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Date:	Sat, 4 Feb 2006 09:54:08 PST8
From:	"Michael Rakijas" <mrakijas@adelphia.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Keeping hidden files off USB drive

This is an issue that I'm revisiting because my patched condition is untenable
and I've found out a little more information.

First, my kid's MP3 player operates by behaving like a USB flash memory drive
when connected to the computer. The device is supposed to ignore non-music
files to allow you to use it like a thumb drive (i.e. a file transfer medium)
when needed. However, it barfs (as in, it locks itself up) as an MP3 player if
OS/2-eCS hidden files are transferred to it, as is WP ROOT. SF or EADATA. SF
(or whatever). So, I wrote a small batch file to strip EA's from and to
transfer groups of songs to a named folder. I wrote a companion batch file to
delete name folders. The bad news is that this is quite tedious and noone can
use conventional file management tools like the WPS to more files around. The
good news is that this works ... most of the time.

The thing that is making this untenable is that somehow, these files
occasionally appear rending the player inoperable. I know it's likely
something that was done but believe me, strong training is in force in the kid
- she knows she will render her player useless if she fails to obey the
procedure until I get around to fixing it. The fix can only be done by taking
it to a Win98 machine (the only reason this machine is still around) since
WinXP preserves and protects at least EAs at least. Apparently, just deleting
the file is insufficient (maybe because it's a file wih a funky character in
its name - I don't think it's a space - I'll have to try renaming the file
before deleting it next time). The last time I had to fix it, I had to
transfer off the existing music, reformat the drive and retransfer the music
back (try tranferring up to a gigabyte of data back and forth over USB 1.1 when
you've got something better to do).

Life would be much easier if there was a way to remove these files before
disconnecting the drive from the machine. Drag and drop files to one's content
with whatever tools one wants, remove the problem files (by batch drive),
disconnect and be ready to go. Please, please - is there anything that can be
done? Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may offer.

-Rocky

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