NEW M.O. Drive

SimonInAustralia wrote:You could use a FAT formatted MO disk just for Mac to MPC transfers, keeping your MPC formatted disks only in the MPC, and not risking corruption of MPC disks/data. Used to do that with Zips.

Thanks for the info Simon. I'll keep that in mind if I ever find a USB MO drive for cheap.

distortedtekno wrote:128 and 230mb are great for the 2000. I tried a 2.3gb yesterday. But it's slow to format and it won't boot. I overlooked the fact that the disk is 2048 bytes per sector and not compatible with the 2000. So I'll use it in the PC for hard drive backup. Looks like 640mb and lower are the way to go.

Correction:

540mb is the largest capacity MO disk that can be used with the MPC2000. Those are still 512 bytes per sector. The 640mb are 2048 bytes per sector. According to the manual, the MPC can't read disks that are 1024 bytes per sector. At the time, disks with 2048 bytes per sector probably weren't available. So they weren't mentioned.
Something to keep in mind.

I got my SCSI card in the mail today. I bought an Adaptec AVA-2903B, which has internal 50 pin and external DB25 connectors, so I can connect the external drive to the PC if needed. I haven't hooked up the external yet. But the internal drive works fine. I have 7gb of programs and samples that used to reside on the MPC1000 hard drive before I sold it a few years ago. Lots of kits in there for the 2000/XL, 3000, 60 that I haven't even touched till now. I'm glad to have two MO drives for quick transfer. MPC Editor allows me to convert PGMs to MPC2000 format. So it's even more of a time saver.

I joined the cult of MO this past weekend, copped an external MO drive & disks off ebay. Was pretty much plug-and-play, my 2K saw it right away, I was able to format, save & load with no problem.

The only problem with the drive was the noise, jesus the fan was loud!! Went down & bought a more modern replacement fan. Had to strip & connect a couple of the wires (the drive had a 2-pin fan, all the modern ones are 3 & 4 pin), but she's relatively quiet now. There's still a bit of noise, but compared to how it was, it's certainly bearable.

I saw a few externals on eBay that I was gonna recommend. But I didn't think anyone else would be interested in going that route. Which make and model did you buy?

Been looking into it for a while, my ZIP disks have served me well over the years, but I'm always scared the drive I have right now will go. I wasn't gonna go the MO route unless it was cheap, and the drive I got definitely was!

It's a Sony SMO-S501.

Is that a 5 1/4" drive?

Yeah, 5 1/4 drive in a rather large external box.

To minimize the noise you can (at least it works for me with my 2000) take out the disk and turn off the drive when you don't use it.
My drive (external Fujitsu drive) doesn't have a fan and when I remove the disk it is completly quiet. So I only insert the disk before I enter the LOAD/SAVE menu.

peace

peterpiper wrote:To minimize the noise you can (at least it works for me with my 2000) take out the disk and turn off the drive when you don't use it.
My drive (external Fujitsu drive) doesn't have a fan and when I remove the disk it is completly quiet. So I only insert the disk before I enter the LOAD/SAVE menu.

peace

Thanks man, yeah I clocked that immediately on taking the disk out. Wasn't sure if it was safe to turn the drive off while using it, since I had some ZIP disk problems doing that back in the 90s. But with the new fan & taking the disk out when I'm not loading or saving it's quiet enough to still work without distraction.

Look up the manual for your drive and find sleep mode on the jumper settings. I'm not sure if the Sony drives have them. But the Fujitsus do, and they go into sleep mode after 33 minutes.

distortedtekno wrote:Look up the manual for your drive and find sleep mode on the jumper settings. I'm not sure if the Sony drives have them. But the Fujitsus do, and they go into sleep mode after 33 minutes.

That's a good tip man, thanks. I'll give that a shot.

I havent visited this topic in a while. Hope the jumper settings helped and everythings going well with the drive.

I also wanted to point out that for anyone still curious about MO drives, the same model I've been using are still available on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FUJITSU-MCJ3230SS-2-3GB-SCSI-REMOVEABLE-MAGNETO-OPTICAL-INTERNAL-MO-DRIVE-/361375178487?hash=item5423a39ef7

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FUJITSU-MCR3230SS-2-3GB-SCSI-REMOVEABLE-MAGNETO-OPTICAL-INTERNAL-BLACK-MO-DRIVE-/141755181589?hash=item2101446a15

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FUJITSU-MCJ3230SS-2-3GB-SCSI-REMOVEABLE-MAGNETO-OPTICAL-INTERNAL-BLACK-MO-DRIVE-/361372768139?hash=item54237ed78b

I still highly recommend these particular models, as they're newer, faster, and quieter than the rest. I've been more than satisfied with mine, that I used it for my internal SCSI mod. If anyone's interested, I've made the mod easier to install, requiring only half the amount of soldering.
http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=175596
The external drive bay is still a quick and easy solution if you look for a good deal on a used external case.
Aside of CF and SD storage, MO is definitely more reliable than hard drives, Zip, Jaz, and other formats. While those MO drives are still available, it's also the most affordable solution as well.

I noticed a problem a while back that I wasn't sure of. But it turns out the Tejin 128mb disks work like shit with the MPC. They seemed ok on my PC. But the MPC takes too long to read them, displays SCSI Error, and I usually had to reboot since it wouldn't read other disks that were good after trying to read the Tejin disk. After comparing with better brands, swapping disks back and forth, I realized it was this brand that caused all the problems.

I also have a Tejin 230mb that doesn't seem to have the same problem. But it's got a write problem. I get an Insufficient Disk Space message when trying to save an 808 kit when theres 141mb free.



All other brands work fine. I bought the Tejins for dirt cheap, like $5 for a 5 pack. No big loss at all when I get disks for $5 on average.

Maxell, Sony, and Fujitsu all work flawlessly. I'm sure other name brands are good. But I'm staying away from any lesser known brands, especially after how long it took me to figure out what the hell was going on. Now I won't have to deal with any more random headaches and losing work from having to reboot.