spinneresque

After recording a lecture this morning, the minidisc got stuck on 'saving data.' I am not sure, but I believe it was saying 'system file writing' when it got stuck. Finally we had to remove the battery in order to get it to stop doing that (after more than 15 minutes). When I attached the disc to the computer, no uploadable files were there ()no surprise there). When I went to reformat the disc, again it became stuck on system file writing. The only way I could stop it was to take out the battery. I tried recording again on a brand new disc and same result... stuck on 'saving data' when saving the recording. It seems the machine is bad. It is only one month old and was purchased in Japan. Has anyone else had this experience? Can anyone advise me as to what steps I should take now to get it repaired/exchanged? Many thanks!