Mazatrol Smart Tape Mode vs. Expanded Memory

I have a VCN430A Smart mill with a tiny memory. I have spoken to mazak and my two options are to "unlock" tape mode or to have a tech come out and install more memory. I program almost exclusively ofline and run eia programs. Both options are roughly the same money and expanded memory seems like the obvious choice but the max internal memory I can get is 2mb. Yeah I did not miss type 2mb, less than a cell phone picture worth of space in a machine worth as much a high end luxury car. Honestly though 2mb would cover most of what I use the machine for. I have made it the last couple of years by breaking up larger programs in to different operations and loading and deleting as I go so 2mb would work 90% of the time. They also said I could go with tape mode which I am assuming would just run from my jump drive and have as much space as the jump drive has. I just worry about data transfer rates and just running from a jump drive seems unstable or unreliable to me, but I could be wrong. Ideally I'd get both but that's more money than I want to spend. So whats your advise? Anyone running tape mode from a jump drive? Expanding internal memory seems more reliable but it is limited tape mode offers unlimited program size but I don't know how reliable it will be. Advise and experiences needed, Thanks!

Not sure on your machine, but using an older matsuura, the dnc was iffy at best. Assuming tape mode and dnc are the same here. But this machine only had 64k (yep! ) so I often broke my programs by single tools, or by operation -spot drill tap, new program, to mill contours, etc. It was something stupid like 3k to upgrade memory, but would have made a world of difference. I would go with expanded memory personally. You could still break programs if needed, plus no need to worry about the dnc failing.

Yeah that's what I was afraid of. I am certainly leaning towards the 2mb memory.