How to enter the Zen’s Recovery Mode for Clean Up, Format All, Reload Firmware, and Reboot:
1. With the Zen off, press and hold the "play/pause" button.
2. Continue to hold until you perform Steps 3 and 4. If you accidentally release the button, start the procedure again.
3. Gently push the end of a thin object (like a pin or straightened paperclip) into the Reset hole. You should be able to feel the release click of the button.
4. Slide the On/Off/Lock switch towards the power button and hold until the boot screen appears on the display.
The Recovery Mode screen appears, and four menu items are shown:
Clean Up: A cleanup of the file system and database files takes place. All (uncorrupted) data should stay in tact. When the cleanup is complete, select Reboot. Your player restarts and starts rebuilding its music library. All files should remain intact unless they were detected as being corrupt.
Format All: This will completely reset the Zen and remove all user stored files on it.
Reload Firmware: This will prepare the Zen to accept a reload, new, or older firmware based on the specific firmware file you download and execute on a computer. Selecting this option will prevent your Zen from being able to boot, so make sure you have the firmware file on you computer and ready to load.
Reboot: This will execute a soft reboot of the Zen's operating system.
Booting the Zen into Recovery Mode will not cause you to lose files. Check out the Zen FAQ (see sig below) for more information.
From; http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31218
Written by; BobbyRS
Creative Moderator
I had this problem, used a pin and activated the Zen in Recovery Mode and simply selected Reboot, and it works. :)
Warriors_X, September 2008
