Possible ways to use SD card or any other bigger than 1gb?

I own MPC 2000xl and modded it with IDE card reader about 10 years ago, and am still using this sampler hard.
I have a few SD cards with me, which are 128mb & 1gb. (bought 4gb but it cannot be read, unfortunately)

I also own a Korg Triton Pro and about to mod the Floppy drive to USB floppy emulator for saving recorded samples and programs etc.

I was just having a thought, that, maybe there could be a possible way to utilize SD cards or CF cards that are bigger than 1gb. I know MPC card readers only recognize version 1 (early models) of SD cards... and heard that this card reader can only recognize max 1gb per partition. But could anyone in the forum specify the info of compatible SDs (like precise version info) that are bigger than 1gb and possibly eligible to be partitioned for MPC2kxl?

Maybe I could partition SD cards into 1gb each and use it.

It would be really convenient if I could move all my sample library (about 4~8gb) into bigger SD cards...
because 1gb is pretty limited in year 2020 especially if I have to move the card back and forth.

So, I was wondering if there could be better ways?

*Oh also SCSI to SD converter option for Triton seems really cool and I am considering to mod my Triton soon but unfortunately I do not own SCSI expansion board and it costs about 100 USD...
Also, I never thought of utilizing the SCSI connector at the back of my MPC...

Thanks in advance guys.

What up Future Boy, you gotta look in to the past to find the answers to this.

Depending on the type of card reader you have, you will be limited to 1gb regardless of how big the card is. The only way around it is to spend a couple hundred on a higher end IDE card reader that has an individual controller chip on it.

Alternatively, you could also just buy the scsi2sd for about $80 which will allow you to max out to 9gb per partition.

Not entirely related - But I never understood why people need so much space on a 2000/XL. 1gb of data can easily save over 3000 individual beats considering the max memory size of the 2000/XL is 32mb.

richie wrote:What up Future Boy, you gotta look in to the past to find the answers to this.

Depending on the type of card reader you have, you will be limited to 1gb regardless of how big the card is. The only way around it is to spend a couple hundred on a higher end IDE card reader that has an individual controller chip on it.

Alternatively, you could also just buy the scsi2sd for about $80 which will allow you to max out to 9gb per partition.

Not entirely related - But I never understood why people need so much space on a 2000/XL. 1gb of data can easily save over 3000 individual beats considering the max memory size of the 2000/XL is 32mb.

Hello, Richie,
thank you for your kind reply

I actually own several SD cards that are bigger than 1gb.
Just yesterday, I tried 'SDHC' San Disk 4gb card, after partitioning into 6 volumes, each with about 700mb (FAT16 on Windows XP)
But had no luck.

My MPC cannot read even if I make it plugged in before booting. (simply saying ATAPI --> NO DISK, normally if it works, it says 'PC')

I searched about it on the forum (sorry I could not search thoroughly because access was restricted when I was overseas) and I got to read a post where one of the MPC users actually happened to have a card reader that can read 'SDHC' card that is bigger than 1gb.


So again, I started googling, found out that OS 1.14 and OS 1.2, the card reading system (?) is different for each.

At the moment, my OS is 1.14, strangely my old card reader works without updating the OS. But my question is if I update the OS to 1.2, is there a possibility that my 4GB SDHC card may work after partitioning...?


Thanks in advance.

and YES, I am pretty much happy with 1gb SD, but after moving some of my drum collection libraries into it, I found it a bit limited (wish it was at least 4gb just to move all my drum samples, so I can just make it plugged in without any need of taking it out, just a wish... still love my MPC 2XL).

Oh, and is there any external scsi2sd converter...? I was looking at it for my Korg Triton but could not see any external one...? You cannot fit that inside the MPC right (no space)...? $80 is pretty reasonable for 9gb!

Thank you so much Richie!

Yeah the thing is that partitioning the card won't make a difference as it isn't the memory card, format type or partition type that is preventing you from doing this as I've mentioned above. If you have a card reader like the Startech one or any cheap one that doesn't have a separate controller chip on the memory card readers mainboard, any card that you insert in to the card reader will be recognized like a regular IDE hard drive on the 2000XL.

If you happened to have a higher end IDE card reader with a controller chip on board, you could alternatively downgrade to 1.14 and then get all the format and partitioning options without any of the issues you're experiencing. If you're not sure what kind of card reader I am referring to beyond that, basically look at the ones that are considered "hot swap", they'll have the controller I'm talking about. Also keep in mind that the first partition of one of those cards setup with 26 partitions can be read safe, don't try to do anything with the other partitions as it'll corrupt the entire partition layout and you'll lose all your beats.

Which btw, keep in mind that only the first partition of a card set up above 1gb will be able to safely be read on the computer, even then there are still issues with the partition table getting corrupted when people try to drag and drop samples to it. In many ways, having a card formatted to 1gb FAT16 is safer as there is no risk of corruption, it's just that you'll be limited to amount you can store overall.

And yeah, there's an external SCSI2SD just google it and you'll see what I'm talking about.

richie wrote:Yeah the thing is that partitioning the card won't make a difference as it isn't the memory card, format type or partition type that is preventing you from doing this as I've mentioned above. If you have a card reader like the Startech one or any cheap one that doesn't have a separate controller chip on the memory card readers mainboard, any card that you insert in to the card reader will be recognized like a regular IDE hard drive on the 2000XL.

If you happened to have a higher end IDE card reader with a controller chip on board, you could alternatively downgrade to 1.14 and then get all the format and partitioning options without any of the issues you're experiencing. If you're not sure what kind of card reader I am referring to beyond that, basically look at the ones that are considered "hot swap", they'll have the controller I'm talking about. Also keep in mind that the first partition of one of those cards setup with 26 partitions can be read safe, don't try to do anything with the other partitions as it'll corrupt the entire partition layout and you'll lose all your beats.

Which btw, keep in mind that only the first partition of a card set up above 1gb will be able to safely be read on the computer, even then there are still issues with the partition table getting corrupted when people try to drag and drop samples to it. In many ways, having a card formatted to 1gb FAT16 is safer as there is no risk of corruption, it's just that you'll be limited to amount you can store overall.

And yeah, there's an external SCSI2SD just google it and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Right, right. So Richie,

OS version 1.14 or 1.2 are 'irrelevant' on enabling the card reader to recognize SD cards that are bigger than 1gb?
What matters is the 'type' and 'chip' inside the card reader, right?
I am on point correct?

If this is so, I will not upgrade my OS from 1.14 to 1.2, also I would not bother to change my card reader, rather, I would focus on purchasing more 1gb SD cards that are old enough (possibly version 1 early day ones) to be in the safe bet and I guess this way is the most affordable way too for me

Thank you so much Richie. Your reply meant a lot.

And also I fully understood your direction, if I ever need more capacity of storage, I should go for a scsi2sd card converter to use it as an external/internal hard drive, just like mpc 1000 internal hdd customization work. (I wonder what the max capacity that MPC 2000XL SCSI could hold/read actually).

Yeap. in the near future, I will have a go.

But the thing is MPC 2000xl is not my main workhorse for my upcoming project, I also use several other instruments with me, so yeah.
Korg Triton, Juno 106, Prophet 08m, Cubase as my main DAW... so, I think for solely drum programming, I should be good enough with SD cards for now, and maybe keep my mpc 2000xl and get a decent mpc 1000 with internal hdd built in.

If you have a higher end "hot swap" capable IDE/ATAPI card reader, I'd stick with 1.14 if I wanted to format above 1GB.

If you have a cheap card reader without the aforementioned things I listed in my previous message, you'd have to run 1.20 as the card reader wouldn't even work with 1.14 as it has no proper ATAPI implementation to handshake / detect the cards.

One thing worth mention about the SCSI2SD is that beyond being hot swap, it can be set up to emulate/virtualize 4 separate scsi devices, so 4 hard drives. The only caveat (as far as I remember) is that there may still be a limit of 4GB per emulated hard drive. Either way, with a SCSI based device, regardless if you're running 1.14 or 1.20, you can format above 1gb and create multiple partitions within that.

Or you can run the SCSI2SD without any of the virtualization and keep your life simple, format the card on the MPC and get back to work.

One last thing, as far as I remember - the 2000/XL max hard drive size it can handle may be either 9gb or 18gb. I can't quite remember right now.