Translator - Preferences - SCSI2SD Partition Map

SCSI2SD Partition Map

The SCSI2SD SD memory card solution has a unique way of dealing with multiple partitions, which actually works in the favor of proprietary samplers like Ensoniq, Akai, Roland, and others. These are set up with the SCSI2SD Utility program that comes along with SCSI2SD, and is what you use to program the SCSI2SD circuit board. SD2SCSI Partition Map

The purpose of the SCSI2SD ID Map dialog is to mimic the utility program's settings, so you can access all the partitions - not really partitions, we call them ID's - that you write on the SD card. Basically, if you have a SD card programmed with SCSI2SD, just type into this dialog the settings that exist in the SCSI2SD Utility. Translator will then read those parameters when it detects a "SCSI2SD"-ified SD card.

Bottom line is: The numbers on this dialog MUST MATCH the numbers listed in the SCSI2SD Utility for your SCSI2SD board when reading the SD card in Translator!!!

For more SCSI2SD information, see the SCSI2SD Information Site at www.scsi2sd.info.

And, for the complete line of SCSI2SD products, fully set up in advance so you don't have to deal with all this, please check them out at SamplerZone.com.

Recommendations for SCSI2SD Use
We strongly recommend, regardless of format, getting a SD card and dividing it up into multiple ID's.

Sampler	Size	Notes
Ensoniq EPS/ASR-10	2GB	Actually max 8GB, but reccommend 2GB for disk access speed reasons
Ensoniq ASR-X	1.95GB	Uses FAT16 format, but for some reason doesn't like the max 2GB; sits well with 1.95GB
Emu Emulator 4 (4.6 and below)	4GB	Actually max 18GB, but reccommend 4GB because of cluster wasted space, usually smaller bank sizes, and maximum 100 banks per fold
Emu Emulator 4 (EOS 4.7)	32GB
Emu EIII/ESi, Emax II	1000 sectors	WARNING: Bugs arise if you present a drive that reports capacity =1GB or above
Akai S950	100mb	NOTE: this Akai actually supports 8 LUN's, giving you a total capacity of 56 drive locations
Akai S1000/3000	650mb	Actually max 512mb, but recommend 650mb for consistancy with other formats
Akai S5000	32GB
Akai MPC60/3000	1GB	Actually max 768mb, but recommend 1GB for consistancy with other formats
Akai MPC2000/XL	4GB
Roland S550/W30	650mb	Actually max 80mb, but recommend 650mb for consistancy with other formats
Roland S770/750/760	650mb	Actually max 603mb, but recommend 650mb for consistancy with other formats
Kurzweil K2000	2GB	FAT16, 8.3 names
Kurzweil K2500/2600/2661	8GB	Actually max 2GB, but has a partition scheme (computer compliant) which splits >2GB to 2GB partitions, Still it's FAT16, 8.3 names
Yamaha A-Series	8GB	Actually max 2GB, but has a partition scheme (computer compliant) which splits >2GB to 2GB partitions
Yamaha Motif/RS7000	4GB	FAT16, 8.3 names
Korg Triton	4GB	FAT16, 8.3 names
Dynacord ADS/ADS-K	650mb	Actually max 512mb, but recommend 650mb for consistancy with other formats
Peavey DPM-SE	512mb
Fairlight CMI	4GB

The dialog on the right illustrates a typical 2GB setup.

IMPORTANT: You will notice that the first area starts at sector 20480 and allocates 20480 less sectors. The reason for this is the Mac especiecailly, but also Windows, have a bit of trouble with SD cards when it doesn't have a permissible partition programmed into the boot sector. So, make sure you partition the SD card with the computer FIRST, before you work with it on the computer.

What this trick does is fools the computer into thinking that "mini-parttioin" is a mountable/permissible disk, and then ignores the sampler-specific data written after it. It avoids all the possible downstream issues, and you are only giving up around 1mb of space in the first "area". Please see the Formatting article below for more info.

Setting up a SD card for best use in Mac's
As mentioned above, for proper use on Mac's, it's best to leave some space at the physical start of the SD card to fool the Mac to think the card is A-OK. To make this REALLY WORK properly, we recommend partitioning the SD card with Disk Utility before you do anything with it. This strategy almost guarantees our naughty proprietary work will be isolated from macOS's prying eyes.

This concept also applies to Windows, though we currently do not have the information avaialble to perform this on Windows.

IMPORTANT: These instructions relate to Disk Utility up to macOS 10.10 (Yosemite). macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) and above, Apple gutted Disk Utility and Disk Utility cannot partition disks in this manner. You will have to use Terminal instead. Instructions for that are below.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PARTITIONING USING DISK UTILITY UP TO macOS 10.10 (YOSEMITE)

Insert the SD card in your Mac-connected card reader.
Open Disk Utility (in your Applications folder).
Select the SD card on the left.
Click Options and select Master Boot Record; close dialog.
Select the Partitions tab.
Select "2 Partitions".
Take your mouse, select the midpoint between the partitions in the map-graphic, and push it up as far as it will go.
Select the top partition, and type '.4' (without the quotes) in the Size field, and hit ENTER. Best case it will go to 9.4mb; if so, leave it be. If so, try it again, and it will go to it eventually.
Click Apply. This will set up the two partitions - the very small one and the other much larger one - and formats them for HFS (the "Mac" format); or in case of macOS 10.13, AFS, the new Apple file system.
Select the larger Partition and press DELETE on your keyboard; this will delete the larger Partition and leave the mini-one alone.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PARTITIONING USING TERMINAL

To partition the disk into 2 partitions, one being the much smaller one, the other is the rest of the disk:
diskutil partitionDisk [disk number, e.g. disk5] 2 MBR HFS+ Mac 9.4M HFS+ SCSI2SD R
To erase the larger partition:
sudo diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" SCSI2SD [disk number plus partition, e.g. disk5s2]

All this twiddling sets up the card to be "mounted" by the Mac and pacifying macOS so we can operate on the other sections of the SD card without operating-system interference. You'll see the volume "Untitled" mounted, but don't write anything into it using the Finder. Just leave it be and let the Chicken Systems utilities do their job.

Special Instructions
If Translator in Windows does not show your SCSI2SD SD card under Proprietary Drives, and you are sure that the numbers in thsi dialog match the settings on your SCSI2SD board, run Translator as Administrator, this often helps. For a video on how this is done, click here,