Floppy replacement. Advice needed

Hello there, this is my first post here.
I use MPC2000 from few months and I just started to get some problems with the floppy. From few days I am reading different forums and topics about better replacement of floppy.

A lot of people told me to go Nalbantov. Some told me not to mess with Gottek, and some told me that HxC2001 is the better choise. The problem is that there are so much information that you could easely go wrong. What i mean is that a friend of mine is using Gottek for couple of years and have no problems, in same time i read that a lot of Gottek users have a lot of problems.

The main reason I am writing here that i want to hear people who already are using one of these emulators. So fellas, could you please give me advice? Like i said I am new to the MPC2000 so any advice would be really helpfull to me. In that word- in addition to the manual what is the best source to get knowlege about MPC2000 workflow and tips and tricks? Thank you in advance guys, like i said any advice would help a lot to one young fella who is really went deep in to boombap sound.

Where did you read that Gotek users have had problems with the MPC 2000?

There are tons of people on here that have purchased a cheap Gotek drive and used it on the MPC 2000 without any issues.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177506

richie wrote:Where did you read that Gotek users have had problems with the MPC 2000?

There are tons of people on here that have purchased a cheap Gotek drive and used it on the MPC 2000 without any issues.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177506

Hey, thank you very much for the answer. Even in the topic which you mentioned "there is a problem" with multyple partition saving. In most of topics in this forum I find that people have problems with formating the usb stick, not saving properly ect. This is for gottek. I dont say that every single unit have same problems. The reason to post here was to hear people who already are using these emulators.

I would just get another floppy drive along with a USB Floppy drive to back up your files at the end of the session to your computer. The Gotek emulator will give you a headache. There is also this partition Issue I believe where it makes a crap ton of partitions on your USB stick because it's trying to fool your MPC into thinking you have a floppy drive / that it is reading a floppy disk.

If my memory serves me correctly (too lazy to verify), You can save and read on all 24 (or however many partitions) on your MPC. However, your computer is only able to read the first partition when you plug it into your computer. Convenient, huh?

Either go SCSI, SD / CF, or stay floppy. That's my recommendation.

phoking wrote:I would just get another floppy drive along with a USB Floppy drive to back up your files at the end of the session to your computer. The Gotek emulator will give you a headache. There is also this partition Issue I believe where it makes a **** ton of partitions on your USB stick because it's trying to fool your MPC into thinking you have a floppy drive / that it is reading a floppy disk.

If my memory serves me correctly (too lazy to verify), You can save and read on all 24 (or however many partitions) on your MPC. However, your computer is only able to read the first partition when you plug it into your computer. Convenient, huh?

Either go SCSI, SD / CF, or stay floppy. That's my recommendation.

Thank you verymuch for the answer. I really dont know what to do. You are one of many who told me same thing about Gotec. I did this thing with another floppy drive for back up but somehow i cant work with it. I found the reason and it seems to be the OS. Some of disks works, others not. It seems that all USB kind of floppy emulators makes same problems and there are same issues with all of them. May be SD way is better options now.

There is something else. A friend of mine told me something that got me interested. There is a guy called jazzcat, who repairs and mofifies vintage samplers. This guy (jazzcat) choose gotec. I check his FB page and there are a lot of modified samplers with gotec and nobody is complaining, nobody say a thing about problems with gotec.

WOW, I have same problem... AND I also don't know what to do....

I still have some questions for you guys and I hope I can find answer.
I am thinking to buy cheap Gottek but there are many types. So I want to know what type of emulators do you use???

I did research and disassembled 2000classic to check the pins on floppy drive. I think I found emulators which has exact same pins order. but I am not sure that this type (SFR1M44-FU-DL) works on MPC...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-1-44MB-USB-Floppy-Drive-Emulator-Model-SFR1M44-FU-DL-for-embroidery-machine/350772162678?hash=item51aba67076:g:nbUAAOSwCcZaQG5I

Thank you in advance

I also repair and mod MPCs.
It all comes down to preference at some point and what you're willing to deal with. With a Gotek emulator, You're pretty much doing the floppy thing at 1.44MB.
It will also take the same amount of time to read / write (slow). Floppies are pretty reliable as opposed to Zip disks.

You're 2K has a SCSI port on the back. If you don't move around or travel often, just attach a funkin' cable to an external drive and continue busting out your beats.

Again, If I were you, I'd just replace the internal floppy and attach an external SCSI drive. You'll have the best of both worlds.

Also, Are your beats 1.44MB or less? To me, that's too limiting. My beats are a lot larger. If you had the gotek, you'd have to save your sounds in one folder and your sequence and other info on another if you're project is over the 1.44MB capacity. Each partition is limited to 1.44MB.

Some people just turn on the sampler, make a beat, and dump it into a DAW and don't even fuss with saving anything on the MP. What do you think about that?

There are many options and mods that people do, but again, is it necessary?


Good Luck.

phoking wrote:I also repair and mod MPCs.
It all comes down to preference at some point and what you're willing to deal with. With a Gotek emulator, You're pretty much doing the floppy thing at 1.44MB.
It will also take the same amount of time to read / write (slow). Floppies are pretty reliable as opposed to Zip disks.

You're 2K has a SCSI port on the back. If you don't move around or travel often, just attach a funkin' cable to an external drive and continue busting out your beats.

Again, If I were you, I'd just replace the internal floppy and attach an external SCSI drive. You'll have the best of both worlds.

Also, Are your beats 1.44MB or less? To me, that's too limiting. My beats are a lot larger. If you had the gotek, you'd have to save your sounds in one folder and your sequence and other info on another if you're project is over the 1.44MB capacity. Each partition is limited to 1.44MB.

Some people just turn on the sampler, make a beat, and dump it into a DAW and don't even fuss with saving anything on the MP. What do you think about that?

There are many options and mods that people do, but again, is it necessary?


Good Luck.

I agree with all this.

Sadly the floppy emulator just doesn't seem to solve much of anything in this case.
Whats best is to just make as much as you can on the MPC and then store a whole project in one spot as a .APS and .ALL file. So deal with an external drive and work up the courage to do an internal drive mod.

I also kinda like this idea of not even saving, it might encourage some more work.

Magneto Optical drives are still the most reliable and cost effective storage method for the MPC2000.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fujitsu-M2512A-External-SCSI-Magneto-230-MB-Optical-Drive/172712106392?epid=1501589286&hash=item2836719998:g:MOIAAOSw7GRZMd9d

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Maxell-MA-M128-MAC-3-5-inch-90-mm-Rewritable-Magneto-Optical-Disk-Lot-of-7-NEW/152149054329?hash=item236cca5379:g:UNEAAOSwxfNXNiVL

That's all you need.

Thank you once again for all the answers and opinions guys.

I found a topic here from 2012. There is discussion about same problem. Its about card reader and usb emulator on 2000classic. So most of the comments are about that, nor usb nor card reader are good for 2000 classic. There is a logic in the comments and its all about "storage capacity" and way of "partitioning". Sorry if i am not clear enough. This is one of topics:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=159943

I just talked with friend who have really big experience with akai samplers. He told me that its better to buy 2000xl with card reader than put usb emulator on 2000classic. So its getting even worse haha.

get a card reader - that is the best way to go.
if you think its too expensive, save the money til you can afford it. it is the best way.

i'd always choose card reader over floppy.
i'd always choose hxc over gotek.
i'd always choose floppy over zip.
i wouldn't mess with those MO drives because they are obsolete technology.

its not hard - just set your sites on card reader and quit wasting your time.

richie wrote:sd2scsi

forgot about that one, also a good option, i have one in my emu.

I have a Gotec Floppy Disk emulator in my Mpc2000
It works but, maybe you may have read in previous posts it can not write to multible disks, say if your program was bigger than 1.40mb, the 'insert new disk to continue saving program' option does'nt work.

They are a bit tricky to install also and, depends if you willing to spend quite a bit of time trying out diffrent jumper block settings and generally opening your Mpc and tinkering with it until you figure out a way that works. Took me about 3-4 days of trying diffrent thinks
The Gotec ones cost about £17 , so they are a relatively cheep option.
A new Floppy drive would probably cost around the same price and you would be able to save onto muliptable disks.
I find mine quite usefull for transfering sounds but, wouldnt advice it as your main system of saving stuff unless you can work with 1.40Mb, which I'm sure a lot of classic tunes have been made with.

So it's up to you.
: )

I

Thank you for that you take a part in this conversation guys. This is why I really like this place. A lot of kind people who are willing to help others. Thank you all!
On topic

Its seems that card reader is best way if you are going to to replace floppy with some kind of emulator.