$1.50 CF drives for the 2000xl

guys, a few times I have mentioned the time I upgraded my XL from floppy .... to a cf card reader... FOR PENNIES! This is officially the cheapest mod you can do to the 2000xl... except the cf cards cost a bit extra. (I recommend 1 gig cards, kingston if you cant find sandisk)

This particular method is not pretty... it does not look as nice as the ones sold with a bracket/case that people sell for quite a higher price... but as a budget upgrade these will do fine. If you can live without the bracket, and are willing to do 30 minutes of installation work... save yourself 50+ dollars.

you can always do an ebay search for "IDE to CF adapter" .. look at the 40 pin models, bootable, and you will notice it suggests using type I and II cards.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/40-Pin-IDE-CF-Compact-Flash-Card-Adapter-Bootable-/110529164420?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19bc0d3484

(pic incase the link is no longer valid)




Basically what I did with that is, I had a broken floppy drive that was completely not working anymore from an old pentium II... I unscrewed the case on that, tore out the guts... and I turned it into a bracket/case using electrical tape. I lined it up so I could keep the front face plate from the floppy... and I was then able to insert the card through the front flap like a floppy but being more careful to line it up properly with the card slot inside. (dont get rid of your mpc floppy drive in case)


These adapters require the OS 1.20 (I tried with 1.14 at the time and it did not work) so make sure to update the OS while you still have the floppy installed.



now, if there is the slight off chance the one you order does not work... who cares, it was under $1.50 including shipping.

additionally, you may run into one problem with your ide cable... one pin hole in the middle of the connector may be filled in... well get out your exacto blade (utility knife) and cut it out.. you can even cut it out by slicing through the side... or even you could use something to drill into the hole... it's better then breaking off the pin in the mpc.

I'm pretty sure that the CF reader works with XL, but gutting out floppy drive is really painful task (I've done that!)
the IDE "CF reader" actually nothing more than adapter (there is no controller chip on the board), so the compatibility with XL is all depended to CF card.
Reason why I recommend Adonics IDE CF card reader is that it comes with a nice metal chassis and a MOLEX power cable, a big time saver.
Also, I don't recommend Kingston CF cards, because 2000XL is really picky on CF card. I've tried Trenscend brand, Kingston brand, generic ones, and Sandisk card always works, can't say for other CF cards though. You can use Sandisk 2GB CF card (which is easier, and might be cheaper to get than the discontinued Sandisk 1GB CF card.)
I think Sandisk is only the memory card manufacture that ensures compatibility; Compact Flash cards is supposed to work as IDE device, but I don't think other manufactures cares about it.
Don't go for cheap CF cards.

ah, well I was just listing the two brands of cf cards I used to have that worked in my mpc.. obviously sandisk is number 1..

and yes, this mod is for people who dont want to spend 30-40-50-60 dollars on a cf drive... and would rather spend 1.5 dollars... re-using the broken floppy is how I mounted it... people can figure out their own thing.... if saving money is important to them.

Just curious... has anyone ever gotten the dual card readers to work?


I never could on my 2000XL or MV-8000 when I tried. They only identified 1 flash card but not both.

EDIT: nevermind i missed the pic thought you were talking about something else.

I think (now dont quote this as fact, it's just a theory) the issue with dual CF readers only being able to read one card (hey, at least they work for one card) is that the ide port on the xl (i'm assuming) and the ide port on the mv (I know for sure) is only capable of one device (ie: not like a computer with an A and B on a single channel .. for example cd rom and hard drive) and my guess is that the second card slot is slave on the channel which will not work as we all know.

This would be a perfect backup!

mr_debauch wrote:I think (now dont quote this as fact, it's just a theory) the issue with dual CF readers only being able to read one card (hey, at least they work for one card) is that the ide port on the xl (i'm assuming) and the ide port on the mv (I know for sure) is only capable of one device (ie: not like a computer with an A and B on a single channel .. for example cd rom and hard drive) and my guess is that the second card slot is slave on the channel which will not work as we all know.

Debauch is right, XL cannot access to IDE's slave device.

I have an internal zip on mine atm, if I gut it out, can I use the components (power/cables) to use this 1.50$ drive? or do I need a diff cable.

pita wrote:I have an internal zip on mine atm, if I gut it out, can I use the components (power/cables) to use this 1.50$ drive? or do I need a diff cable.

well I dont suggest ruining the zip drive since you might wanna keep it to load up old songs in the future...

but yes, the power cable and ide cable are fine.

JVC wrote:I'm pretty sure that the CF reader works with XL, but gutting out floppy drive is really painful task (I've done that!)
the IDE "CF reader" actually nothing more than adapter (there is no controller chip on the board), so the compatibility with XL is all depended to CF card.
Reason why I recommend Adonics IDE CF card reader is that it comes with a nice metal chassis and a MOLEX power cable, a big time saver.
Also, I don't recommend Kingston CF cards, because 2000XL is really picky on CF card. I've tried Trenscend brand, Kingston brand, generic ones, and Sandisk card always works, can't say for other CF cards though. You can use Sandisk 2GB CF card (which is easier, and might be cheaper to get than the discontinued Sandisk 1GB CF card.)
I think Sandisk is only the memory card manufacture that ensures compatibility; Compact Flash cards is supposed to work as IDE device, but I don't think other manufactures cares about it.
Don't go for cheap CF cards.

any know if the addonics cf reader is compatible with the mpc2000 classic?

thedoctordope wrote:
any know if the addonics cf reader is compatible with the mpc2000 classic?

if it is IDE/ATAPI it will NOT be compatible with the 2000 classic... because the 2000 classic can ONLY take SCSI devices.


Again, the links and info I posted above is only for the 2000xl, not the regular 2000 (classic)

just wanted to bump this to confirm it worked flawlessly.

just wanted to bump this to confirm it worked flawlessly.