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APPENDIX 4
THE S2000 OPERATING SYSTEM
In the past, Akai samplers have had their O/S (operating system - i.e. the software that makes it
work) on EPROM (Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory) chips. Using such chips
means that as soon as you turn the sampler on, it boots (loads) its operating system from
EPROM and is ready for use almost immediately.
BOOTING UP FROM FLOPPY DISK
In order to bring you the S2000 at such low cost, instead of using expensive EPROMs, the
O/S for the S2000 is on floppy disk and this should be in the floppy disk drive when you switch
on. The S2000 will then automatically boot up from floppy disk. As and when new software is
issued, simply use the latest operating system floppy disk.
The downside to this, to be honest, is that you must have the O/S floppy disk with you at all
times in order to use the S2000. Quite frankly, without it, the S2000 is a useless box, serving
only as an expensive paperweight!!
With this in mind, it is worth making backups of the operating system floppy disk for safe
keeping. Please refer to SAVE - SAVING OPERATING SYSTEM for more information on this.
NOTE: If this seems like a step backwards, take consolation in the fact that most owners of
earlier Akai samplers boot up from software upgrades on floppy disk most of the time. The only
advantage they have is that if they forget to take a disk to an important gig, they can still have
some degree of functionality from their sampler.
BOOTING UP FROM HARD DISK
It is also possible to boot the operating system from hard disk. This is, in fact, like every
computer - they don't contain their O/S in EPROM but load it from the hard disk instead. If you
always use a hard disk with your S2000, this is an extremely convenient way to boot up and is
much the same as having the O/S on EPROM.
To boot up the operating system from a hard disk, the operating system MUST be in volume 1
of the drive on SCSI ID 5. When you power up the S2000, it will first 'look' to see if there is a
floppy disk in the drive with a valid operating system. If there is not, it will 'look' to see if there is
an O/S in volume 1 on SCSI ID 5. Assuming there is, the operating system will be booted from
the hard disk. If the operating system is anywhere other than volume 1 on SCSI ID 5 or on a
hard disk with a different SCSI ID, the boot up will fail. Of course, to successfully boot up from
hard disk, you must switch the hard disk on first before powering up the S2000.
However, if you are using a hard disk, it is more than likely that you use this almost exclusively
for loading sounds into the S2000 and you rarely use floppy disks for such purposes. In this
situation, you might like to keep an O/S floppy in the floppy disk drive at all times, booting up
from that and use the hard disk for loading sounds. This is, in fact, how most professionals work
- they keep the latest software upgrade in their floppy disk drive and boot up from that and use
t h e
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S2000 Operator's Manual - Version 1.30
s o u n d s .
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