NEW M.O. Drive

Take your time when looking for MO drives. I'm sure every once in a while you'll find a good deal like I did. No sense paying a ridiculous amount of money on a CF drive for the 2K. I just save everything I sample to MO disks. No need for a computer when I'm buying a lot of MO disks.

I forgot one last thing with the jumper settings. So I switched jumper 6, which is the device type mode for INQUIRY command from fixed disc to MO. It worked just as I expected. Now the MPC displays the MO icon correctly instead of the HD icon, as shown on page 1 of this topic.

I got the 5 pack of Teijin 128MB disks in the mail today, all new and factory sealed for $5 (plus $5 shipping). That was a sweet deal, especially when the average deal is $3 per disk. These disks work fine. I'm not sure if one brand is more reliable than the next (which is why I only bought 1 Sony disk when I first put the drive together). But back in the '90s, I had a lot of issues with my Sony MiniDisc recorder and a blank Sony MD that crapped out with all my studio tracks at the time. Both the MO and the MD are similar, as they're both Magneto Optical discs. Since I've had issues with the Sony MD recorder, Sony blank MDs, AND Sony themselves with warranty repair issues, you can see why I'd rather stay away from anything they've made with the same technology. I get a bit cautious with other brands that I've never hear of, such as these Tejins. So incase anyone has similar concerns, I'll try a few lesser known brands and keep everyone updated.

distortedtekno wrote:I got the 5 pack of Teijin 128MB disks in the mail today, all new and factory sealed for $5 (plus $5 shipping). That was a sweet deal, especially when the average deal is $3 per disk. These disks work fine. I'm not sure if one brand is more reliable than the next (which is why I only bought 1 Sony disk when I first put the drive together).

I have used Teijin brand MO disks in 90s' (with my mac.) They worked fine, as far as I know, and I don't think they are inferior than other MO disk brands.
My brother and I used MO drives in the 90s' to early 2000s' and we never had data loss with MO drives (but with Zip drives, a few times, more than too many times.)
I am not sure if Teijin still manufactures MO disks (I'm not even sure whether or not Teijin Brand still exist or not, either.) I think you got dead stock MO drives.

distortedtekno wrote:But back in the '90s, I had a lot of issues with my Sony MiniDisc recorder and a blank Sony MD that crapped out with all my studio tracks at the time. Both the MO and the MD are similar, as they're both Magneto Optical discs. Since I've had issues with the Sony MD recorder, Sony blank MDs, AND Sony themselves with warranty repair issues, you can see why I'd rather stay away from anything they've made with the same technology. I get a bit cautious with other brands that I've never hear of, such as these Tejins. So incase anyone has similar concerns, I'll try a few lesser known brands and keep everyone updated.

Sony's consumer products are not known for reliability, as I far as I know. My guess is that the issue you had with MD with the recorder, not MD disk itself.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with this format. Definitely good to hear there's been no issues. I'm aware that the Teijin MOs are NOS (New Old Stock). I don't believe anyone makes them these days, from what I've read. I looked up Teijin on a Google search. They are a company in Japan that have been around for a while, and also have offices in the U.S.

As far as Sony's consumer grade products are concerned, you're absolutely right about that. I've had home stereo and car stereo products die on me without any warning signs. Their pro level stuff is much better, from what I've read. But with too many problems in their consumer grade stuff, I've never wanted to spend the money to find out, when other brands have been more reliable. Some of the MDs still work with my old deck. Unfortunately, the MD with my studio projects get a TOC error (Table Of Contents). I haven't tried that disc on any other MD player/recorder, since I don't have access to any. But I'm not concerned with it, since I moved on from the MD format a long time ago. But I'd rather avoid Sony products as much as possible. I'm gonna stock up on other brands like Maxell, as they were the most reliable for blank media.

distortedtekno wrote:I'm gonna stock up on other brands like Maxell, as they were the most reliable for blank media.

Remember having a shit loads of Maxell floppy discs in the old windows 95 days They were reliable as hell, never had a disc die or go corrupt.

Yeah, they always made the most reliable media. I noticed that way back in the '80s. Their cassette tapes always lasted much longer. Every other brand would wear out quicker. All the computer media from Maxell have treated me a lot better as well.

yeah I still use maxell floppy disks today... almost entirely out of brand new ones... I scored a box of boxes for like 10-20 bucks a couple of years ago.. so I try to re-use ones from my big crate of used disks.... they work well but, important beats get put on the new ones too.

It's a good thing I have more floppies and zip disks. My MO drive stopped working. Something must be stuck inside the drive, since the flap on the front bezel broke. It wasn't even the original bezel, and it was cheaply made. But I'm not even concerned with fixing the drive at the moment. I'm able to back up floppy and zip disks to my PC, incase I ever have any issues with them. So that'll do for now.

I decided to replace this drive with the Fujitsu MCJ3230SS 2.3GB which reads and writes 128mb, 230mb, 540mb, 640mb, 1.3gb, and 2.3gb. The specs on this drive are much better with higher disc capacity and variable drive speeds. Looking forward to testing it when it arrives.

If I can find a 50 pin to 25 pin SCSI adaptor, I'll install this drive in place of the floppy. I also have 2 IDE CF drives that I'd like to use. But the IDE to SCSI converters cost more than buying a RaizinMonster. I'll end up buying one of them soon. But for now the MO drive is $100 cheaper.

im curious to know how this turns out... those **** disks are not cheap though

distortedtekno wrote:If I can find a 50 pin to 25 pin SCSI adaptor, I'll install this drive in place of the floppy.

Are you going to run a cable out of the external SCSI port, through the case, to provide an internal SCSI connection?

mr_debauch wrote:im curious to know how this turns out... those **** disks are not cheap though

I havent priced out the larger capacity discs. But I've got plenty of 128mb for $4/each and 230mb for $5 each. I'm still finding them at that price currently. I'm gonna check out the 1.3 and 2.3gb prices now.

SimonInAustralia wrote:

distortedtekno wrote:If I can find a 50 pin to 25 pin SCSI adaptor, I'll install this drive in place of the floppy.

Are you going to run a cable out of the external SCSI port, through the case, to provide an internal SCSI connection?

I'm gonna solder the 25 pins internally so I can still use external as well.