Compact Flash Card VS Hard Drive??

Ok so I'm gonna be getting the MPC2500 and I don't know which way to go...you can use up to a 2 GIG Compact Flash card or an 80 GIG Hard Drive...now of course the hard drive has more storage capabilities but there's only ONE of those so if the drive gets corrupted there's no backup unless you make copies to your pc...now with the flash card you could have 2 or 3 of them so that way you can have backups in case something goes wrong with one of them...now I can't imagine using more than 2 GIGs of sounds so I just don't know...every song I do I start fresh with 100% new samples and sounds so I don't figure I'd need all that memory. But what are the advantages of HARD DRIVE VS COMPACT FLASH CARD?? Besides more memory of course...how do they compare as far as speed of loading samples, RELIABILITY (a HUGE factor for me...my old MPC2000 had the dreaded ZIP DRIVE with the CLICK OF DEATH!!!! AHHHHHH!!!), and price?? Thanks alot!!

paid 25,- € for a kingston 512mb cf card -> 2 gb for 100,- €
paid 89,- € for a samsung 80gb hard drive
using the hd for storage and the cf for transfer, sometimes the mpc is at a spot without computer.

peace jo

also look into a multicard reader for your pc... i think mine costed like 15 bucks at a local computer shop, much faster than using the usb cable!

well my studio is pure hardware so I only plan on hooking the MPC to my PC for os updates and such...I just don't know whether to go with hd or cf

PM me for details.

Go with both. The hd to store larger fiels such as WAV files if you resample the main outs after comleting a track.

Rip whole tracks to the MPC if you're going on the road so you can load up a sample and chop away etc

Then use a CF card for file transfers and backups too. I backup all my stuff to 2 different hard drives and really important stuff i burn to cd/dvd

When i was looking a 1gb CF card was the same price as a 40gb hard drive. You might not use that much but why not have it there any way.

as much as id hate to admit it this spirez guy is rite^^

I have both... Toshiba 4026gax 40 g HD and a 1 gig CF card. Get both.

yea

I prefer to stick with the CF cards.
I got the 32 mb it came with and another 512 mb one and it's PLENTY for me at this point in time.
But who knows down the road...

My .02

IF you're still wondering, get the hard drive FOR SURE. I can't tell you how priceless it is to be able to put Numerous sounds and samples on your hard drive. If you are smart and can keep it organized, it is a priceless tool to have with your MPC2500. I have an 80gig hard drive and am absolutely thrilled that having to worry about too much data is not an issue.