Dan Jose wrote:I don't understand how this is preferable to the usb emulator? I thought the main issue was the 2000 operating system only being able to read 1.44mb partitions? so even if you got a 4gigcf card and card reader yo would still have to partition that card and save across multiple folders as the CF card still has to be formatted to MAC32?
It’s not preferable at all. Nobody can even get the damn thing to work with the 2000 Classic. The USB emulator is no good either because there’s no way to save across multiple partitions. So if your project is larger than. 1.44mb, you’re shit out of luck. Better off with real floppies. But they’ll shit the bed on you too at some point.
As far as CF readers are concerned, they’re SCSI, so you CAN save all the data that’s loaded in your RAM. CF cards or any other SCSI disks need to be formatted to FAT 16, not MAC 32. I’m sure you’re new to all of this, which is why you’re confused about everything.
Now I’m gonna say what I always say and make it clear to everyone...
Floppies - No good. They’re slow and unreliable. When you have a project that’s larger than 1.44mb, you’ll need several disks to save all your data. If you have a project that’s nearly 32mb, you’re gonna need a shitload of floppies in order to save that project, AND it’s gonna take forever to do that. Same goes for loading that same project. Now if just ONE of those disks fails on you, you’re shit out of luck. Kiss all your hard work goodbye. You’re gonna have to rework the whole damn thing and take even more time to do it. Also, the 2000 has a tendency to either not save or load a project with multiple floppies properly. So even if you have brand new floppies and brand new floppy drive, the risk of losing your work and the time consumption involved makes it not worth it to use floppies. So as we say here in NY, fuhgeddaboutit!
Zip disks - The WORST thing to ever come out of the ‘90s. Even if you find New Old Stock drives, they WILL fail when you least expect it. As soon as you start hearing a clicking noise known as The Click Of Death, the drive is as good as gone. The disks themselves are prone to corrupt data which you’ll never be able to recover. It’s just a big floppy disk. Similar material used. So if you have anything stored on Zip disks, back it all up to more reliable media before it’s too late.
SyQuest (and other similar shit) - See above - Same shit, different toilet.
Jaz - an improvement to Zip. Very expensive back in the ‘90s. More reliable than Zip. How reliable? Not sure. The only people I’ve seen in these forums have used them with the 2000XL. You’d need a different cable or an adapter to connect with the 2000 Classic since it’s a different SCSI type. So I’m not sure about compatibility issues with the 2000 Classic in particular. My rule of thumb is to avoid mixing different SCSI types, especially since the 2000 Classic tends to be a bit flaky with just about any SCSI device, even using the same type. So why complicate things? Also, the smallest Jaz disk capacity is 1gb. So if you’re creating 32mb partitions, you better have a pen and a pad ready to recall which partitions you saved certain projects on. Otherwise you’re gonna spend a lot of time finding a particular project and/or samples to load after so many partitions have been used. One word comes to mind... ****!
Hard Drive - They’re noisy and they run hot. So not only will you be dealing with hard drive noise. But you’ll be dealing with fan noise as you’ll need a fan installedThe larger or risk imminent disk failure. You don’t want a large capacity drive either, or you’ll have to deal with the **** issue described above. The larger capacity drives are also a different SCSI type. So as I also mentioned above, it’s not a good idea to use different SCSI types and adapters.
WARNING: If you wanna experiment, be my guest. But don’t ever recommend anything without spending several months of extentensive testing. Otherwise you’re gonna royally piss someone off if they try the same thing, only to waste their time and money. Same goes for any other drives. I see too much of that shit going on here where people blindly suggest things because it sounds good on paper. This is the 2000 Classic we’re dealing with here. It’s more temperamental than if you were to recommend it for some old PC.
Keep in mind that older and smaller hard drives are gonna be even more noisy and will have more of a tendency to fail quicker. My advice is to not waste your time or money on hard drives for the 2000. I can’t think of any good reason to experiment with them myself.
CF and SD drives - Ideal for people who have a lot of samples stored on their computers. Raizinmonster (CF) and Fuzinmonster (SD) have been recommended in the past. But you’re gonna pay a premium at $120 and upwards. I’ve given them a lot of thought in the past. But the trouble I’ve had in making any decision is the fact that I’ve read about both of those drives suddenly failing on some people here. None of them have been able to resolve those issues. So the risk of spending all that money on a potential dud just doesn’t sit well with me.
SCSI2SD - I’ve had people tell me I should try it without any proof that it works. I’ve also seen someone post pics online with screenshots of it being recognized on the 2000. But that’s where it ends. No other info has been provided upon my inquiries. Seems a bit shady. If you’re gonna recommended a product, you better be prepared to answer questions about it, especially if you plan on selling an MPC with one installed. If you can’t, you definitely got something to hide. Aside from that individual with bold claims and no details, the manufacturer’s website doesn’t list the 2000 Classic as being compatible with it. So until that happens, I’ll suggest not wasting $70.
M.O. (Magneto Optical) - Yeah I know I come up here recommending it like I’m a shill and I own stock in the technology. But neither of that is true. This is ‘90s technology at it’s BEST! The disks have been reported to last 50 years, millions of rewrites, and they’re very affordable. I find drives for $30 on ebay all the time, and I also find disks for an average price of $5 for128mb and 230mb. Those are very ideal capacities for the 2000 since the OS doesn’t read or write folders. So with 4 32mb partitions on a 128mb disc and 7 or 8 on a 230mb disc, you won’t have to deal with the **** that I mentioned about larger disks. I’m going on 5 years without any real issues other than the 2000 being finicky with certain brands of disks. As long as they’re well known brands like Maxell, Sony, Fujitsu, TDK, and Phillips, your MPC will be cool with it. I don’t have a huge sample library on my computer and I rarely download samples. So I’m not concerned about transferring or backup. The disks are reliable enough that I don’t feel the need to back anything up. But I still have my old PC with a SCSI adapter installed if I ever wanted to do that. I’m not the only one using MO here. There’s a small handful of others that have been using them before and after me. Nobody has had any regrets about it. So for the 2000, this is the way to go, and I’ll still stand behind that for years to come.