Zipdrive inside mpc2000xl

I just bought a mpc2000xl with an internal zipdrive.
When I click the button on my mpc2000xl to get the zipdisk out of the zipdrive i hear a click, but the disk doesn't come out. I clicked on the button before and the zipdisk only got out once, but now it doesn't come out.

How can i fix this?

Lookup "Click of death"..

My advice, focus on replacing that Zip drive with a card reader as fast as possible. Zip drives are a fuggin joke...

****.............................ing shit

thanks for your comment though

yea the only way to fix it is to remove the drive, and throw it in the trash.

use a floppy drive or better yet a card reader.

scsi hard drive is another option.

there might be a little pin hole you can push a paper clip into to eject it...

usually the zip drive power must be turned on to eject..


yep, get rid of that thing if you can... they suck (mainly due to terrible reliability... and when they go, you lose a lot of data)

mr_debauch wrote:and when they go, you lose a lot of data)

...'if' you don't have a working backup process in place.

If you lose data due to a Zip click of death, or any other storage device/media failure, then it is your own fault for not backing up your data properly, it is not the Zip's fault.

ALL storage devices and media will fail eventually (Zips probably sooner than most others), you have to be ready when it does.

If it is important, have multiple backups, if you don't, then it mustn't be that important, as you are prepared to lose it.

SimonInAustralia wrote:If you lose data due to a Zip click of death, or any other storage device/media failure, then it is your own fault for not backing up your data properly, it is not the Zip's fault.

having a realiable back up with zip disks would involve saving onto another form of storage in parallel with the zip disks, making them completely useless and irrelivent. I have lost data on zip disks before making a backup is even possible.....

m56p87 wrote:having a realiable back up with zip disks would involve saving onto another form of storage in parallel with the zip disks, making them completely useless and irrelivent. I have lost data on zip disks before making a backup is even possible.....

Put Zip into computer, copy stuff.

Save to multiple Zips. If you can save to one Zip, save to two instead.

Don't see that making Zips completely useless and irrelevant.


The quote above is...

and when they go, you lose a lot of data)

I am simply saying that it doesn't have to be a 'lot of data'. I do not believe that you would lose a 'lot of data' before that data could have been backed up.


Of course you will lose anything since the last backup, that is obvious, you just have to minimise the losses by having a backup procedure that is regular enough for you to accept what is lost, when it happens.

If you have a Zip drive as well as a floppy drive, you could save your sequence, song, and program files to floppy, at the same time as you save them to Zip, as a backup.

Zip is unreliable, but you really don't have to lose everything when one goes bad.

Any storage device and media can, and will, fail eventually, Zips just more often than others. No matter what the chosen device/media, you have to have a backup procedure in place if the data is so important that you don't want to lose it.

I can agree that zip drives are unreliable, having gone through about 3 of them in only a year of having the MPC.

Backing up the files is definitely important, if you have no other option except another zip drive...and of course if all of your stuff is already on zip drives.

What I did was to get an external USB zip drive so I can export the contents of the disks onto my computer. If you have a PC with a zip drive in it then obviously you don't have to do that.

But keep in mind that all of your file names must be under 8 characters. If they aren't, the computer will screw with them when the disk is inserted and you will never be able to open those files again in the MPC.

SimonInAustralia wrote:
Put Zip into computer, copy stuff.

Save to multiple Zips. If you can save to one Zip, save to two instead.

Don't see that making Zips completely useless and irrelevant.

Ive had files damaged before I can put them in a computer... anything to qualm that would greatly interrupt anyones workflow IMO.

and if you have to save to more than one disk to even hope you retain a single copy that makes a storage medium pretty useless in my eyes, espeically when there cheap very reliable alternatives... I wouldnt even feel safe using 2 x Zip Disks....

m56p87 wrote:Ive had files damaged before I can put them in a computer... anything to qualm that would greatly interrupt anyones workflow IMO.

But that does not have to be all your data, or even lots of your data.

Saving to two places, instead of one, when saving already, is not going to 'greatly interrupt anyones workflow' IMO.

m56p87 wrote:[and if you have to save to more than one disk to even hope you retain a single copy that makes a storage medium pretty useless in my eyes

Working without a backup, relying on a single copy, is pretty stupid in my eyes, no matter what the storage medium.

It is basic data handling procedure, no matter what the data, no matter what creates it.

If you don't have multiple backups, then you can live with losing it when the storage device/medium goes bad, so it mustn't be that important in the first place.


There is an IT saying, something about data not existing unless it is stored in 3 different places.

It doesn't have to be a storage device medium going bad, your gear could get stolen, your house/studio could burn down, if you don't have a backup procedure in place, with on and off site backups, your data will be gone.

If you make crappy noises with your gear, like me, it might not matter much. If you are making a career in music, and one day hit the big time, it might be an expensive and costly mistake.

If the dude didn't know how unreliable and garbage zip disks actually are, then it could have been a lot of data... 100 megs is a lot for mpc data.. it could be dozens and dozens of songs. Not everyone knows about that.. they figure, oh.. 100 megs.. I have plenty of room to put more stuff on there. They may not have been around back in the 5.25" floppy days where you made 4 copies of every game you traded. Today you have a dslr with a 32gig cf card and you dont take it out to back up between every picture... it may not be obvious that you need to for every project.

so yeah.. obviously backing up is something you should do ... and you MUST do with zips.. And with zips, you not only have to back up the data.. you must back up the zip drives too with replacements... several of them because they are shit.

but since you just got the xl... even buying this $1.00 card reader would be better than using zips..
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/40-Pin-IDE-To-CF-Compact-Flash-Card-Adapter-Bootable-Male-Single-/310647917143?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48540f0a57

it isn't pretty, but it's cheap and it does the job.. unless your budget allows for a nicer one that comes with a faceplate.

@SimonInAustralia

I never argued against backing things up altogether, but if your constantly just working around the crapiness of zip disks why bother with them at all? there are lots of other cheap reliable sources for storage that dont have the element of paranoia that zip disks carry with them. I dont see how they are a serious possible solution for storage simply because you can work around all their problems...

mr_debauch wrote:Today you have a dslr with a 32gig cf card and you dont take it out to back up between every picture...

I do, after every shoot, I have a portable HDD that backs up the CF card contents.

But, I obviously have OCD, and one 'picture' for me might be a 360 degree panorama, comprising of 80 or more individual images.

mr_debauch wrote:but since you just got the xl... even buying this $1.00 card reader would be better than using zips..
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/40-Pin-IDE-To-CF-Compact-Flash-Card-Adapter-Bootable-Male-Single-/310647917143?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48540f0a57

it isn't pretty, but it's cheap and it does the job.. unless your budget allows for a nicer one that comes with a faceplate.

You could mount it hidden internally, and still use the Zips for backup and transfer.

m56p87 wrote:I never argued against backing things up altogether, but if your constantly just working around the crapiness of zip disks why bother with them at all? there are lots of other cheap reliable sources for storage that dont have the element of paranoia that zip disks carry with them. I dont see how they are a serious possible solution for storage simply because you can work around all their problems...

Yep, Zips are sh!t.

But someone might already have them, and might have such a small budget that it makes a difference to them (e.g. having a budget of $210 for an MPC).

It doesn't matter to me, I have Zips and CFs, because I had Zips aleady, but I wouldn't use them by choice.



If you go back and actually read and comprehend what I am saying in my OP, and any further replies, my only point is that you don't have to lose a lot of data when a Zip goes bad, if you have proper backup procedures in place, as you should no matter what the storage medium.

I do not see anything where I am recommending that Zips are a good choice for a storage medium.