MPC external drive question

I know this may have been answered to a certain point. I have a mpc 2000xl and I want to expand to an external drive or internal drive. I've seen about the jaz drives, card readers and scsi but a lot of them are difficult to find and cost a bit. I wanted to know can a cd/dvd rom external drive be used with the mpc just the same as jaz drives. If so, what connections would I need to do this? Also what are some other cheaper options to go with and devices that I may can find at a local computer store or something like office depot?

you can use an external SCSI CD-ROM drive, but you cant save to those.. only load up stuff you burned on the computer.

I would suggest avoiding the JAZ and ZIP drives altogether because they are not reliable.

If you are using a 2000xl, you are lucky because you can get an IDE CF adapter.

They range in price from $1.50 to $60.00 or so on ebay... 1 gb sandisk compactflash cards are cheap too...

Is the IDE CF adapter for the connection of the cd rom? I would love to use that. I have a cd/rom drive so will that work or do I need a certain one? If not then will the adapter be all that I need?

dwayne00 wrote:Is the IDE CF adapter for the connection of the cd rom? I would love to use that. I have a cd/rom drive so will that work or do I need a certain one? If not then will the adapter be all that I need?

no it is not to use a cd rom... the cf adapter (aka the compact flash memory card adapter) would be sort of like having a SD memory card in your mpc to save and load up samples and songs.... but not with actual SD cards... instead we use CF cards.. same thing basically but the card is a different type. Those work fine, and while some people have managed to get SD cards to work, they generally are not as reliable.

CD rom disks are okay, but no saving.. you burn the disk in the computer and nothing can be changed on that disk so you are stuck with only loading which sucks.

Okay so I've ran into a problem. I was looking into getting the cf adapter but when I thought about how would I load my already made drumkits onto the card and my imac only have a sd card slot I thought that it might not work. So, I know that using the cd-rom you cant save anything but can you use a cd/dvd rw. The same one that is used in computer desktops to burn cds/dvds? If so, what type of cord connection will I need to make this happen. Or did I miss something with the cf adappter?

dwayne00 wrote:Okay so I've ran into a problem. I was looking into getting the cf adapter but when I thought about how would I load my already made drumkits onto the card and my imac only have a sd card slot I thought that it might not work. So, I know that using the cd-rom you cant save anything but can you use a cd/dvd rw. The same one that is used in computer desktops to burn cds/dvds? If so, what type of cord connection will I need to make this happen. Or did I miss something with the cf adappter?

no on the 2000 or 2000xl you can NOT use a cd rw drive...

get one of these from ebay if you have the 2000XL (wont work on the regular 2000)
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/CF-44-Pin-Laptop-IDE-Hard-Drive-Adapter-bootable-/250790187941?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a644293a5

and get one of these:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-1GB-Sandisk-CF-Compact-Flash-Memory-Card-/320881607372?pt=Digital_Camera_Memory_Cards&hash=item4ab608c2cc

forget CDs... forget zip disks.. forget jaz drives... forget scsi...

you can also get one of these if your computer doesn't have one already:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ALL-IN-1-USB-MEMORY-CARD-READER-SD-XD-CF-MS-SDHC-9941-/140418687094?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item20b19b2076

when you plug that in your computer with the cf card... it will be like plugging in a jump drive (key drive) or an external hard drive, or a memory card etc... you can drag sounds onto the card... then you take the card out and put it in your mpc... then turn the mpc on and load up those sounds.

Thanks man. You've been a HUGE help. I found all of those at a local computer store. But with the adapter I found it looks just like the one you gave me in the link. The thing about it is there is no front cover for it to go on the front of my mpc. Is it possible to find a cover for it?

dwayne00 wrote:Thanks man. You've been a HUGE help. I found all of those at a local computer store. But with the adapter I found it looks just like the one you gave me in the link. The thing about it is there is no front cover for it to go on the front of my mpc. Is it possible to find a cover for it?

I dont know.. I had a broken old piece of crap floppy drive and I took a flat head screw driver to rip out all the guts from it.. then I used electrical tape to mount the card reader inside it.. then I used the floppy disk slot for popping the cf cards into it.

it aint pretty but it costed under 2 dollars.. on ebay you can buy mpc card readers for like 60 bucks that come with a metal bracket cover thing...