ZIP Disc Format Issue **not the typical one - please read**

Okay, I searched and could find anything that exactly related to this problem..... for starters I have a 2000XL with an external 100MB SCSI zip drive.

Last night I was working on some beats, after finishing up, I saved the beats, and everything was cool. I was gonna work on another beat, so I started to load another program and sequence. Mid-way into the loading, I remebered I need to do some things around the house, so I shut off the MPC.... well the zip was still making noise, you know the little pops and clicks.... so I decided to unplug it (I know, smart move).

I go back later to load the disc and nothing comes up, and under the format it shows "???????" I then loaded another disc into the drive and it worked fine, showing "PC" as the format. I loaded the bad Zip into my Mac at home and it will not read the disc (normally it does). I loaded it into my PC at work this morning, and when I clicked on the drive I got this message:

"This disc is not formatted. Do you want to format it now."

I think that the data is still on the disc. If I reformat it I'll most likely lose all the info.

Has anyone had this problem before? Any thing else I can try?

This is wierd......especially as it was while loading from the disc, not saving to it. If you were saving it would be more understandable that you put some kind of glitch on the disc or even erased everything!!!

As a Mac & a PC aren't seeing anything on it I guess there isn't much point but..... if you know someone else with an xl see if their machine has any luck.

Try http://www.iomega.com too. I've found their massive archive of FAQs has helped me before.

Thanks man, checking out iomega now.....

update, I put the disc in a Mac with OS 10 and it popped up that the disc needed to be formatted as well.

JUST TO SET THINGS STRAIGHT-IF YOU PUT A DISK IN A SYTEM FROM ANOTHER SYSTEM WITH A DIFF LANGUAGE-IT WILL ALWAYS PROMPT YOU TO INITIALIZE.

THERE IS NO REASON IN THE WORLD TO PUT AN MPC DISK ESPECIALLY THE 2XL INTO A PC, MAC, TOASTER, VCR-NO REASON-IT WILL NOT READ AND WILL ONLY DAMAGE YOUR INFO AND OR DRIVES.

MAC WILL INITIALIZE SO THE DISK UNDERSTANDS SYSTEM 7 PROTOCOL. PC WILL SAVE TO PC PROTOCOL. MPC WILL SAVE TO MPC PROTOCOL AND EVEN THOUGH THAT INCLUDES WAVS AND AIFFS-IT IS NOT THE SAME LANGUAGE.

YOU KNOW THAT OLD UNTRUE SAYING THAT ALL PUNNY IS THE SAME-SEEN ONE SEEN EM ALL! WELL ITS NOT TRUE, AND IT'S NOT TRUE ABOUT DISK DRIVES. DON'T LEARN COMMON SENSE THE HARD WAY!

seekwhensir wrote:JUST TO SET THINGS STRAIGHT-IF YOU PUT A DISK IN A SYTEM FROM ANOTHER SYSTEM WITH A DIFF LANGUAGE-IT WILL ALWAYS PROMPT YOU TO INITIALIZE.

Nah man, I've gone from MPC to MAC to PC many times to back up and transfer files with no problems. I've never had it ask me to format the disc.... now each system will see the disc a little differnetly, but all the files and directories has been intact.

not counting mesa software, you have put a mac disk in your mpc or vice versa-and actually swapped files? Impossible. Mpcs don't even register mac disc, the mpc will say PC. it will let you know it can SEE the disk, but sorry-not gonna happen because it that were that case-why 2 separate platforms. Next thing your mpc will handle XP and UNIX right? Maybe even C++ huh?

seekwhensir: you have put a mac disk in your mpc or vice versa-and actually swapped files?

Well, just today I've been putting an old disk of S3000xl samples (formatted on the S3000xl) into the MPC, loading those samples & then saving them as wav files to another zip disk which is formatted on the MPC.

No problems there.

Then I put that MPC formatted disk into my G4's zip drive & it reads all the wav samples.....& I've got them in the Mac now.

No problems there.

I also save midi files on an MPC formatted disk & the Mac reads those too, so I've got sequences I made on the MPC playing in Logic.

How do you think the Mac MpcPgmMaker program works if you cannot transfer files on zip between a computer & an MPC?

featherboy wrote:

seekwhensir: you have put a mac disk in your mpc or vice versa-and actually swapped files?

Well, just today I've been putting an old disk of S3000xl samples (formatted on the S3000xl) into the MPC, loading those samples & then saving them as wav files to another zip disk which is formatted on the MPC.

No problems there.

Then I put that MPC formatted disk into my G4's zip drive & it reads all the wav samples.....& I've got them in the Mac now.

No problems there.

I also save midi files on an MPC formatted disk & the Mac reads those too, so I've got sequences I made on the MPC playing in Logic.

How do you think the Mac MpcPgmMaker program works if you cannot transfer files on zip between a computer & an MPC?

well considering the s3000xl is made by akai-c'mon. Of course it will read. But akai didnt make the MAC and MAC didnt make the mpc-and theres nothing that you or the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse can do to convince me that an mpc has read a mac disc. PLUS THE REAL OBVIOUS ONE HERE IS THAT....mac is a different what than mpc?

FORMAT?


Door number 3 , tell him what he won chuck!


there's a compound word. it feels good saying it.

let's try.........say it with me......


CROSS PLATFORM. that might mean something to ya.

"nothing that you ... can do to convince me that an mpc has read a mac disc."

No one was suggesting that. You did not even suggest it yourself. Lets not act like children.

"IF YOU PUT A DISK IN A SYTEM FROM ANOTHER SYSTEM WITH A DIFF LANGUAGE-IT WILL ALWAYS PROMPT YOU TO INITIALIZE."

False. Mac with DOS/PC extensions installed do not prompt you to initialize.

"MAC WILL INITIALIZE SO THE DISK UNDERSTANDS SYSTEM 7 PROTOCOL. PC WILL SAVE TO PC PROTOCOL. MPC WILL SAVE TO MPC PROTOCOL"

Well that is nothing new. What you are leaving out (and even more importantly) is the other formats that each of these systems will write too. MAC's can write to many PC formats. MAC's can write to most MPC formats. There are more but you get the idea.

"THERE IS NO REASON IN THE WORLD TO PUT AN MPC DISK ESPECIALLY THE 2XL INTO A PC, MAC"

And why is this? I do it every day. For some MPC's (namely MPC60/3000), you have NO choice but to use an MPC format disk.

"CROSS PLATFORM."

I have no idea where you are going with this. In addition to that, you have not helped this person with their original problem of a potentially damaged drive.

As far the damaged drive, it is possible to damage the disk by cutting power while the disk light is still on. You have a disk head that is floating micrometers above a spinning surface that suddenly gets yanked back to the park position upon loss of power.

There is good possibility that the data is recoverable (actually an excellent possiblility). You could send it to a data recovery house that usually charges $175 just to evaluate it and say there is nothing they can do since it is in a non-PC/non-Mac format 9I have heard that story many times). Even if they could recover data, it is on the order of $175/hr for the recovery itself.

Or you can sent it to me. I always provide free estimates and charge only a measely rate as a service to the Akai community. And most recoveries are minor. Even my biggest bill was only $175 for 1.5 gigs of data on a FORMATTED drive.

seekwhensir wrote:not counting mesa software, you have put a mac disk in your mpc or vice versa-and actually swapped files? Impossible. Mpcs don't even register mac disc, the mpc will say PC. it will let you know it can SEE the disk, but sorry-not gonna happen because it that were that case-why 2 separate platforms. Next thing your mpc will handle XP and UNIX right? Maybe even C++ huh?

lol.... I never said it was a MAC disc.... it's a PC formatted disc which a Mac WILL read.... the MPC will read, and a PC will read. Quit being an ass, and thinking you know it all.

mpc3000 - thanks for your help. I called a couple of Data Recovery places and they want $150 to $200 just to look at it. My father-in-law said he would take a look... if that doesn't work I'll contact you. Thanks for the offer.