Boo,

To me, a hard disk for a keyboard (assuming that the keyboard model supports hard disks) is a necessity, not an option, and it is much much faster than floppy disk drive. There should be no excuse not to have one unless the hard disk is extremely expensive (as in the case of Technics KN6000).

Korg I30 uses 2.5" format laptop E-IDE disks and it can only recognize 1 GB out of the disk installed. You can get one of the following disks from your local used computer store (you can hardly find any of these new) at very low prices, probably about US$50:

Toshiba MK1401MAV 1.4 GB
Hitachi DK224A-14 1.4 GB
Fujitsu M2723TAM 1.2 GB

When I bought my I30, my supplier did not have I30-HD in stock, so I ordered a hard disk through mail order and installed it myself. There are some vital information available in the Korg I30 Discussion Forum about hard disk installation of I30 (it is a little bit tricky even for experienced computer technician if instructions not obtained first, it is easy with the instructions):
http://disc.server.com/Indices/24426.html

Nowadays a laptop hard disk's typical rotational speed is about 3600 RPM to 5400 RPM. The ones that I30 uses are between 3600 RPM to 4200 RPM. The average access time of this type of older laptop hard disks is about 12 to 15 ms and the average access time of floppy disks is about 70 ms. The transfer rate of floppy disk is around 55 KB/sec, whereas transfer rate of older laptop hard disks is about 10 MB/sec, about 180 to 200 times faster than floppy disks.

From the above information, you will definitely want to upgrade your I30 with an internal hard disk because stuff gets loaded from hard disk 200 times faster than floppy disks, even though you may still feel that hard disk is not fast enough while waiting for loading in progress, and the price you pay including installation probably will be no more than US$100 plus you have to dig out the hard disk installation procedure/tricks from I30 discussion forum. With the hard disk installed you should be able to enjoy your playing much more since it vastly extends your style and song capability, provides good means of backup, and reduces your anger of having to wait for the slow floppy disk drive to load your styles and songs.

Paul Ip
from Texas

[This message has been edited by Paul Ip (edited 01-12-2001).]