okay its a tuff cookie indeed and you're right about your conclusion, nothing would work out except the forat mod. I assume they not only modded the zipdrive and made a custome edge adapter but also updated an OS to it. A cardreader wouldnt work because the 34pin transfer speed is to slow to handle flash media, consider the amount of storage to process. Another issue would be a storage able to boot from which also isnt always the case. I found 2 alternatives, tape storage....ehm very oldskool and rather noisy Im affraid. The second is via Sony Memory Stick Floppy Disk Adapter ( model no. MSAC-FD2MA ), though I havent tested ( and I cant since I dont own a classic ) this seems the only mass storage device that would work for the mpc2k. I've spotted them for 50 bucks new and considering there's a limit the mpc can read from, a 512 or 1gb memory stick should be sufficient enough to have fun with...especialy opposed to the 300buck forat upgrade for a 250mb zip...
again, I can be sure but this look likes the best bet for mass storage the mpc2k, If anyone's testing let me know. I passing this along a few friends who do have the 2k and will try this out...