Q) What type of removable media should I buy that is reliable and fast?
Q) What do you think is the *BEST* buy product?
A) On my opinion, the best and cheapest drive that works flawlessly with the AKAI is the IOMEGA ZIP Drive (no I haven't received any compensation for this statement;). It is cheap, light weight, reliable and fast - respect to AKAI SCSI transfer rate comparisons. Infact it is not much slower than a HD used on an AKAI ofcourse. The only little bug I have found is in it's SCSI pin connections: do not use any other SCSI cable from the ZIP to other devices unless you are completely sure that the cable is certified! You won't have problems with your s2000/3000/3200XL because the cable that comes with the ZIP drive is perfectly suitable for connecting it to these devices (standard DB25 M/M SCSI cable), but if you are going to connect your ZIP to an older AKAI like a s1000 that has a CENTRONICS 50pin connector on the back, CHECK YOUR CABLE or you could send up in smoke your ZIP drive in seconds. This is because, unfortunately, the ZIP has a not completely standard connector pin layout so get a 100% certified SCSI DB25 to CENTRONICS 50pin cable! At this point the question arises: why, have you burnt your ZIP? No I have not fortunately; I have discovered this problem thanks to one of my clients (no he doesn't own an AKAI) that connected his drive to a standard centronics connector and all went up in smoke! This happened TWICE so some doubts arose convincing him in buyning another SCSI cable to prevent another fire hazard:)
Ofcourse other removable media work fine: Magneto Optical drives, Syquest drives and I'll have to check out the EZFlyer that could be an even better buy, but for what concerns the best value for your money the ZIP Drive is the best.
Q) Must I "format" removable media before using
it?
Q) Why do I get errors while formatting my ZIP/Jaz/MO media?
A) You must never *ever* "AKAI FORMAT" removable media like ZIPs, JAZs, MOs, Syquests etc. It is like trying to use a DOS "Format" on an MO or any removable drive. This type of media needs specific and particular "treatment" for it's formatting, which is not a global standard (some will remember specific proprietary formatting utils for their MO media or similar). The AKAI "FORMAT" command is intended rather for HD drives, not for removable media. It is the equivalent to a "LOW LEVEL" format, which implies a more complex writing and organising routine (physical rearrangement and writing of "indexes" or sector initialisation) which is not standard for Removable media and should even be avoided on recent HardDisks. Low Level formatting can VOID warranty on some types and firms of Hard Disks and is esplicitly stated on the HD case itself; this applies to Removable Media aswell - I don't really know why AKAI put that button function command as a primary one, they should have left it as last resort only for certain HDs. All you need to do is hit the "Arrange" button and if your media is new, you can even SKIP the bad sector search process and formatting will take just a few seconds! This is the equivalent to a DOS "quick format" which is all you actually need for those devices. If you have insisted on using the "FORMAT" button too many times, you may have permanently damaged your removable media. You can try recovering from this state by using it's proprietary format and rescue utilities (like Iomega Utils for the Jaz and ZIP) and see if it comes back to "life".