Sorry, this is as basic a question as they come, but me and my friend are getting some money together to buy a Yamaha psr 9000.

I know little - if anything about the Hard drives, Zip drives etc that this keyboard requires. (special types?)

Is it a standard HD that you would have in your computer? - are they the same size.?

What about the Zip drive?, will any Zip drive fit in the yamaha 9000 (or any Hard drive for that matter?) - or has it got to be a special Yamaha HD/Zip Drive? And are all Zip drives the same - and how much (approximatley) would I have to pay for a Hard drive/Zip drive for the Yamaha psr 9000?

Also - what about the "SIMMS" for the sample upgrade? - are these conventional ones? (I'm in the UK BTW just for the info)!

Help - I'm a novice at this game! -



[This message has been edited by Jupiter5 (edited 12-19-2000).]

Hi, Jupiter5,

Yamaha PSR9000 uses 2.5 inch IDE drives (laptop drives). The largest disk size that PSR9000 recognizes is 8 GB, with maximum partition size of 2 GB. For example, if you install a 12 GB disk in PSR9000, you will only be able to format it to 4 partitions of 2 GB each. The disk should not be thicker than 12.7 mm to be installed in PSR9000. Most of the current laptop drives are either 9.5 mm or 12.5 mm and thus most of them can be installed inside the PSR9000. In U.S., an average 12 GB 2.5" IDE drive is about US$150 - US$200.

As far as external drives go, a SCSI based Zip drive is invaluable means of backup and source loading for the PSR9000. Zip drives are too large to be fitted in PSR9000 and so all of them are external. Any 100 MB or 250 MB versions of external Zip drives, SCSI based, are good for this purpose. The speed of external Zip drive through PSR9000's rear SCSI port is quite slow but much faster than floppy drive any way. In U.S., Zip drives cost around US$80 to US$150. In Germany, there is a new USB to hard disk connector that connects between a PC and a PSR9000 hard disk so we can copy/backup files in PSR9000's hard disks conveniently through USB connection via the Windows desktop. This costs about 150 to 200 Euro.

As for SIMMs, PSR9000 uses fairly old non-EDO SIMMs (16-bit bus) with 70 ns or faster speed. The height of the SIMMS has to be shorter than 25.4 mm, and no thicker than 8 mm and no more than 18 memory chips per SIMM module. Since these SIMM modules are dirt cheap, I recommend buying a pair of 32 MB SIMMs (the pair should be of same type). Your largest sample recording is 32 MB or 380 sec.

I hope the above gives you a better picture of what you will be dealing with.

Paul Ip
from Texas

Thanks Paul for the info!

A lap top drive hey? - oh well, that means I won't be able to use my old 270 MB IDE drive from my old 486 50 computer! - would have been nice though, as 270 MB is not a lot for a computer, but would keep me going a while on the Yamaha.

So if I want a HD for the Yamaha 9000 - all I have to do is ask the computer shop/dealer or whoever -....for a 2.5 Laptop drive ..right? - Thanks paul

Jupiter

Jupiter,

You asked:

"So if I want a HD for the Yamaha 9000 - all I have to do is ask the computer shop/dealer or whoever -....for a 2.5 Laptop drive ..right?"

Well, I already posted before you aked (not just any 2.5" IDE laptop drives, but the ones with less than 12.7 mm in height, and preferrably close to 8 GB in size so you don't waste your money on extra GBs):

"Yamaha PSR9000 uses 2.5 inch IDE drives (laptop drives). The largest disk size that PSR9000 recognizes is 8 GB, with maximum partition size of 2 GB. For example, if you install a 12 GB disk in PSR9000, you will only be able to format it to 4 partitions of 2 GB each. The disk should not be thicker than 12.7 mm to be installed in PSR9000. Most of the current laptop drives are either 9.5 mm or 12.5 mm and thus most of them can be installed inside the PSR9000. In U.S., an average 12 GB 2.5" IDE drive is about US$150 - US$200."

Did I post in such a way that you did not understand what I was talking about the specifics of the 2.5" laptop drive for PSR9000?

Paul Ip
from Texas

no,its just that the man on the phone told me it will take a "normal" drive, and he didn't mention anything about a laptop drive, so i thought a normal pc drive would fit in.

It's ok now....