Corrupted files on Zip Disk after backup

Hey all

I've had my MPC 2000 since pretty much when it first came out. I don't use it too much anymore but I do have a pretty hard-earned library of sounds - not to mention my sequences, etc - on Zip disk. It occurred to me that I should back up these files, given how old the equipment is getting.

In order to do so I used my old Zip that has a USB port - obviously the drive I use with the MPC is SCSI only - and hooked it up to my MacBook Pro. Recognized the disks easily, and I just dragged and dropped into folders. Besides the fact that on a couple disks it was only 3MB of data coming from 100MB capacity Zip disks, everything seemed ok.

However when I tried to load some of this data back onto the MPC2000, it appeared to be corrupted. A number of the files had a "J>" in the file name (before the period). The .SND files with the J> result in a "Can't Open File" message. On the other hand.MID and .PGM files with this "J>" will load but there are usually missing .SND files that I have to skip through (I assume these are the files with "J>" in the name now.)

If I try and rename and take the "J>" out the MPC says "File is damaged". And that appears to be that.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any ideas for a solution? Or am I just screwed?

Thanks!

Can you open the 'corrupt' files on your computer, in something like Audacity?

It's not ideal, but if worse comes to worse, and the files are still ok on the computer, you can just open in audacity then resave with the correct name.

Also, were your filenames longer than 8 characters? a computer will destroy any files whose name in the mpc is longer than 8 chars.

nogginj wrote:Can you open the 'corrupt' files on your computer, in something like Audacity?

It's not ideal, but if worse comes to worse, and the files are still ok on the computer, you can just open in audacity then resave with the correct name.

Also, were your filenames longer than 8 characters? a computer will destroy any files whose name in the mpc is longer than 8 chars.

Thanks for your response.

I cannot open any of the files on the computer. Or at least I don't know what I might be able to open them with, and the computer is not suggesting any application to do so. (I do not have Audacity, I have Pro Tools and Garageband).

Also, on the computer, the file names haven't changed. I'm not quite sure how these files - the copies that were and remain on the Zip -were corrupted just from being copied onto the computer anyway, whether or not they have 8 character names (a couple did; most didn't). Maybe the Zip drive I used screwed them up (remember, I used a different one that had USB for this task).

The only types of files that make sense between both a computer and an MPC are .mid and .wav files.

You cannot open a .pgm file or a .all file on your computer. As is, you cannot open a .snd file either, but I imagine if you read it in RAW mode with a program like Audacity, you could get the wav out of it....you should get Audacity, it's free.

As for the files being corrupted 'just from being copied to the computer'...yes, it is possible. If you have a file whose name, in the MPC, was longer than 8 characters, then as soon as you bring that file into a computer, it will destroy it.

What I would suggest, is test this out with just one or two files first. Load a file on the MPC, and then save it to a NEW zip disk (to be safe)...make sure it's name is no longer than 8 chars. Now put that file on your computer. Now take that file onto another zip disk, and try to load it in the MPC.

If that won't even work, then I'm afraid I'm out of ideas.

Above all, don't connect your main zip disks to the computer if you think there are any files whose names are longer than 8 chars on them.

edit: this might help read your snd files on a pc: http://www.mpc3000.com/converter.htm