• If you recently acquired an S‑50 / S‑330 / S‑550 / W‑30 or if your sample library is very small, this solution eliminates the need to purchase a boatload of expensive 3.5" floppy disks plus, there is no need to always have a dedicated 720KB DS/DD floppy disk drive available on a separate computer to create new 3.5" disks
  
  
• You can store different sample libraries on different USB sticks. Having all your disk image files on compact storage media is very convenient and easy to backup
  
  
• No mechanical parts. The floppy drives on the S‑50 / S‑330 / S‑550 / W‑30 are notorious for breaking down or requiring maintenance. Replacement floppy drives are difficult to find and cost about $50 (USD). This method offers a less costly alternative to a disk drive replacement IF you can even find one. If you do, it's used, has spiders in it and is already 25+ years old
  
  
• The USB stick filesystem for creating and storing the image disks can be created using Mac or Windows
  
  
• No complicated third party software to screw around with. There is no need to convert any disk image files over to the *.HFE SD card format either. The *.OUT disk image files you already have simply need to be copied onto a USB stick and renamed with an *.IMG extender. This also eliminates the need for an SD card reader/writer. Chances are good that you already have an unused USB stick gathering dust somewhere
  
  
• No soldering and no firmware flashing is required

• The emulator case is grey and does not match the black Roland color scheme. Blech! However, the circuit board inside is easily removed and some owners have had great luck spray painting the outer shell flat black
  
  
• Loading individual disk image files is tedious. There is a lot of USB stick plugging and unplugging. Personally, I don't like having to constantly remove the USB stick multiple times. I would have preferred a solution which enables the USB stick to remain plugged into the emulator all the time. I eventually installed a mini‑toggle switch in‑between the PCB and female USB jack which solves this hassle. It makes using the USB/FDE sooooooo much easier!!! I have posted detailed instructions here for installing a simple 47¢ Mini‑Toggle Switch Mod
  
• Disk image files are limited to only 99 per USB stick. It would have been nice to be able to have access to more image files on one USB stick
  
  
• Once you remove the old mechanical floppy disk drive from the S‑50 / S‑330 / S‑550 / W‑30, that's it. Without having another mechanical floppy disk drive available (i.e. on a Windows computer or on another Roland sampler) you won't be able to access any of your old 3.5" floppy disks unless they have previously been converted to *.OUT files
  
  
• Can't compare to all of the new features found by installing custom FlashFloppy firmware, rotary encoder and OLED screen
  
  
  
  

  	Instructions for this DIY apply only to an UNMODIFIED GOTEK USB/FDE Model: SFRM72‑FU‑DL Using these instructions with any other GOTEK model Will Not Work!!!

  
  
  Hardware Installation
  Installing The USB Floppy Drive Emulator Into An S‑50, S‑550, S‑330 or W‑30
  
  1) Set the jumpers on the USB Floppy Disk Drive Emulator as follows
  

     JUMPER     POSITION       FUNCTION
       J5       OPEN           (unknown)
       JA ⇒  ⇒  JUMPER         Generates a READY signal on pin 34 of the floppy driver interface
       JC       OPEN           (unknown)
       JB       OPEN           (unknown)
       S0 ⇒  ⇒  JUMPER         Drive Select 0
       S1       OPEN           Drive Select 1
       MO       OPEN           Motor Select
       
       =======================================================
       Special Note For DJ-70MKI Owners: Use Jumpers JB And S0
       =======================================================

Click image To See An Example

• F21 for one second (this indicates it is Model: SFRM72-FU-DL)
• 129 for one second (this indicates the firmware revision number)
• 10.0. or 00.0. (this number depends on how long or how short both buttons were held down at power up)
  • Note: If the 3‑Character LED display reads E16, it's in an ERROR STATE so power off the S‑550 and try the test again from the start
  • For more detailed info, you can read the GOTEK Model: SFRM72-FU-DL Operation Manual

• Run the Disk Utility application and choose the USB stick you want to format
  
  • Select Erase then set these options in the pop‑up window;
    
    • Name: (Your choice ‑ You can leave this field blank if you want)
      
    • Format: MS‑DOS (FAT)
      
      • (Do Not Use ExFAT, OSX Extended, GUID Partition Map or Apple Partition Map)
    • Scheme: Master Boot Record
      • NOTE: If you don't see Scheme as an option, turn on "Show All Devices" using the drop down "View" selection (circled in red)
        

Example: Formatting a generic USB stick using the Disk Utility app with Mac OS X


You can verify the USB stick was formatted using MBR by looking at the "Partition Map:"

• Right‑click My Computer
• Left‑click Manage
  
• Left‑click Disk Management
• Select FAT32 and verify it is formatted using the MBR option using this guide
  • NOTE: I've had mixed results using Windows XP. Sometimes it won't format using the MBR option so...... Keep Trying Until It Works

• Run the Disk Management program by clicking the START button and enter diskmgmt.msc
  • Right‑click on the volume for the USB then Left‑click on Format
  • Select FAT32 and MBR then press the OK button

• Run the Disk Management program by clicking the START button and enter diskmgmt.msc
  • In the Upper Section of the window where all the disk drives and CD-ROM's are listed
  • Right-click on the USB Stick listed under the column named Volume
  • Select FAT32 and Default then press the OK button
  
  To verify the USB stick was properly formatted using MBR, from the same window for the diskmgmt.msc program
  • In the Lower Section of the window where all the disk drives and CD-ROM's are listed
    • Right‑click on Disk# where # = the USB stick
    • Left‑click on Properties then Left‑click the Volumes tab at the top
      • Note: In some cases, you might also need to click on the Populate button to display all info
    • Look at the info displayed under "Partition style:" and it should read Partition style: Master Boot Record (MBR)

• The MBR option was replaced with GPT on this crappy Windows O/S version so a third‑party app is needed to format the USB stick
  • A free utility called RUFUS enables a USB stick to be formatted using the MBR option
  • Click here for a screenshot of RUFUS showing the MBR parameters needed to format your USB stick

• Run the Disk Management program by typing diskmgmt.msc in the search text box field at the lower right on the Desktop
  • In the Upper Section of the window where all the disk drives and CD-ROM's are listed
    • Right-click on the USB Stick listed under the column named Volume
    • Left-click on Format
      • Volume label: (Your choice ‑ You can leave this field blank if you want)
        
      • File System: FAT32
        
      • Allocation unit size: Default
        
  
  To verify the USB stick was properly formatted using MBR, from the same window for the diskmgmt.msc program
  • In the Lower Section of the window where all the disk drives and CD-ROM's are listed
    • On the far left side of the window, Right‑click on Disk# where # = the USB stick you just formatted
    • Left‑click on Properties then Left‑click the Volumes tab at the top
    • Look at the info displayed under "Partition style:" and it should read Partition style: Master Boot Record (MBR)

                60 Disks (S‑550 Library RSB‑5501‑1 through RSB‑5506‑10)

                80 Disks (S‑50 Converted To S‑550 Format ‑ RSB‑501‑1 to RSB‑508‑10)

Example:    BEFORE               AFTER
            5501_1.OUT           001.IMG
            5501_2.OUT           002.IMG
            5501_3.OUT           003.IMG
            . . . . .            . . . .
            5506_8.OUT           058.IMG
            5506_9.OUT           059.IMG
            5506_10.OUT          060.IMG
            . . . . .            . . . .
            COSMOS.OUT           097.IMG
            REVERSEJX10.OUT      098.IMG
            MELLOTRON.OUT        099.IMG
            

Example:    BEFORE           AFTER
            S550113.OUT      000.IMG

H:_____
       |
       IMG720_____
                  |
                  000.IMG
                  001.IMG
                  002.IMG
                  003.IMG
                  . . . .
                  . . . .
                  097.IMG
                  098.IMG
                  099.IMG

• Right before you turn off the sampler and call it a day, load the System Boot Disk Image file 000.IMG into the memory of the emulator. This way, the next time you power on the sampler, the operating system will boot automatically and you will be ready to rock
  
  
• When powering on the sampler, you will ALWAYS need to hold down both buttons on the USB/FDE. Otherwise it will not work and the error message E16 will appear on the 3‑character LED display
  
  
• Get into the habit of always removing the USB stick right after the sampler counts down from 80 to 0 after each disk load or disk save procedure. This will help you keep track of whether or not a new disk image needs to be transferred to the emulator. To make thing REALLY simple, you could install a 74¢ mini‑toggle switch which completely eliminates the need for swapping the USB stick in and out all the time. Super simple instructions for adding a mini‑toggle switch are at this link
  
  
• When using the S‑550 Utility Ver. 1.13 System Boot Disk previously with a 3.5" floppy drive, whenever you tried to convert load S‑50 disks, edit wave functions, or use other utilities, the System Boot Disk had to be in the floppy drive in order to load and use the utility programs. Whenever you try to convert load S‑50 disks, edit wave functions, or use other utilities using the new USB/FDE, you will need to load the 000.IMG file into the emulator memory... the same method as using a 3.5" floppy disk just like before
  
  
• When powering on an S‑550, it will default to the system setting which is saved on the Startup Utility Boot Disk (which is now 000.IMG). If the default setting in this image file is for an S‑550 which had a mouse connected to the EXT CTRL port, MENU selections on the S‑550 display screen won't respond normally when using buttons on the front panel keypad, the arrow buttons will not work, the cursor will float to the bottom of the screen, etc... Keep this in mind when you choose or create a Startup Utility Boot Disk image file to use. The Startup Utility Boot Disk image file I have supplied in the large *.ZIP files (S‑550_USB_Set‑1.zip / S‑550_USB_Set‑2.zip / S‑550_USB_Set‑3.zip) is set‑up for an S‑550 using a mouse
  
  
  
  
• If the vendor selling the USB/FDE is able to provide images of the PCB prior to purchasing, check to see that it has "GOTEK system" silkscreened on the board. One step closer to avoiding counterfeit electronics
  
  
• When the USB stick is plugged into the emulator, it's quite easy to accidentally press the button on the left when you meant to press the button on the right. Pressing the button on the left will overwrite the currently selected image file on the USB stick. I would suggest locking important disk image files on the USB stick. For example, lock all of the RSB‑5501 through RSB‑5506 disk image files since you will most likely never modify those files. The easy way to lock the disk image files would be by plugging the USB stick into a computer, select the files then right‑click the mouse and choose Get Info (Mac) or Properties (Windows) then lock the files by placing a checkmark in the Locked box (Mac) or in the Read‑only box (Windows). Don't bother trying to lock the entire IMG720 directory. You can't set a directory to Read‑only mode on a USB stick
  
  
• Just like a floppy disk, you don't want to remove the USB stick during a load or save process. Nothing good will happen
  
  
• As with any hack, this modification is trying to make the sampler do something it normally wouldn't do. I'm unable to guarantee it will work with every S‑50 / S‑330 / S‑550 / W‑30. There is always a risk when merging old technology with new technology

Outer shell of the GOTEK painted flat black                                                                                                    Easy mini-toggle switch mod

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