posted 05-02-2000 12:40 PM         

First, the equipment: VS840EX, Iomega 250 Zip Drive with Parallel Port interface for PC. Compaq Presario 266MHz running Windows 95. At work, I have a Gateway P6 333 with internal Zip 100M drive. My goal is to backup the stuff at home, and get it onto my PC at work where I can eventually archive to a CD Rom. Two important software utilities: JGX (the VS/PC file converter) and gfsplit (a program that breaks large files up into smaller ones.)

The procedure: First, I installed the IOMEGA drivers and 250 Zip Drive to my PC at home. This was the most difficult part of the whole thing. There was a conflict between the Zip Drive and my HP Printer which kept locking up the PC. After several hours, I eventually found a workaround at the IOMEGA web site. (This experience makes me SOOO glad we have stand-alone digital recorders!)

Anyway, I ran the utility JGX on my PC and inserted my VS840 250M disk into the zip drive and read it in to the PC. JGX takes this data and creates a single file called a VS image file with the extension .vsx. Note that this process took almost one hour. Although I think that my Zip Drive can run faster. (There is a drive optimization utility that IOMEGA provided that I have not run yet.) The .vsx file was about 180M in size.

Now, I needed to get this image file to my PC at work. But the file was too big to fit onto a 100M Zip disk (which is what I have at work). I have a utility called gfsplit to help here. Gfsplit will take any file and break it down into two or more smaller files. I ran gfsplit and created two 90M files. This process took about another half hour. I transferred these files to two 100M Zip disks and took them to work.

At work, I transferred the files to my PC, and ran a gfsplit batch file to recombine the segments into the original .vsx file. This was relatively quick. I now have completed what I would refer to as the "backup" portion. Now to attempt the restore...

At work, I ran the gfsplit utility again to break the .vsx file up into two pieces. I transferred these back to freshly formatted 100M Zip disks and brought them back home.

There, I loaded the two segments back in, ran the batch file to recombine them, and ended up with a .vsx file at home. I then used a file compare utility to verify that this .vsx file matched the original .vsx file created by the JGX utility. (I did this mainly to make sure that gfsplit didn't screw anything up, as I had never used it with files this large before.)

Next, I ran the JGX utility to attempt the restore. I inserted a blank 250M Zip disk that I had formatted on my VS840EX. JGX transferred the .vsx file to the 250M Zip disk. This process took about 20 minutes. (This is the step that you need to be careful that you specify the correct drive letter for the Zip drive!) Now for the test....

I ejected the newly restored Zip 250 disk from my PC and put it into the VS840EX. The song loaded up and played and I was able to record another track. So chalk up another successful test of the JGX utility. Despite all of the warnings that the JGX start up screens display, the program was relatively easy to use and worked as expected.

Note that the whole process took me much longer because I needed to transfer the data to a PC that only had a 100M drive on it. If you simply want to keep a current back up image on your PC, you are looking at only the time required to transfer the data from the VS disk to the PC. This is good news for VS 840EX users. I ended up only needing to buy the Zip 250 drive for the PC, instead of a SCSI Zip 250 drive, the Roland SCSI option, and a stack of Zip disks to backup to. PLUS, I can use the Zip 250 drive backup other stuff from my PC. Sorry for the long-winded post. Let me know if you have any questions.

posted 05-02-2000 12:56 PM            

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As seen on America's Most Wanted.

VS BAND REVOLUTION

VS FAMILY PHOTO ALBUM

posted 05-02-2000 02:12 PM            

This is good news !!

I am hesitent on upgrading my VS 100 meg Zip drive,to the 250 meg Zip drive.

Backup works fine for the 100 meg zips (no JXG software needed). But this opens the door for future upgrade for me.

By the way,what is the JXG software,and how do I get it ?

Thanks

posted 05-02-2000 02:54 PM         

It's jgx, not jxg, and here's the post.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/owen_labs/vs840ex.htm

otter-

Yes, I did transfer it back over. It plays and I added another track to the song. You betcha I checked that! A backup does no good if you can't restore it!

Sorry I'm shouting! I'm just so happy!

Clem

posted 06-20-2000 03:20 PM         

To burn CD's you have basically two options. 1) Stand alone CD burner with either analog or digital ins. 2) PC with CD writer and a sound card with either analog or digital ins.

If you go the PC route, you have to PLAY your composition on the VS and record it (either analog or digital) into the PC to a .wav file. From there, your CD burning software puts it onto the CD.

Note that with the VS-840EX, you cannot go directly from the VS to Roland's SCSI CD burner. Only the 880 and 1680 allow this.