Officially, Roland suggests you use a 2.5" laptop type IDE drive, as these are designed to conserve power. The VS-880's power supply as a "tad" weak, and this is the limiting factor as far as which drives will or won't work!
Here is what has worked for me! Regarding 3.5" internal IDE drives, I found that ONLY the Western Digital model #32500 2.5 gig drive worked. These were still available at:
http://www.compuplus.com/
I believe they are selling them for $205 (US) + shipping. They were made last year.('96) I tried the newer WD # 22500 2.5gig IDE and the WD 4 gig IDE drive, and discovered that the VS-880 could NOT provide enough power to run these newer drives. I understand that perhaps the new IBM drives may work, but I have no direct experience with these.
Basically, you remove the existing 2 1/2" drive, and run a new 40 pin ribbon cable from the #32500 drive, following pin 1 on the drive to pin 1 on the VS-880's internal IDE connector. The unusual aspect to this is that the VS-880's internal IDE connector has 50 pins! Just ignore pins 41 to 50. You will have to "trim" the connector on your new IDE ribbon cable to accomplish this. Finally, you must obtain a power cable for the new drive. I obtained power from the internal VS-880 connector labeled "SCSI Power".
Use a voltmeter to locate GND, +12 Volt, and +5 Volt power pins. I modified an IBM Clone type power adapter "Y" cord, the type you use to connect 3 1/2" floppy drives with small connectors to power supplies with the larger type of connector used on standard Hard Drives. Remember that Yellow = +12 VDC, Red = +5 VDC, and Black= GND. As an option, you could order that power cable from Roland that they used for the internal Jazz drive. The new drive will bolt right in. I installed some additional foam rubber padding to act as a "sound deadoner" around the drive. Upon first powering on, you will need to "initialize" the drive. I prepared it as 3 separate 1 gig partitions. Of course I only get 2 one gig partitions, and one 540 meg partition. I followed the instructions in the owner's manual.
That just about covers it! Been using mine for 8 months, with NO PROBLEMS!
PS Just a quick reminder that the VS-880 has internal connectors for either an internal IDE OR an internal SCSI. I understand that there are some bargains currently out there on 3.5" Quantum and IBM SCSI drives. The VS-880 does not gain anything by using an "Ultra SCSI" or "A/V" type. Just get the fastest, lowest current draw (mA) drive you can find! Stick to something made within that last 2 years.
By the way, most people I talk to who take a risk and try a different drive than the WD #32500 have a "fall back" mode. That is they have a Computer that is begging for the drive if for some reason the VS-880's power supply is not up to the task to power the new drive "candidate"!
Steve Conrad
1997/12
Hawkeye added the following information:
Blow by blow instructions on installing a 3.5 " Drive in a VS-880:
FPN: Before starting: take precautions to ensure that static electricity won't get the chance to bomb your little beauty. If on carpet, take off your shoes and socks. I'm not kidding. And no sitting on soft recliners, sofas or any fabric covered surface. Stand-up unless you're disadvantaged. And regularly touch the metal of the bottom plate that you're going to remove. It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep one hand on the metal plate (once it is removed) while your other hand is doing most of the work. Of course, some things require two hands, just be certain that you touch the plate for a second before you do the two-handed stuff.
1st: Unplug all its cables and cords and set the VS-880 upside down on a secure but soft surface---a pillow on a table is ideal. A pillow on a table under a bright light is even more than ideal. That way none of the switches and sliders will be knocked off and the face of the VS-880 will not be marked up in any way.
2nd: Remove almost all the screws from the bottom of the VS-880. Don't remove the feet. And leave the few screws that are inset into larger holes alone for now.
3rd: Remove the bottom plate entirely and set aside.
4th: Unplug the cable and completely remove the 540 drive and the entire mounting bracket it sets in.
5th: Once out of the machine, remove the 2.5" drive and it's 2.5" adapter from the larger, 3.5" drive mounting bracket.
6th: Place your new 3.5" drive into the mounting bracket upside down and secure it with screws, then put the drive and bracket back into the VS-880 using all the screws you took out earlier. Do not use the furtherest back hole on the right side to mount the drive to the bracket. (taken verbatim from the Kama Sutra)
7th: Take a small screwdriver and slightly bend pins 41 through 50 toward the back of the machine making certain that none of them are touching each other. (These are the five pairs of pins in the IDE conector fitting nearest the back of the VS-880). Then use a standard IDE connector cable (40-pin) to replace the cable (50-pin) you removed earlier. Make sure pin # 1 (the index) is inserted toward the front of the VS-880. On the cable, that is the edge with the stripe or some other identifying mark.
8th: Using four wire splices (from your nearest hardware or electronics store), splice a regular drive power pigtail with 4 leads to the colored conductors coming from the power supply ( located just an inch or so from the back of drive bracket). Do not cut any of the VS-880's wires. And keep the colors matched up. You'll find that the power supply conductors are: Yellow, Red and Black. There will be only one Black on the VS-880. On your pigtail, splice both Black wires to the both Black conductors coming from the VS's power supply.
9th: About done. Connect your IDE (flat and as short as you can find one) cable to the new hard drive, then fold it (one-45 degree angle on the left, one 90 degree angle on the right) so it will lay flat. Ensure that it DOES NOT PASS OVER ANY DRIVE MOUNTING SCREW HEADS. (SEE 6th Step above.) If it does, remove that screw and move it to a hole where it will not touch the flat cable or just remove it completely if you have at least two screws holding the drive secure - one per side. I use three screws--two on the left and one (in the forward hole) on the right. It will not sneak out of your machine even with only two. Do Not OVERTIGHTEN! When the screw feels snug, stop. That's enough.
10th: Turn the VS-880 over, plug it in and turn it on. That should do it. If your new drive is recognized, you will then have to initialize it. Congratulations! You have just increased your song storage space by a factor of FIVE. You should end up with three partitions--- 2 @ 1 gig and 1 @ .5 gig. The VS-880 will name them IDE 0, IDE 1 and IDE 2. If this step goes well, don't forget to shut it down and re-attach the bottom plate.
11th Step: Your next assignment, if you choose to accept it; is to write many many gigabytes of new tunes. Enjoy!
THE CAUTION: The drive I used was a Maxtor 72004AP. It's current draw is listed by Maxtor (on their website) as follows:
Spin-up 9.69w Read/Write 5.04w Active 7.02w Idle 4.40w Standby 1.28w Sleep 1.01w
Don't try this if you don't know these particular values for your drive of choice. I would be careful using anything that requires more than this. You will most likely, "smoke" your power supply. For me that is no biggie, I can repair it in a few minutes. For you, it could be a big problem. My purpose in this message is to ensure that no one approaches this project with a cavalier attitude. It is all too easy to cause a lot of damage if you're not extremely careful and take this modification seriously. And realize that this will most certainly void your warranty. My expired long ago.
BTW: the [above] 7 gig drive popped a diode on my VS-880's power supply this afternoon. I replaced it in short order and have the 2 gig back in there running now. Everything is back to normal. The VS-880 instantly recognized the 2gig and my tracks were all still there too! Of course, I had backed them up to ZIP before experimenting.
Hawkeye
Hawkeye255@aol.com
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998
1998/02