Technical questions for the MPC2000xl and the MPC2000
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By distortedtekno Sat Jan 25, 2014 5:34 am
So it turns out that I found an awesome deal that I couldn't ignore, and I grabbed this before it would disappear in the blink of an eye...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321302481386

Thanks to peterpiper for the info. This seems like the best storage solution for the 2k in terms of disc size (with partitions used to replicate folders). The disc capacity is more efficient for the 2k than everything else I've seen. So this should be worth throwing a little time and money into it. I'll buy all the rest of what I need to finish this project soon. I'm still looking for the cheapest external SCSI case that's fairly durable.
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By mr_debauch Sat Jan 25, 2014 5:48 am
dope... cant to see the update for that
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By distortedtekno Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:12 am
If I can find the SCSI card for my PC, then I'll buy another MO drive to install and use to transfer files back and forth. If I don't have that card anymore, I'll keep the Zip drives for that purpose.
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By mr_debauch Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:37 am
wouldn't you simply be able to use the same MO drive to go to the PC? scsi pci controllers are like 5 bucks..
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By distortedtekno Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:54 pm
mr_debauch wrote:wouldn't you simply be able to use the same MO drive to go to the PC? scsi pci controllers are like 5 bucks..

Yeah I can do that. But if I can find another MO drive for cheap, I'll install it in the open 3.5" bay and not have to swap the drive back and forth. After that, I can sell both of my Zip drives, the 10 pack of new discs, and that will cover the cost of what I'm getting ready to do here.
Ever since I bought the Zip drives, I've been concerned about when they would end up causing problems. Since I'm keeping the 2k, replacing these Zip drives for MO drives will eliminate any worries.
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By distortedtekno Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:46 am
SimonInAustralia wrote:Yes, much better old school storage option than Zip. :smoker:

Yeah, seriously. I read that the MO discs are good for 10,000,000 rewrites. That really made me feel a lot better. I ordered all the parts needed after spending a few days bargain hunting. Hopefully, everything will arrive before the end of the week.
By auscience Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:16 pm
distortedtekno, please inform how this is working out. This sounds really interesting as an alternative to Zip and now CF since they are so hard to find now for 2KXL.

What capacity disks? 640mb perhaps?
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By distortedtekno Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:58 pm
I'm not sure which MO drives work for the XL. Also, there's different capacity drives. Some of them only use 128mb discs, and some will use 128mb and 230mb discs, while others may take 640mb. But I'll keep you all updated with my progress. My 230mb Fujistsu drive just arrived in the mail today. I'm still waiting for the SCSI drive bay enclosure to arrive.

I haven't read the XL manual since I own the 2k classic. The 2k classic manual mentions which capacity MO drives not to use. I'll take a look and see what's ok to use.
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By distortedtekno Wed Jan 29, 2014 11:38 pm
From page 155 of the 2000XL manual, I found the same information as the 2000 classic.

Note: The MPC2000XL is not compatible with the 1024K (or larger) sector sized MO
disks.


Any MO drive that's 640mb or smaller should work with the 2000XL. I have some more info the peterpiper had shared with me in a thread that I started recently.

http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=170030&start=15
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By distortedtekno Wed Feb 05, 2014 4:10 pm
My drive bay is coming in the mail today. If all goes well, I'll have my results posted tonight.

:popcorn:
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By distortedtekno Thu Feb 06, 2014 2:11 am
The drive works. But the connectors on the back make it look like the drive is upside down. So I had to remove the SCSI jacks from the drive bay housing in order to have the drive sit right side up. I'll find another enclosure that's suitable for this drive. In the mean time, this is my progress so far...

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By Ron-Jay Sun Feb 09, 2014 8:11 pm
Maybe some of this flew over my head. But the MO drive/diskettes are more reliable than the zips? Are the standard 3 1/2 floppies more reliable than zips? What do I have to do to get more storage without worrying about losing my data?