Akai have tested and recommend the following hard drives for the DPS12: (latest drive list, Aug 99)

OK = Usable
OK* = Usable conditionally
NG = Can't use (no good)
Blank = Not checked

In addition, here are some specs of some of the drives, if you want to have a rough idea of the recommended specs to get a drive for your DPS12:

• SEAGATE ST34520N: (Medalist Ultra Narrow) 8.5ms / 7200rpm / 512k cache. Data Rate 108-193mbit/sec. 3.5" x 1". Ultra.
• IBM DCAS-34330: (Ultrastar 2ES Ultra Narrow) 8.5ms / 5400rpm / 512k cache. Data Rate 62-103mbit/sec. 3.5" x 1". Ultra.
• Western Digital WDE4550: (Enterprise Ultra2 Wide?) 7.8ms / 7200rpm / 512k cache. Data Rate 108-172mbit/sec. 3.5" x 1". Ultra2.

Akai also installed the following drives in list members' machines with complete success:

• IBM UltraStar 9ES 4.5 (DDRS 34560), 4.5 GB

List members have also reported that the following drives are working fine in their machines:

• IBM DNES-309170 SE 9.1 gig (used externally) 7ms / 7200rpm. Ultra2, 50pin connector
• Seagate ST39173N (9.1 gig)
• Syquest 135 removable - works like a Zip - up to 6 or 7 tracks or so.
• Syquest Syjet - works fine for backup, but not recommended for recording (only manages 1 or 2 tracks at a time). Again, see comments for the "Orb" below.
• Castlewood Orb - works, but hasn't been particularly recommended, for similar reasons to the Jaz. It seems that these kind of removable media drives just can't take the kind of continued abuse that recording audio demands. Should be OK for a backup device, though.
• IBM DNES-318350 SCSI 18.3 gb, 50 pin - wouldn't format, but works OK nevertheless. See the comment below about the IBM DNES-309170N (9 gig version of the same drive.)

List members have also reported that the following drives didn't work for them:

• IBM DNES-309170N (9.1 gig) - didn't format. Incidentally, this may be because of the following information from Ian <ian@michaelhutchence.org>:

  "Mystery solved regards the new IBM DNES-309170 ( 9.1 gig ) and also the 18 gig drives. A careful check on the IBM hard drive support page reveals that : THESE DRIVES MUST NEVER BE LOW LEVEL FORMATTED. Apparently they come already low level formatted and free of errors and so they can be damaged according to IBM if you attempt to do it. Fortunately the Akai command must be like the quick format command after Fdisk when partitions are decided upon on a PC. SO the good news is that these very quite, very fast SCSI drives ARE very suitable to the Akai and are ready to rock n' roll the moment you physically install them. It also explains why one poor Akai Deeps user disregarded the IBM DNES drive after he couldn't format it. All that was required was to do the "Format" command which apparently places the FATS tables in seconds, then you are free to record to your hearts content!!!!! "

If you want to install an internal drive yourself, the following procedure from Greg <greg@lolife.freeserve.co.uk> should help:

"I found the most difficult part to be working out how the physical re-assembly of the DPS should be done, it took me a false start before I realised that the sequence is:

• Put the DPS upside down (I found that sitting it on a big piece of foam seemed safest. This avoids putting all the weight on the pots and the faders)
• Put the drive (again upside down) into the bay area provided, resting on the plastic supports at the front and in the metal cutout at the back.
• Fit the two cables (power and data) between the drive and the main circuit board. They will only connect into the right sockets and only go in the right way up, so you can't go far wrong. Just make sure that the cables are routed through the big gap in the large metal support rather than just going over the top of it. Also ensure that you fold the ribbon cable so that it makes nice clean direction changes where you want it to go, rather than ending up just squashed "any old how" somewhere inside the DPS.
• Screw the bracket (upside down) onto the drive. I did use the rubber grommets provided (by putting them between the drive and the bracket) but you can't use them as they were designed to be used (with the little metal bushes in them), as the grommets only fit inside the large mounting holes and they were in the wrong place for my HDD.
• Fit the bottom plate back onto the DPS ensuring that the four screws that go through into the bracket are lined up correctly."

Colin <ckh@btinternet.com> also posted the following pictures and description of dissassembling the DPS12.

ext-scr.jpg
Shows all the case screws (yellow) - 15 if I can count correctly. Also the 4 screws which attach the base to the drive mounting plate (purple-ish) and the 4 screws which attach the mounting plate to the drive itself (sky blue) - the base will come off without these removed, but you'll have to take them off anyway later.

int-scr.jpg
The base is off and you can see the drive connected to the mounting plate. With the Jaz the 4 lime-circled holes were used, but these didn't fit my new hard drive. As a result, I used 4 spare screws I had from an old computer (purple) - these are standard size, just be careful when fitting them that you have the right ones. I've also circled the SCSI connector (yellow) and the power cable (sky blue) just for a laugh. The drive power cable on mine was attached to the Jaz with glue, so might need a bit of (careful) force to remove.

drv-scr.jpg
Shows the drive with the mounting plate removed. The four holes used with the spare screws are circled purple. Circled in yellow are the two banks of jumpers on my drive, but unfortunately my cam doesn't show close-ups very well. The right hand bank has only one jumper set on - "Term. power on" - so I guess yours should be too. The left has the ID jumpers set, but also jumpered ON are "enable auto spin" (also seen as "auto start") and "SCSI term. on" (also seen as "enable active termination"). Anything else I would leave as it is.

Akai have tested and recommend the following CD drives for the DPS12: (latest drive list, Aug 99)

Yamaha 100-series CD-R drives do not support MMC, and hence do not work.

Yamaha produces 100-series, 200-series, 400-series and 4260-series drives, but only the 200-series and up are MMC (Multi Media Command) supported. They offer:

• CDR200tx-VK External Type R x6/W x2
• CDR200t-VK Internal Type R x6/W x2
• CDR400tx-VK External Type R x6/W x4
• CDR400t-VK Internal Type R x6/W x4
• CRW4260txVK External Type R x6/W x4/RW x2
• CRW4260tVK Internal Type R x6/W x4/RW x2
• Akai have only confirmed with 4260-series drives.

JVC's drives do not support MMC yet so the following drives do not work:

• XR-W2040, XR-W2042

For your information, there are other drive manufacturers that Akai haven't checked yet: Teac, Panasonic, Plextor, Sony.

List members have reported the following:

• Ricoh MediaMaster DP6200S works
• Plexwriter 4/2/20 works
• Philips CDD3600 works
• Sony Spressa cdu924s does not work
• Yamaha 4416S most people: glitches on backups See note about 4416/4260
• Yamaha 4416SX for a few people it works ok
• Yamaha 4416SX 1.0e and 1.0g (latest) glitch. 1.0f glitches less, but still glitches.
  
• Yamaha 4416SXZ glitches on backups, works ok for one person
• Yamaha CDR-RW 4260 glitches on backups
• Smart and Friendly CD-RW (model 226) does not work
• Logitec CRW-848 (Yamaha drive mech.) glitches on backups
• Panasonic/Matsushita CW-7501-B  Rev. 1.4D or  Rev. 2.0 does not work
• Yamaha 6416 works, no glitches on backups. CD player functions don't work properly (as on 4416 and 4260)
• Ricoh MP7040s works fine
• Ricoh MP7060s works fine
• TEAC CD-R50S (97 model) does not work
• Ricoh MP8040SE writes audio Ok, but freezes the DPS12 at the "processing - please wait" screen on backups and hence can't be used for backups
• Plextor Plexwriter 8220 works fine
• Yamaha 8424 works fine for audio and the CD player functions, but one report said that backed up projects can't be reloaded, so it's use as a backup medium seems in doubt at the moment.
• HP CD Writer Plus 9200e - works fine
• Nomai 680 - works fine (this is a Ricoh 6200 under the hood)
• TEAC CDRE58 - works fine
• Tascam 624 CDR (also sold as Teac) - works fine
• YAMAHA CDRW 8824S - works fine
• HP CD Writer Plus M820 - works fine.

Note: Yamaha CDR4416 and CDR4260

Previous versions of these drives have given problems with backing up to CD, resulting in various glitches in the backed up data. Akai have now released a fix for both these drives, in the form of a new firmware version (version "t.0h" on my drive). Both these upgrade files come with a PC upgrade utility. You can also download a Mac utility from Yamaha's YST site. To perform the upgrade you will need to connect your CDR drive to your computer via SCSI. Run the supplied utility and it should flash the CDR with the new software. More details are contained in the update files:

• New CDR4416 firmware version (Akai released "t.0h" version)
• New CDR4260 firmware version

I have tested the 4416 version and so far I get no glitches, so the fix would appear to solve the problem once and for all. If you are using a one of the above Yamaha CD drives with your DPS12, especially if you are using it for backing up projects, I would advise you to do this upgrade, even if you haven't noticed any problems. It is also worth noting that the "CD Player" functions still don't work with the Yamaha drives, so it's not possible to use the DPS to start playback of unfinalised disks, although the playback of commercial disks works fine.

Yamaha have also released a new "1.0h" version that you can also download from their YST site above. The only change in this version is the DPS12 backup bugfix. This "1.0h" version is not identical to the Akai released version, and is in fact a later version still. It still backs up DPS12 data fine, so I recommend upgrading the 4416 to the current 1.0h Yamaha version for best compatibility. You can get this version again from Yamaha's YST site.

Akai also recommended the following drives:

• Yamaha CRW4260 version 1.0g (see note above about Yamaha drives)
• Ricoh MP6201S version 2.03
• Caravell CDR-N820S version CA02
• Plextor PX-R412C version 1.04

Currently, the best bet is the current generation of Plextor and Ricoh drives, as many list members are using these drives successfully with the DPS12. Also, now that Akai have a fix for the Yamaha 4416 and 4260 drives, these would also appear to be a good choice (providing that you update your drive with the latest firmware).

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