MPC 2000xl os 1.20 vs 1.14

edit: im going to change the thread title because i realize that the saving topic has been done to death with the 2000xl


has anyone had troubles with os 1.20?

are there any internal cf readers that are compatible with os 1.14?

putting a working and compatible cf drive in your mp is the best you can do. seriously!

no noise, no moving parts, cheap, a lot of storage, etc.

the list of benefits goes on and on and on and...

I agree... you can get a proper internal CF drive that does not use SCSI for the XL.. and it is a light year ahead of floppy AND terrible ZIP (all zip drives get the click of death)

what you need is an IDE/CF adapter.. and OS 1.20 .. that will cost you from as low as 2 bucks to as high as 50-60 bucks (the expensive ones come with a nice mounting plate for internal installation that fits perfectly in place of your floppy drive)

thanks for the replies.

i know about those 2 options lampdog. i guess i dont want to upgrade to os 1.2 because i did that 6 or 7 years ago and my mp crashed a ton. i called roger linn design at the time and one of the techs told me to reload 1.14 and reboot. since then no crashing. so im a bit weary of 1.2. i dont think ive seen an internal cf card reader that functions with 1.14.

i may just record all my songs that i have on floppy then replace it with an internal cf, if someone makes one that is compatible with 1.14. i dont know though i could be wrong. have you guys ever had problems with 1.2?

OS 1.20 (assuming you download the one from akai pro.. and not some old possibly corrupted file lying around for ages from elsewhere) works fine with the mpc 2000xl..

yes there are a few card readers that work with 1.14, and 1.14 is actually a better OS simply because it allows for higher then 1 gig partitions if I am not mistaken but most cf readers (using the IDE port only, not scsi) require 1.20 to work.. some are good with 1.14 as I said..

The only thing I can think of that might bring problems from the Compact Flash Card itself not the card reader is if you decide to back up your info on the computer.

I lost a couple sequences, when I did that.

I still use OS 1.14C with my SCSI card reader becasue of the partitions. I had problems with 1.2 and just stayed with 1.14.

Lampdog wrote:I crashed on 1.20 when it first came out also, I went back to 1.14 and have stayed there since. I don't need the latest when oldies are working for me perfectly fine.

I don't get caught up in the race to have the biggest cards, I stayed with 512mb cause it treated me right.


I found a winning combination of stuff and stuck to it.

yeah the only feature I was able to discover in 1.20 that was not in 1.14 was the ability to use some of the IDE CF readers (keep in mind this does not apply to anything scsi related)

it basically adds the atapi logo in the device list if for some reason it was not able to before...

but that addition was not without cost (the ability to use higher than 1 gig on cf cards)

for those of you that are using 1.4 can you let us know which card reader model # your using?

I am using this one with 1.14 but I doubt you will find one other than used.

pita wrote:for those of you that are using 1.4 can you let us know which card reader model # your using?

I've got the SCSI Microtech PCD-47B card reader like the one in the picture.
Good luck finding these. I just got another one cheap because one of the pins is bent in one slot.

I think that ver.1.14 is for XL users with SCSI devices, ver.1.2 is for better IDE device support. OS Ver. 1.14 does not work with my IDE CF reader (non-swappable) with 1GB card.
If you have swappable IDE CF reader (which is truly a ATAPI CF reader) that Akai used to sell, maybe 1.14 works with it, I am not sure.