-6 gigs of space (I don't really need 20, I don't have THAT much music), but playing high-bitrate stuff would be most beneficial.

What I've come up with is either the Rio Carbon or the Zen Micro. It doesn't really have to be pretty, it just has to be small and sound good (and maybe play Ogg vorbis, but thats just an extra). I don't want to drop $200-$300 on a rather expensive piece of electronics and find out its junk, so I'd like to ask for some opinions. Does anyone have experience with these players, or if not, have any other recommendations for good players? Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

iPod Mini... The majority of the IT department at my school uses them daily (including myself) as portable hard disks and as sanity keeping devices. In addition the teachers use them as teaching tools.

iPods are much more than an MP3 player, and I think you would be extremely satisfied with one. Currently, the mini comes in 4 and 6 gig forms, so thats exactly what you're looking for. Check out http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/ for more information.

The only thing is it uses Apple's format, but being as you can find converters for almost any format (including Ogg Vorbis) that isn't a huge issue. Unfortunately, because of the DMCA and all that crap, finding a MP3 player that doesn't use some form of DRM is near impossible, and Apple's is much better than most forms of music DRM IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RE: Recommending an MP3 player. First off, let me admit that if I could afford to pay for the grossly overpriced iPod devices (mini or otherwise) I most assuredly would. I believe iPods are very well designed, have nice user interfaces, and the circular touchpad is very intuitive to use.

However. That doesn't change the fact that they are grossly overpriced for what they are.

I have both a Rio Carbon 5GB and an iRiver H10 5GB. They both have 1GB more than the iPod mini. The Rio is much smaller and the battery lasts FOREVER. I use it at least three hours a day and it lasts me about a whole week. Most recently I picked up an iRiver H10 --- this thing is fabulous. Costs I think $30 more than the iPod mini, but you get an extra gig if storage, FM Radio, line-in recording, voice recording, the ability to read text files, AND a color screen you can use to see pictures. The battery doesn't last as long as i like --- I have to charge it every couple of days --- but it is godlike.

As wonderful as iPods are, I cannot recommend that someone spend so much money and get something that offers inferior value. Check out the H10 --- iRiver H10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, I was looking into those 2. I've been doing a bit of research into both of those. The Rio Carbon is definately my style because it doesn't have a lot of fancy features, is small, has an insane battery life and a good amount of space. On the other hand, I've also read that a lot of them don't work and break pretty easy, and the carrying case blocks all the buttons (wtf?). So that's kind of putting me off.

As for the H10: it's also pretty small, has a slick design, and replacable batteries are cool, and the features are nice. This is definately my next best contender if I decide not to go with the Zen Micro. But goddamn, $280 is mighty steep for a 5 gig player. Is it really worth it? If it isn't, do you know where I might be able to get one cheap.

Thank you all for your input.

EDIT:

Nevermind, I just found an H10 for cheap on eBay. So hopefully, I'll have an inbound H10. Thank you everyone. Your input was valuable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL Deep, congratulations on your purchase of an H10. Yes, the carrying case the Carbon comes with blocks all the buttons except for the volume/scroll wheel, but it's not that big a deal to me. As for it being delicate --- I've dropped mine a few times -- onto carpeted floors -- with no troubles. In fact, since I got the H10 I've been thinking of cracking it open and putting the hard drive into the CF slot on my Dell Pocket PC!

What makes the H10 worth it? I forgot to mention the touchpad I suppose, but that's not a big selling point for me. What really does it for me is the tight integration with windows media player 10 (automatic sync of music, sorta thing -- really a convenient feature, because when I add new music to my computer it shows up on the H10 automatically) AND the FM radio. Specifically, you can program the H10 to automatically start recording a certain station at a certain time --- GREAT if you like to listen to Howard Stern like I do!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

Originally posted by Kung-Fu Massa:

RE: Recommending an MP3 player. First off, let me admit that if I could afford to pay for the grossly overpriced iPod devices (mini or otherwise) I most assuredly would. I believe iPods are very well designed, have nice user interfaces, and the circular touchpad is very intuitive to use.

However. That doesn't change the fact that they are grossly overpriced for what they are.


How are they overpriced? You can do soooo much more than you could ever imagine with an iPod. They're a portable hard disk for starters. You can put books on them, use them as a planner, and many many other functions. The new iPod Photo has a camera attachment coming out very soon for it as well.

Enjoy your H10 Freeze, they're pretty good listening devices as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

Originally posted by Cmdr. WeeGee:

How are they overpriced? You can do soooo much more than you could ever imagine with an iPod. They're a portable hard disk for starters. You can put books on them, use them as a planner, and many many other functions. The new iPod Photo has a camera attachment coming out very soon for it as well.

I think that iPods are overpriced because, if you take a look at comparable MP3 players from other manufactures, you will find that, at a comparable amount of storage, other players offer more bang for your buck. iPods are frequently more expensive while offering fewer features than the competition.

Does that make sense? Okay, case in point. The iRiver (I bring them up a lot 'cause I'm most familiar with their stuff) The iFP-780

has the same amount of RAM (128MB) as the iPod shuffle and costs the same. BUT you also get a built in FM radio, line in, voice recording, WMA, MP3, OGG, and you get 40 hours on a single AA battery. This is a fact BTW --- I used to own the iFP-790.The iFP series doesn't double as a hard drive automatically -- you need the iriver software to do that, but it IS nearly two years old. And it can of course still hold whatever you want to put on it.

Yes, you could buy an attachment --- a radio, a camera, a voice recorder, etc. etc., but that just costs more and adds to the bulk. If you're a frequent commuter, you want to keep extras to a minimum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I haven't bought it YET. Though I'm seriously considering it. I really like the style of the H10 but the thing is I just don't want to pay for all the fluff. Don't get me wrong, a color screen and line in, FM radio, voice recording, coffee maker and disposable rocket-ship is all well and good, but I really don't NEED or have any use for it, so I kinda feel like I'm gipping myself by paying for it. That's why I was leaning so heavily towards the Rio Carbon for a while. It doesn't have any of the fancy crap I don't need. It just plays the music and is thus significantly lighter on my wallet, but the junky carrying case really puts me off because I'm gonna be taking it with me everywhere.

And then you've got the Zen Micro, which is really small, has a good case, but then you start coming up again with all the extraneous silly features and then there's the whole headphone jack thing I've been hearing about with that. I also heard that the interface is excessively clunky and hard to navigate. But even so, its still considerably cheaper than the H10. Hmm. A complicated situation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First, I don't know anything about the Zen micro, but if there are problems with headphone jacks --- well, that's pretty serious stuff right there. I can understand crappy interfaces, I can understand dropping the thing and having it fall apart, but the headphones are where it's at.

Well, if you don't want to pay for the extras --- and i don't blame you --- the Rio Carbon is a decent machine. WOW they just dropped the price on it, too (with a rebate) to $199.

Now, if you're totally ignoring all the extras and your pitting the Carbon vs. the iPod mini, I personally would go with the mini. They cost the same, and with the mini you get to be a part of the crowd and so on. You're losing out on the extra 1GB the Carbon gives you, though.

And, BTW, I totally get sick of my hundreds of MP3's --- that's where the radio comes in!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a good old reliable Ipaq 3835, it plays MP3 music, has voice recorder, plays games, read E-books, I even watch music videos on it...LOL

Payed a whopping 170 bucks for it too.

Cheaper then an Ipod, and I can add as much memory as I want, SD cards, and with a PCMCIA sleeve can add up to 20 Gigs to it.

I can also surf the internet wirelessly with a PCMCIA wireless card.

What an IPOD has on my Ipaq, except more expensive is beyond me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't tell you what the program is named but, I think you're looking for something to write all ones or zeros to the drive. If I'm not mistaken Nortons made a program that would perform that task in order to secure a sensitive drive from being recovered.

It might not help anyway if you have scratched the disc surface with the flying head..... kiss it goodbye before dropping it in the round file.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

Originally posted by Jaguar:

I have a good old reliable Ipaq 3835, it plays MP3 music, has voice recorder, plays games, read E-books, I even watch music videos on it...LOL

Hey, that's a classic!!! I remember envying that while owning a Casio E-115. These days I'm toting an Dell Axim X50v. Have been considering prying the hard drive out of the rio to shove in there...god, all that storage space. Whole movies!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...