Hi there - I wish that Ray Kurzweil could have predicted this... My Kurzweil K2000 floppy drive recently died on me. I searched high and low on the internet for a modern replacement and was surprised to see how little information is out there. This post will walk you through how I replaced the floppy drive with a cheap floppy emulator from Amazon. I plan to add pictures and more direction on using the software. Stay tuned and enjoy.
Things You Need
Floppy Emulator
There are a ton of options coming out of China. From what I can tell they are all basically manufactured by the same company. What I learned...
This part is easy.
The software that came with your floppy emulator is a pain but it does work. I've provided the basics below and will add more detail to this blog as time allows.
Going through this process gave my Kurzweil K2000 a new lease on life. I really like having access to all my floppys in one place. I wish you great success.
Things You Need
- Floppy Emulator http://www.amazon.com/Updated-Version-SFR1M44-U100K-Floppy-Emulator/dp/B00C4PCK9S/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1411207827&sr=1-1&keywords=floppy+emulator
- Phillips Screwdriver
- PC
- USB Floppy Drive
- WinHex Software
- USB Floppy Manager II Software
There are a ton of options coming out of China. From what I can tell they are all basically manufactured by the same company. What I learned...
- SFR1M44-U100K / This model only works as a replacement for 1.4 MB floppy drives. It was perfect as a replacement for the floppy drive in my K2000.
- There is another variation out there that starts with SFRM72. There are intended to replace 720kb floppy drives. I plan to try one out on a Sequential Circuits Prophet 2000 in the near future.
- If you buy the emulator that I liked to above it will come with the software that you need. It's not the greatest but it does work. Both programs are built for Windows XP. If you have a newer version of windows you will need to run the software in compatibility mode.
- The JUMPERS... Probably the most frustrating thing for me to figure out. You need to make sure you have a block in the "MO" and the "JA" positions on the floppy emulator.
This part is easy.
- Unplug the synth.
- Flip the synth upside down on a soft surface.
- There are 6 screws that you need to remove. One in each corner and two in the middle.
- Carefully lift the bottom of the synth and flip it away from you. There is a cable connecting the two parts together. Be careful and take your time.
- Locate the floppy drive. Carefully remove the ribbon and power connectors from the drive and unscrew it from the bay. Once the screws are removed, take the floppy drive out of the synth.
- Make sure you have set the jumpers on the floppy emulator to the "MO" and "JA" positions.
- Insert the new floppy drive emulator into the bay and screw it in. Carefully connect the ribbon and power connectors.
- Flip the bottom of the synth back onto the top.
- Replace the 6 screws that you removed earlier.
- Flip the synth back to it's normal position and plug it in.
- Insert a usb thumb drive into the usb port on the floppy emulator.
- Hold down the two buttons on the emulator simultaneously and power on the synth. Keep holding the buttons down until you see the LED display on the emulator start cycling through numbers.
- Release you hold on the buttons and wait for the emulator to finish it's cycle. When it is complete it will read nothing but zeros on the display. Congratulations. You've just formatted your thumb drive into 100 1.4MB floppy disks.
- Take a break and pat yourself on the back, your done for now.
- At this point you should be able save programs onto your thumb drive the same way that you used to do with floppy disks.
- The buttons on the floppy emulator allow you to choose which floppy you want to read / write from.
- Of the two buttons, the one of the right allows you to advance 0-9. The button on the left allows you to advance the "tens" column 0-9. By using a combination of the buttons you can cycle through 100 "disks". Starting with 00 and ending with 99.
The software that came with your floppy emulator is a pain but it does work. I've provided the basics below and will add more detail to this blog as time allows.
- WinHex allows you to take any Kurzweil K2000 floppy disk and save it as a .img file on your PC.
- USB Floppy Manager II allows you to save these images onto your USB thumb drive.
Going through this process gave my Kurzweil K2000 a new lease on life. I really like having access to all my floppys in one place. I wish you great success.
28 comments :
HI, Man! Useful information, I've bought this thing on ebay few weeks ago and waiting with a tremble for it))
I was glad to know that exactly this model works with a kurzweil k2000!
But I think, that it's not very comfortable to exchange programms by usb to and from pc, isn't it? Thinking about scsi connection my external hard drive to pc. (maybe will bay a scsi adapter).
What's do you keep on your floppies?
Hi. I'm glad you found this post helpful. I had a large collection of factory disks that I wanted to be able to access. I also use SCSI drives but the USB is simple and flexible, especially when you want to save synth patches versus samples. Good luck to you.
Hi - Thanks for the info.
Are you sure about the jumper settings MO and JA?
I tried but cant get them to work
Let me check on that for you. It may take me until the the weekend before I have time to open the synth up.
Hi again!
I've got this a day ago!
This one has made me sweat. It's not worked at first. Message was "Problem mounting disk".
Device had 1 jamper in "driver 0" position ( it seems S0).
So there's one day of an experements and it works!
Promt - I've added 1 Jumper in MO position. And everything's become right.
I've broken one flash stick experiensing with progs.
What's about to share/exchange patches/samples? I'm interesting in Korg M1 samples for k2000, drum-kits and drum-loops and everything more except live-instrument samples.
Mail to: paurock{dog}ya.ru
Installed emulator in a K2000. Inserted MO and S0 jumpers. Could not get the software that came with the drive to work under Windows 7, 64 bit (tried running in compatibility mode, no luck). Used the software from this link: http://www.ipcas.com/support/usb-floppy-emulation-download.html . Select version 1.40i. Works but will only do up to 100 virtual floppy drives.
I was only able to get it to format to 100 disks as well. Would you be interested in writing a guest post on how you got the software to work? I haven't had the time to devote to it these days.
hi @solidstatecollective
I've just read your instructions for replacement of floppy drive with a emulator, are you sure that it works on a kurzweil k2600x?I've one.
thanks,
DAniele
The USB Floppy Emulator may itself be limited to 100 files...
I make all things allright but it results "problem mounting disk".
is it the problem in hardware or usb memory? i format it with kurzweill and make the 100 blocks with the software...
i use the program provided by gotek for format, i make a lot of proofs, but the same "problem mounting disc"...
wow,great tutorial!! i am buying a k2000 with broken floppy and am buying the gotek to replace floppy. so am i understanding right- all you have to do it press the two buttons on power up after install to format the whole 100 spaces on the usbflash? and then i can create and store new objects etc on each image? lets say i buy a k2000 patch cdrom on ebay, how do i get those sounds onto the usb drive? thanks for any info..
Great work! Have you made any progress getting it to work with your Prophet 2000? I've been thinking about giving it a go with my Prophet 2002.
Hi! Very many thanks for your great work! Definitely the best description how to replace the floppy drive in K2000.
I took your link for bying an emulator and I got one, but this is a updated version, so you can save the floppys on the emulator himself. Now to my problem.
You said the software is a pain, it is, but it works. Only my Synth is searching for a disc, if I want to load from usb flash drive or emulator. I get the message: "Please insert a disk!" I think this is a problem of the jumpers (they are driving me cracy). Perhaps someone had got the same problem and there is a solution.
If you want, I can make an instruction for this crazy software to use, because I've spent a lot of time with it.
Thanks to all, who take part on this blog and are helping many musicians.
I have to agree that jumpers have to be on S0 and M0 for standard Gotek drive. I just installed it and it works great. I used 2 GB USB drive and initial arranging of space created 1000 disks.
This is the best info I have found out there yet for installing a floppy emulator.
Thanks!
thank you for the info, i have to agree 1 jumper on J5 (MO,JA and J5)and it works now...
Hi every body, I try to install this emulator on my K2000 and it doesn't work correctly.
I have tested 3 solutions (first jumper on MO and JA, second MO and SO, third MO, JA and J5) and for these 3 configurations the emulator initialize the cycle with the usb thumb correctly but at end (when it come back to "000") i can't change the file, it still stay at "000" and the k2000 said "insert a floppy";
My K2000 has 3.18 OS !!! What are your OS please?
So Does someone had got the same problem and have a solution?
Thank's for your help
Regards
Mike
my k2000 has 3.01J OS, it was solved with third configuration (MO, JA AND J5) ,,BEFORE I had check los jumpers del floppy disc and it has three jumpers, big trouble ,initially I tried with one jumper so k2000 said "insert a floppy "...then "problem mounting disc" and finally I got it worked ....GOOD LUCK
Hi, In fact, at end i solve my problem. The floppy connector has to be mount at the opposite of the notch and with only MO and JA jumper the Gotek run correctly. I have detected that because the LED of the Gotek was always lighted.
Regards
Mike
Some tips for K2000R/RS. When taking out floppy/hard drive both are covered by a metal box, remove the hard drive ribbon and power first so you have space to work. The hard drive will stay put and screwed inside the box, this is located above the floppy. Only unscrew the 2-4 screws in the area that mounts on the metal box that holds the hard and floppy drives to the bottom of the chasis. These have washers on them. (mine only had two screws securing the metal box). Then pull this up and take out the floppy power and ribbon connectors. If you buy the Gotek device listed on this website, you must put the JUMPER ON S0!!!!!!!!!!!!!! S0 I repeat, you only have one block/jumper to use with the one from amazon. This will work, then do the boot up holding the two buttons on the drive down for a few seconds until it starts cycling numbers. Your USB stick is now formatted for the floppy emulator. Then you need software to show all your one hundred or 1000 floppy drives depending on what your USB stick storage was. Once again this should be updated as amazon only sells this will one jumper block, it has to go on S0 to work. It is more of a pain for the k2000R as far as getting the floppy drive out. When putting it back together, you may need to tape the Gotek drive in place where the screws line up (not a perfect match screw wise) Remember it should stick out a bit from the metal enclosure because of the design on the front.
I have successfully installed the Gotek USB floppy emulator on my K2000 and format a USB-drive in the synth to handle 1000 disks. Unfortunately the latest software for Windows 7/8/10 (Batch Manager Tool 1.40) can't format more than 100 disks. Is there a way to solve this by using other software (Windows 8+)? I haven't found one and it would be nice to have 1000 disks. =)
For the K2000S the jumper settings on the GOTEK emulated drive are: M0 and S0with OS 3.87J.
I have seen so many different instructions on the jumper settings. I installed a Gotek drive emulator in my K2000S with 3.87J. I tried S0 and JA and had to remove and inset the USB stick twice for every drive operation. I removed the JA jumper (only S0 left) and it runs perfectly!
I see you are the latest poster. Thank you for your time. I have a k2500S years ago i messed up my internal hard drive by accidentally touching the case and it shorted. I never did try to replace it because with no little electronic ability I gave up. Now this product looks interesting but the 100 disk looks limiting although that's a minimal expectation. Do you know of any program advancements that would allow one to make the folders as large as you want?.
thanks.
K2000 1995 new
K2500S 2007
I have just fitted the Gotek Floppy emulator to a K2500. I did not use the original firmware I upgraded to this https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/wiki". The process was straight forward and I have added an OLED display (suppored as a plug in replacement for the 7seg display). The jumper settings are S0 and JC, no pulling out between loads etc.
I use VFD (virtual floppy disk) on a windows 7 machine to create new disk images, you can have as many as you like until the disk is full. With the OLED display the image name is also displayed so you don't need them to be numbered. The function of the buttons also scrolls back and forward and accelerates as you hold to move through large numbers of disk images quickly.
A neat feature is the track and sector number are also on the display so you can see if it is working okay.
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