Breathing New Life Into the Akai S2000: Gotek, FlashFloppy & LCD Replacement

My first sampler was an Akai S2000, and for years it was the centre of my setup. Long before gigabyte‑sized libraries and soft synths became the norm, this little 2U box handled everything. Limited memory, slow loading, awkward operating system with too much menu diving — but somehow it pushed me to be more creative, not less.

I’ve also got sounds in my old library that came from gear I no longer own, including a dying EDP Wasp Deluxe I once found dumped outside a neighbour’s house. True story. So backing up the S2000’s library has been on my list for a long time.

To make that possible, I decided to install a Gotek floppy emulator running FlashFloppy, giving the S2000 a modern, USB‑based workflow and a way to preserve the sounds that shaped so much of my early music.

Replacing the LCD

Before tackling the storage upgrade, I had to deal with another very 90s‑hardware problem: the original backlight had failed.

This wasn’t my first LCD adventure. Around the same time, I replaced the display on my Korg DDD‑1 drum machine — and managed to blow the first replacement module because I hadn’t added an inline resistor. The smallest resistor I had to hand was 100Ω, which did the job on the DDD‑1.

So when I swapped the S2000’s display for an HD44780‑based module, I expected to need the same protection. Surprisingly, the Akai handled it perfectly without an inline resistor. A nice reminder that not all vintage gear behaves the same, even when the parts look identical on paper.

Why the Gotek Upgrade Matters

I was in the fortunate position that my original floppy drive still worked — but that’s becoming increasingly rare. Replacement drives are harder to find, and the floppies themselves are a ticking time bomb. Magnetic media doesn’t age gracefully.

Moving to USB meant:

I could back up the entire library safely
I could clone the USB stick as often as needed
I wasn’t relying on 30‑year‑old mechanical parts

The only limitation is that the S2000 can’t run a floppy drive and a Gotek at the same time. My workaround was a bit convoluted but effective: I used an old SCSI Zip drive as a bridge. I copied everything from floppy → Zip disk → Gotek. With Zip drives and disks also being mechanical, it wasn’t a long‑term solution, but it let me migrate everything before anything failed.

Installing the Gotek Floppy Emulator

1. Removing the Original Floppy Drive

The S2000’s floppy drive is held in place by:

Four screws on the underside of the unit
Power and ribbon cables
Four additional screws securing the drive to the internal metal chassis

Once removed, the Gotek mounts directly onto the same chassis using the same screw points.

Reconnect the power and IDE cables, reattach the chassis, and the S2000 should now look something like this:

2. Configuring FlashFloppy for the S2000

My Gotek arrived with FlashFloppy pre‑installed, so configuration was simply a matter of creating a file called FF.CFG in the root of a FAT32‑formatted USB stick.
Inside that file, I added the recommended Akai settings:-

host = akai
interface = ibmpc-hdout
nav-mode = native

FlashFloppy also requires jumper S0 (Disk 0). Mine arrived set to S1, so I moved the jumper accordingly.

3. Preparing the S2000 OS Image

To boot from USB, you’ll need the S2000 operating system (ideally v2.0) in HFE format. I sourced mine from: http://akai.mnx2010.nl/

Copy the OS image into the root of the USB drive and the S2000 will boot from it via the Gotek.

A Small but Useful Upgrade: Adding an IEC Power Connector

While I was inside the S2000, I made one more small but very practical modification. The original captive power cable was always a bit of a nuisance in a rack setup — too long, awkward to route, and one more thing contributing to the inevitable cable spaghetti.

I removed the fixed cable and replaced it with a standard IEC power connector, which means I can now use a custom‑length IEC lead that fits the rack perfectly. It’s a tiny change, but it makes the whole setup cleaner and far easier to manage.