AKAI S1100 - S1100 VOLUME FILE LIMIT

Each SCSI ID (1 - 7) in the SCSI2SD V6 holds a bunch of partitions (A, B, C etc) and in each partition are several VOLUMES. (Vol 001 etc). Each of these Volumes can only hold 64 different files, so if you can’t save your samples in one volume, split them over a few.

AKAI S1100 & SCSI2SD: Setting up & loading disk images.

This is my personal guide to setting up a new SD card for my SCSI2SD device in my S1100 & loading disk images onto SCSI ID 5. Might also work for other SCSI2SD set ups too, who knows!

SET UP SD CARD
Turn off S1100
Plug in USB from Computer to SCSI2SD
Put SD card in Akai
Set up the SCSI2SD as below (I do this on my iMac)

TICK ‘ENABLE SCSI TARGET’

SCSI ID - Start with ID 5, then 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 7

DEVICE TYPE - Hard Drive

SD CARD START SECTOR — Tick Auto

SECTOR SIZE (BYTES) - 512

SECTOR COUNT (Is Automatic)

DEVICE SIZE - 1GB (only need 512mb but whatever), set as hard disk.

then go to FILE/SEND TO DEVICE

When it’s done, Unplug USB

FORMAT DISK IN S1100

Turn on the S1100

Go to DISK, & HIT F5 ‘HDSK’. Select Drive ID you want to partition (defaults to 5)

Leave SCSI DRIVE SECTOR SIZE at 512b

Hit F6 ‘FORM’

‘Size’ = 60Mb (This refers to the Partition Size, A, B, C etc. Each has a max of 60Mb)

Max: 9 (This refers to is the amount of Partitions, from A - I, 9 letters, which is the max for the S1100)

Hit ‘F9’ to Format & confirm. This will start formatting and ‘marking bad hard blocks’. You can skip this, and it’ll format the card immediately. Saves tonnes of time.

***IF YOU WANT TO FORMAT THE DISK FOR USE WITH THE HARD DISK RECORDING FUNCTION, SET YOUR SIZE AS 1Mb & MAX: 1. THIS WILL FREE UP THE MOST SPACE FOR THE HARD DISK RECORDER ON THAT SCSI ID. I’ve not done a proper recording like this, but have confirmed it works and will leave you 51Mb of space to record to. I’ll do another post about it one day***


PC TIME
I use a Windows 10 machine for this. The SD card will be invisible to the PC, so to initially set it up you need to do this;

  • Click the Start menu. ...

  • Type "folder options" (without the quotes). ...

  • A dialog box with the title "Folder Options" will appear. ...

  • Click to uncheck the box for "Hide extensions for known file types".

  • Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the dialog box.

CONVERT MDX files to ISO, THEN RENAME AS IMG

MDX files are the most common for Akai sample banks doing the rounds & for archiving. You need to convert these to ISO, so;

  • Download Daemon Tools Lite with its trial

  • Convert MDX to ISO

  • Change the images extension from .iso to .img

  • Put SD card in PC

  • Use Win32 Disk Imager to save .img to SD card (SD card is the F drive)

  • Take SD card from PC & plug into Akai

  • Load em up

This will place the Sample CD image onto SCSI ID 5. I haven’t figured a way to manage these outside of the Akai, and currently saving them to a new ID is a pain in the dickhole. You need to save each Volume to a new ID individually and rename each one. And some Volumes wont save into the new Volume. If I figure it out, i’ll update this post.




REFERENCES
https://akais3000xl.blogspot.com/ for the direct source

THE DORK ZONE

Hi,

This is basically just going to be notes for myself to remember how to use my old samplers & stuff, and hopefully be a resource to people looking to do the same thing. I’m constantly thankful for ancient blogs & message board posts that have archaic & lost information in regards to all the redundant gear I use, so hopefully this gives back, is perhaps interesting to someone or at the very least, somewhere for me to refer to when I can’t remember how to initiate an SD card for a SCSI2SD device or load a disk image onto an SD card. Absolute boring garbage like that.