1 - The Basics

External Drives

O Use the “Mount Drives” utility whenever an external SCSI device does not appear in the display.

Internal Hard Disk Drive: A hard disk provides the advantages of much higher memory capacity and far faster access time than floppy disks. However, the hard disk cannot be removed and its data must be backed up to another medium for safekeeping.

IDE Drives: The Ultra series Emulators can make use of an internal IDE hard disk. An IDE drive has several advantages including: low cost, high capacity, low noise and it doesn’t use up a precious SCSI ID number. Order IDE installation kit #6303. This includes everything needed except the IDE drive.

External Drives

Emulators are equipped with SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) connector(s) on the rear panel. This interface is commonly used in the computer industry, so many devices made to work with computers—partic- ularly mass storage devices—will also work with Emulators. Here are some of the types of mass storage devices that can be connected to the Emulator using the SCSI connectors.

Hard Disk Drive: A hard disk provides the advantages of high memory capacity and fast access time. Transferring data is quite straightforward. However, you cannot remove a hard disk and replace it with another one— the disk is a permanent part of the drive. There are some important cautions involved with hard disks:

1.Hard disks are sensitive to extreme mechanical shocks. If your hard disk falls off a keyboard stand, chances are the hard disk will be damaged.

2.Hard disks have reached a very high level of reliability. However, they can fail from time to time (as can any part of a computer), so any data should be backed up periodically on some other medium.

Removable-media Hard Disk Drives: These are similar to standard hard disk drives except that the disk itself can be removed and replaced with another disk (similar to floppy disks). Disk densities can range from 44MB to well over 1 Gigabyte (GB) per platter. Removable-media hard disk drives make it easy for you to build a sound library of unlimited size and are quite handy for transferring sounds between machines. They’re also perfect for backups because you can remove the media and keep it in a safe place.

CD-ROM Drive: A CD-ROM is a playback-only mass storage memory device whose capacity is approximately 660MB. Quality CD-ROM libraries are available from several companies (E-mu Systems, InVision, Northstar, Q-Up Arts and many others). These can be loaded into the bank just like a hard disk.

Magneto-Optical Drive: These high speed, high density storage devices are ideal for storing large amounts of sound data. Typically a magnetooptical drive can hold upwards of 300 MB per side and the removable cartridges can be used over and over. Disk access time is comparable to a normal hard disk. Although you can read and write to these drives, they are generally slower than most hard disks.

28 E-MU Systems