Storage options for the MPC 2000XL

Hey everybody, happy holidays! I recently acquired a used 2000XL with the standard floppy drive. I've been reading all the posts about storage options and was wondering about a few things... maybe some of you can give me their thoughts on the matter. Many thanks in advance.

1) Would it be possible and/or logical to have an external SCSI CD-ROM drive that contains all my sounds for easy access and to only store the program/sequence on a floppy drive (without the sounds)? Would this make sense? I realize the limitation since I could not modify the sounds but I'm just wondering if it makes sense?

2) I've read quite a few posts concerning zip drives. I actually have an external one that I can use right away but at the same time I read a post where someone said that the cheapest solution isn't always the best one. I'm not sure if he meant that zip disks tend to lose the data in the long run or if they're unreliable. Any thoughts on that?

I guess I would like to know what works best for 2000XL users. I'm also aware of the $125 internal compact flash card reader so that is certainly an option I can look into. Somebody also mentioned a usb compact flash card reader to hook up to my MacBook Pro or even a usb zip drive.

I would really love to hear what some users are doing and if it's working well for them since there seems to be quite a few options out there.

Many thanks. Cheers from windy Montreal!

Sorin

1) Keep your PROGRAM files and your SOUNDS on the same disk. Then when you load a PROGRAM file, the associated SOUND files can get loaded automatically with it.

2) Zip drive is fine to start you off but long term a card CF card drive will be a lot more reliable.

Thanks Pilchard. I was just reading a very recent post where the guy's cf card is crapping out on him... kinda scary... I wonder if it's an isolated incident or the norm? Is there anything wrong with 100MB zip drives and disks in terms of reliability? Of course I realize that cf cards are far superior in terms of storage (1 GB vs 100 MB Zip disks) but I guess it comes down to reliability... what do you think?

MPCSTUFF.COM states that 1GB SanDisk cards are the most reliable. Is that true?

Thanks guys

1) Would it be possible and/or logical to have an external SCSI CD-ROM drive that contains all my sounds for easy access and to only store the program/sequence on a floppy drive (without the sounds)? Would this make sense? I realize the limitation since I could not modify the sounds but I'm just wondering if it makes sense?
Makes no sense imo. Once you get into projects you'll find that keeping your projects in the same folder
is the way to go.

2) I've read quite a few posts concerning zip drives. I actually have an external one that I can use right away but at the same time I read a post where someone said that the cheapest solution isn't always the best one. I'm not sure if he meant that zip disks tend to lose the data in the long run or if they're unreliable. Any thoughts on that?
Zip disks are unreliable, lose data, moving parts that can break fine for a short time, but mcd and cards
are more reliable.

I guess I would like to know what works best for 2000XL users. I'm also aware of the $125 internal compact flash card reader so that is certainly an option I can look into. Somebody also mentioned a usb compact flash card reader to hook up to my MacBook Pro or even a usb zip drive.
2 cards readers, one for computer and one for mpc2kxl.

Thanks Lampdog for your infinite wisdom, I sincerely appreciate it.

Lampdog, regarding the two card readers (one for the MacBook Pro computer and the other for the mpc2kxl)... what is the saving procedure exactly? If I understand correctly you cannot freely switch the cf card from the mpc2kxl to the Mac as it is a different format... is this so? I'm aware that the cf card must absolutely be formatted by the mpc2kxl, the question is, will that same card be recognized by the Mac once I insert it in the computer cf drive?

Thanks!!!

It recognizes it on the computer,so the mac should be no different.Just don't format it again on the mac or the MPC won't read it.

Got it, thanks stryke!!!

sorinp wrote:Got it, thanks stryke!!!

No problem.

whats the point of having a card reader on the computer at all? why not just store everything on the card and keep it moving? Are we talking about transfering sessions to the pc or sounds or somethign of the like? I dont get why that is a viable option

Good point but I suspect Lampdog was talking about transfering sounds from the computer to the MPC via the card reader. At least that was my understanding. I have tons of wav files on my hard drive and I guess it seems to be the easiest way of getting them in your MPC (other than burning them to a CD and accessing them through your MPC via a SCSI CD-ROM external drive). I've read a lot of posts and the options seem to be as follows:

- internal floppy drive (1.44 MB capacity)
- internal zip drive (100 MB capacity)
- internal compact flash drive (1 GB capacity but users are saying it's closer to 512 MB)
- SCSI zip drive (100 MB)
- SCSI CD-ROM drive (700 MB)

And there are pros and cons to each of these as I've read but the consensus seems to be compact flash cards.

sorinp wrote:Good point but I suspect Lampdog was talking about transfering sounds from the computer to the MPC via the card reader. At least that was my understanding. I have tons of wav files on my hard drive and I guess it seems to be the easiest way of getting them in your MPC (other than burning them to a CD and accessing them through your MPC via a SCSI CD-ROM external drive). I've read a lot of posts and the options seem to be as follows:

- internal floppy drive (1.44 MB capacity)
- internal zip drive (100 MB capacity)
- internal compact flash drive (1 GB capacity but users are saying it's closer to 512 MB)
- SCSI zip drive (100 MB)
- SCSI CD-ROM drive (700 MB)

And there are pros and cons to each of these as I've read but the consensus seems to be compact flash cards.

SCSI Magentic Optical Drives can be used too, though they are not as common as the items you listed above.