INFO: External SCSI drive options

I posted some vids on YouTube of me checking various SCSI drives on my 2KXL to see if they still worked. Also added some info about each of them.

MPC2000XL SCSI drive option #1 - Zip 100 Drive
The external Iomega Zip 100 Drive works pretty good. I've had two internal Zip drives (100 & a 250) crap out on me in the past due to the "Click of Death". I'm glad I'm using a card reader now even though I now still have 40+ Zip discs.
As far as hooking this up, you have to use SCSI ID# 5 since the Zip drive only allows SCSI ID# 5 & 6 (the MPC uses #6 and causes a conflict).
Since this is a Zip100 drive, you cannot use Zip250 discs in it. I tried and it spits it right out.

MPC2000XL SCSI drive option #2 - 1Gb Jaz Drive
The external Iomega Jaz Drive works pretty good even though I have had only one 1Gb disk to work with. I haven't heard too many people having problems with the Jaz drives like the Zip Drive's "Click-of-Death".
The Jaz drives came in 1Gb and 2Gb models and had 8 SCSI ID's to choose to use.

MPC2000XL SCSI drive option #3 - MCDisk Drive
This is the MPL model #MS-MCDISK-HP/Rev.B PCMCIA drive (1994) with a 9VAC power adaptor (hard to find!).
The external MCDisk drive works extremely well and fast! If I had a choice to use this or a floppy/Zip/Jaz/Orb drive, I would definitely pick the MCDisk. It's quiet with no internal cooling fan, has faster load/save times and has less moving parts so no wear and tear since you use a compact flash card with it.
Luckily on this MCDisk, I can read and write to the card. Some of the older SCSI external card readers need firmware upgrades to do this or else it will "read only" from the flash cards.

MPC2000XL SCSI drive option #4 - Microtech PCD-25
This is the Microtech model #DPA-SCSI-PC-SM, best known as the PCD-25 drive (2000).
This external SCSI drive works extremely well and fast with two slots (1 PC Card slot and 1 SmartMedia slot). Since it has the two slots, you have to use two SCSI ID#'s to use it. It has faster load/save times and has less moving parts since you use a Type II adapter for a Compact Flash (CF) card in the top slot and the SmartMedia (SM) card in the bottom slot.
On this unit, I can only read and write to the CF card and "read only" from the SM card. I tried searching for a firmware updates but can't find anything since these have stopped being produced in 2003.

MPC2000XL SCSI drive option #5 - DVD-Rom Drive
This is an internal HP DVD-ROM 305 drive housed in an APS external SCSI case.
This DVD drive works extremely well since it can read from CD's and DVD's. I just learned today that it can read the Computer Music (CM) 8GB sample DVD's that I get monthly.
The only 2 issues that I found is that (a) most sample CD/DVD's will not work if the samples are 24bit due to the 2KXL acknowledging 16bit or lower samples (the CM DVD's are mostly 24bit samples); (b) you can not write/save to DVD since this model is a DVD player not recorder.

Love my Jaz drives, Dodgy as they are.
It's the way they whine as they power up to speed.
So old school


The digital photo album. Is that the PCD 47b ?

My bad... it's the PCD-25 model. The case only has "digital photo album" stamped on it.

S'okay, I was just curious as I have some PCD47Bs sitting around that I haven't gotten around to trying out yet. I believe they also work internally in the Mpc2000XL.

That's alot of money sitting right there when you want to sell them.

I do have the PCD-47B internally mounted in my 2KXL and it works great. It's like having 3 drives in one. The hardest part for me was tracking down the latest firmware to make the -47B both readable and writeable to flash cards. Also, sorting out the correct SCSI ID's (you need 3 separate ID's for each slot) to work along side my internal laptop HD in the SCSI chain was a pain.
You can get an external SCSI case to mount your PCD-47 in so you can use them with other gear. I picked up another -47B at a thrift store but need an external case to test it out with my ASR-10.

That's good to know.
I have the hotswapping ATAPI drive installed in my XL but might install a 47B at some point in the future.
I have the firmware update for the 47B but I don't have my SCSI card fitted in the PC at present to do the upgrade, but I believe at least two of my drives are already updated. Just have to work out which.
I am intending to fit one PCD47B in my S6000 as I am told they go in there painlessly.

External case seems like a good idea though. I might take your lead Juke.

Weird schit today...

Just for shitz and grins, I hooked up my 2KXL to my old PC (WinXP SP3) SCSI to SCSI via my Adaptec PCI SCSI card. I found out that I was able to access the Microtech PCD-47B SCSI card reader drives on my 2KXL from the PC! The drive has 3 card slots which 2 slots with flash cards could be accessed from the PC (formatted by PC) and the third slot with a Compact Flash card was showing but I couldn't access it (formatted by MPC). Basically, I could edit/save/delete samples on the 2 flash card slots on my 2KXL from the PC via SCSI.
The other interesting part is that my internal 9GB partitioned laptop drive that I modded to the inside of my 2KXL showed up on the PC. I couldn't access it since it was formatted also on the MPC.
> >

More to come....

Spooky !
Keep diggin' Juke. This is interesting.

I'm just amazed that the PC can identify all 4 drives from the 2KXL via SCSI!
Tonight I'm going to put another laptop HD and a CF card in the MPC and try to format them from the PC. I'm thinking this is why the PC can't access the installed HD and CF card is becasue they were formatted on the MPC.