Installing two hard drives in an MPC 4000?

Hi, I recently picked up an MPC 4000 and installed a new Sandisk SSD and Nanoxia fan ( https://goo.gl/aiqN5S ) which are working well.

I'm interested in installing two drives - one for untreated samples, and one for treated samples, sequences, projects, etc. I think this is possible as the manual states, "If you install two drives, you must set one as the master and the other as the slave."

Just wondered if anyone has tried this? And do you lose the functionality of the CD drive?

very interesting...

Never tried that. However I do connect a usb hub to the usb port on the front. Then connect external usb bus powered ssd hard drives to it. I removed all spinning hard drives from the machine.

While it's an interesting idea that should be looked into for the sake of learning, it honestly doesn't make sense to have 2 hard drives in a 4000. You're better suited getting a CF to IDE adapter for $10 and then using a CF memory card. Then remove the CD-ROM drive since not many use it for any real purpose and fit a second CF IDE drive which can be your 'second hard' drive and is also equally removable at whim.

Look into the WD 256GB My Passport SSD Portable Storage - External Solid State Drive - USB 3.1. It cost 99 dollars us. I'm yet to fill 2 gigs of space, It's hotswappble, Works with Linux, Mac, and Windows based computers. Which makes backing up and loading sound on the drive easy.

Other than that, look for a Netbook with Windows XP on it. Create an ISO Image of the drive. Swap the IDE drive with a SSD drive. Reinstall the OS from the ISO drive image to the new SSD. Then install Aksys on to the Netbook.

i had 2 IDE hd in my MPC4000, one master, one slave
up until a few months ago, i swapped these for a SSD + CF reader/writer, which i like very much since you can easily interface with the outside world (and it makes it 'oh so quiet')

tiger001 wrote:up until a few months ago, i swapped these for a SSD + CF reader/writer, which i like very much since you can easily interface with the outside world (and it makes it 'oh so quiet')

Got pics of internal pics of this mod? Thanks.

tiger001 wrote:i had 2 IDE hd in my MPC4000, one master, one slave
up until a few months ago, i swapped these for a SSD + CF reader/writer, which i like very much since you can easily interface with the outside world (and it makes it 'oh so quiet')

Is your CF reader/writer hot swappable? Also what do you do to back up the SSD Drives. Do you open you MPC each time?

i don't do backups - on the SSD are only (a copy) of my samples throughout the years & all my sample CD's
the CF is hot swapable and reachable from the outside (3.5" front) , it's sitting in one of the HD bays
on the CF are saved my current/recent projects

JUKE 179r wrote:

tiger001 wrote:up until a few months ago, i swapped these for a SSD + CF reader/writer, which i like very much since you can easily interface with the outside world (and it makes it 'oh so quiet')

Got pics of internal pics of this mod? Thanks.

yep, here : viewtopic.php?f=2&t=128991&start=163

tiger, do you get any actual loading / saving throughput difference on the ssd vs a fast cf (or micro sd to cf adapter) card ?

yes, of course a SSD is faster, but the saving/read times of a good (read small) CF card are not really bothering
-and i do save a lot
if i start saving on my MPC4k, then i do the merry round of all my other synths patches/performances saving and then we clear to rock again
godspeed,

richie wrote:tiger, do you get any actual loading / saving throughput difference on the ssd vs a fast cf (or micro sd to cf adapter) card ?

The SSD helps with heat, reliability, compatibility, space, and power consumption. Other than that the speeds are determined by the IDE or SCSI bus speeds. We never actually benefit from the max SSD read and write time.

The CF or SD card is the same thing, but the benefits are portability, back up, and sound importing and exporting. They are really just a band-aid fix to get away from SCSI Zip Disk, IDE Hard Drives, and CD ROM.

tiger001 wrote:yes, of course a SSD is faster, but the saving/read times of a good (read small) CF card are not really bothering
-and i do save a lot
if i start saving on my MPC4k, then i do the merry round of all my other synths patches/performances saving and then we clear to rock again
godspeed,

Have you actually verified that the throughput speeds are of any difference though. An "of course" doesn't actually cut it.

The SSD and the CF both operate on the same bus and utilize the same sort of nand memory in most cases, hence why I asked if you have conducted a fair test of merit for such cards.

CharlesRandolph wrote:The SSD helps with heat, reliability, compatibility, space, and power consumption. Other than that the speeds are determined by the IDE or SCSI bus speeds. We never actually benefit from the max SSD read and write time.

The CF or SD card is the same thing, but the benefits are portability, back up, and sound importing and exporting. They are really just a band-aid fix to get away from SCSI Zip Disk, IDE Hard Drives, and CD ROM.

That is exactly the point I am sort of making here. Since our bottleneck is the bus, I am trying to find actual justification of purchasing an SSD over getting a fast SD card. The CF to IDE adapters we're using are just IDE pass through to the IDE bus and as far as I am aware, most decent SD cards out there are more than fast enough to fill up an IDE bus.