The original Korg Pa50 (the non-SD version) has no USB port - just a floppy drive. This was early in my life, in a remote place: the Pa50SD (the floppy-less version) already existed, but back then - well before the home-delivery era - actually getting it, or reaching anyone for service, meant a real trip, not a click. So we opened the case and did it ourselves: swapped the floppy mechanism for a USB floppy emulator that presents a whole stack of virtual floppies off a USB stick. One of the most fun hardware projects I’ve done - and the Pa50 never knows the difference.
Here are the realistic paths, from full mod to no-mod-at-all.
The options
| Goal | Solution |
|---|---|
| Keep the Pa50, ditch physical floppies | Install a Gotek/HxC floppy emulator (internal, a bit of hardware work) |
| Just extract old floppy data once | Read the floppies on a PC with a USB floppy drive, copy the files off |
| Want USB without any DIY | Consider a Pa50SD (factory floppy→SD replacement) or a newer Pa model |
Option 2 - extract data via a PC (no mod)
Korg-formatted floppies are standard DOS-formatted disks. Plug a USB floppy
drive into a PC, and copy the .PCG / .SET / .SNG files straight off - now
you have digital backups. This doesn’t give the Pa50 USB; it just rescues the
data (and you can drop those files onto a USB stick for a newer Pa model later).
Option 3 - Pa50SD
Korg already made the floppy-less version: the Pa50SD swaps the drive for an SD slot. If you’d rather buy than mod, some players just sell the Pa50 and pick one up.
Option 1 - the floppy emulator mod (the fun route)
Gotek vs HxC
- HxC - the smoother choice for Korg gear. Community-documented profiles for Korg/Triton/Trinity formats, flexible with disk-image formats, actively maintained, and the OLED + rotary version is easy to navigate.
- Gotek - cheaper and everywhere, but stock firmware struggles with non-PC floppy formats; you’ll want to flash FlashFloppy firmware for broad format support. A solid budget option if you’re comfortable flashing.
Step 1 - confirm the Pa50’s floppy format
Korg workstations of this era use a 720 KB (DD) or 1.44 MB (HD)
DOS-formatted floppy. Confirm yours: pop an existing formatted floppy into a USB
floppy drive on a PC and check its properties (Windows: right-click → Properties;
macOS: diskutil info). The emulator must emulate the same format or the Pa50
won’t see the “disk.”
Step 2 - order the emulator
- HxC: buy pre-configured from hxc2001.com - get the OLED + rotary board.
- Gotek: Amazon/eBay - pick the version with the OLED screen and rotary encoder (the bare LED/button ones are painful to navigate).
- Also handy: a 34-pin floppy ribbon cable (usually you reuse the stock one) and a power-connector adapter if the emulator’s connector doesn’t match the Pa50’s internal one.
Step 3 - physical installation
- Power off and unplug the Pa50 completely.
- Open the case (screws on the bottom/back panel - check a service manual or a Korgforums teardown for exact locations first).
- Find the internal floppy drive: a 34-pin ribbon to the mainboard + a small 4-pin power connector.
- Disconnect both cables; unscrew the old drive from its bracket.
- Mount the emulator in the same bracket (spacers / double-sided tape if the holes don’t line up).
- Reconnect ribbon + power, matching pin 1 - the ribbon’s red stripe aligns with Pin 1 on both the mainboard and the emulator.
Opening it up was the first time I’d had a full-size mainboard in front of me - I still remember being struck by how big the board was, and how little RAM it carried. A different era of hardware.
Step 4 - configure the format (where people get stuck)
HxC:
- Install the HxC Floppy Emulator software; convert raw dumps (
.IMG,.ADF) to HxC’s native.HFE. - Better: image your actual Korg floppies to
.HFEwith a USB floppy drive - this preserves the exact sector/track layout the Pa50 expects. - Copy the
.HFEfiles to the USB stick plus the auto-generatedHXCSDFE.CFGindex (lets you scroll disks on the OLED).
Gotek + FlashFloppy:
- Flash FlashFloppy firmware (basically mandatory beyond generic PC formats).
- Create an
FF.CFGdefining the geometry (cylinders/heads/sectors) matching Step 1’s format. - Convert floppies to raw
.IMG(WinImage, ImageDisk, ordd), copy to the stick with the config.
Step 5 - test
Power on. The emulator’s OLED shows “disk 0”. Run a Load from the Pa50 menu exactly as with a real floppy. Files show up → done. Errors or garbage → the format/geometry is mismatched; recheck Step 1 and the config.
Communities worth a search first
Before opening the case, search “Pa50 floppy emulator” / “Pa50 Gotek mod” - someone has likely documented the exact screws, cables, and confirmed config geometry for your hardware revision:
- Korgforums.com - long Pa-series emulator-mod threads with photos and working settings.
- HxC2001 forums - format-specific troubleshooting if Korg’s format isn’t in the presets.