I need help please with mpc2000xl/zipdrive

I'm having a problem with my extrenal iomega 100MB zip disk drive/zip discs/mpc2000xl. I have been using mpc editor V3 on WinXP to import wavs and create a .pgm that I save to a pc formatted zip disc, then import the .pgm and samples into the mpc via the zip disc. I have been doing this for about a year and have had 100% success. About a week ago, I loaded an old zip disc that I formatted with mpc2000xl (unknowingly until it was too late) and my zip drive hasnt worked since. I loaded the disc into the drive and the drive started clicking. Automatically I assumed something went wrong. The first thing I noticed was that under the zipdrive icon, the text "Iomega Zip 100 (F:)" was now replace by "Zip 100 (F:). I tried loading the pc formatted disc but the same clicking happened. I then tried reading online to troubleshoot this problem but so far I have:
Uninstalled/Reinstalled the iomega software, Disconnected/Reconnected the drive to check whether it's the discs or not. I've gotten the drive back to it's "Iomega Zip 100 (F:)" status but when I load a pc formatted disc or any zip disc, it returns to the "Zip 100 (F:) state and drive clicks. I was told something about the Master Boot Record of the zip drive had been changed. What is the default MBR of the zip drive? Is there a way to lock the Master Boot Record or not have it changed when I insert a pc/mpc formatted disc? I tried looking it up but i am getting conflicting resolutions for the problem. If anyone can help it would be most appreciated. Thankyou.

Hey dude.

Zip drives can be very tempromental. Teh clicking sound that u are hearing, may mean that ur zip drive is knackered, which means regardless of formatting, it wont work.

Maybe, u need to reformat your disk. Hit the Iomega website and get the iomegaware software.

My only suggestion is to try another zip drive, or invest in a card reader.

Good luck dude

Sounds like the C.O.D. to me. Upgrade to a card reader or risk the same thing happening again if you buy another zip drive

thanks for the advice..ill look into further formatting but i think the zip drive might be gone..how can a zip drive fail by having a mpc fomatted zip put in it???its like inseting a cd burnt by a mac into a pc and having your cd drive/hd die out due to formatting???i dont understand the connection between the failure of the drive and the disc..ive tried looking it up on the net but have found no info on how to specifically test this out...card reader???im assuming youre reffering to memory sticks/card reader-writers used in cameras?my mpc has only scsi in so how can i import the .pgm and samples into the mpc if i have a card reader/writer????thanks for the help...

Check out The Zip Drive site and search for Click of Death. They have known about it for years. And the sad part about it, is they never did anything to fix this.

Everything is working as it should, and one day you hear this clicking no matter what you do, every time you put any disk into it, you hear the clicking. Also known as the Click of Death.

I have dealt with this so many times, that I just gave up on the Zips. I hate to say it, but you might want to do what I did, and Upgrade. Dont know what to tell you about all the work you might have done on ZIP but you learn to live without it. Trust me...

cool...thanks for that..so how would you recomend tranferring the .pgm and sample sets into the mpc??the others said something about a card reader writer...with scsi in only..i think i might be restricted???scsi cd???burn .pgm on cd....cd in scsi cd player conncted to mpc??although this is time comsuming and not as efficient as the zip way i used to do it....plus i need to save the modified .pgm chopped sampled back to a folder on pc...(by the way...i backed up .pgms and samples to a folder on pc)...thats why i need to get the data back to the mpc..we're going into studio and i need the data back in mpc...any sugestions???

No what they are talking about is the MCR for the MPC. I found one online.

http://1226354.estore.networksolutionsd ... 9&total=14

I got mine for about $150.00 But I have been told others have found them lower in cost. But I think you have to do some leg work to get it to work.

The card reader will relpace your floppy, and allow you to use Compact Flash and other types of cards as storage.

I made the change and I would never go back to anything other than that.

I have an MPC2000XL (old format) and I was able to upgrade mine in about 5 min and it worked without haveing to set anything up in the OS. The drive was seen as soon as I powered it up. Do some searching around on this site and you will find that most have made the change. I was working with Zip for years. But after about 5 Drives and the Click of Death coming sooner than later...I just jumped ship.

One of the cool things about using MPC Editor (not that it has much cool stuff in it) is the fact that you can save your program sets to the computer as well. I alway (after the click of death about 2 times) save a copy of all program sets to the computer as well as to the disk that I will be using with my MPC. THey way I have a copy. Now if you can not read the Zip disk, I dont really know what to tell you. I am not sure of a way to save or get back what is lost. But keep asking for help with it, I am sure somebody might know. I always just moved on.

awesome...thanks for the help guys...u saved my @ss..

i checked and contacted VST...they have the MCR for the 2000xl, but its on back order..do you know if this is an official AKAI product? I was hoping to contact the asia pacific office of AKAI Pro and order the part thru them..I live in australia and was hoping to get the part here due to the time restrictions (going into studio in a week or so)..im guessing there are no internal PC flash card reader/writer drives that would be compatible with the MPC???...do you know of any other companies that i can order the part from?thanks.....

Check out http://www.scsiforsamplers.com they have tons of cf card readers, harddrives and cd drives.