I will soon be a Libretto 50ct owner. Any advice on my first time using it? I'm concerned about clean booting the OS, actually getting files on and off it, and possibly tips on recording its output.
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Planet Zaxxon
Sell the Libretto.
I KID! I KID!
The 50ct has a parallel port in the back right? If so, you could pick up a parallel zip drive for under $10, and you can transfer to and from that way. Youd need a USB zip drive too obviously to connect to modern pc for backup.
Or you could convert your HD to SSD/CF, so to transfer you just remove the drive and plug into a CF to USB device on a modern pc for transferring.
As for the audio, I believe you have to get an adapter, that allows you to plug into more standard audio inputs.
Also check out this thread, you may find some useful information in there!
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Long Beach, CA
Warez Waldo wrote:
Sell the Libretto.
I KID! I KID!
The 50ct has a parallel port in the back right? If so, you could pick up a parallel zip drive for under $10, and you can transfer to and from that way. Youd need a USB zip drive too obviously to connect to modern pc for backup.
Or you could convert your HD to SSD/CF, so to transfer you just remove the drive and plug into a CF to USB device on a modern pc for transferring.
As for the audio, I believe you have to get an adapter, that allows you to plug into more standard audio inputs.
Also check out this thread, you may find some useful information in there!
LOL. Thanks for the tips! Really good stuff. Luckily I still have some blank zip disks from high school. Could I also not do the same with a floppy disk? According to the manual this thing has a FDD. I don't have the 50ct in my posession yet, so I wouldn't know first-hand.
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Planet Zaxxon
Yes floppy is fine if you are just planning to move small files, such as Adlib Tracker II songs/instruments. But if you get into sample tracking, they can start to take up a lot more space for a floppy.
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SLC, UT
I don't think it has a floppy built in, but it's an external floppy drive via pcmcia. And yeah, for any kind of audio you're going to want a 2.5mm jack to 3.5mm jack.
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Long Beach, CA
Warez Waldo wrote:
Yes floppy is fine if you are just planning to move small files, such as Adlib Tracker II songs/instruments. But if you get into sample tracking, they can start to take up a lot more space for a floppy.
I see. Time to purchase cute neon floppies now -_-
stargazer wrote:
I don't think it has a floppy built in, but it's an external floppy drive via pcmcia. And yeah, for any kind of audio you're going to want a 2.5mm jack to 3.5mm jack.
Hopefully I find out when I get the Libretto. Thanks for the tip!
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São Paulo, Brazil
just put a 2.5" HDD on that and use a usb-sata adapter for file transfering.
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Long Beach, CA
PULSELOOPER wrote:
just put a 2.5" HDD on that and use a usb-sata adapter for file transfering.
Can I drop an SSD in there? Also, when I do drop in a new drive, what would be the best way to get an OS on there?
Sorry for all the questions. I appreciate all your help.
Last edited by Terbografx (Nov 4, 2014 10:10 pm)
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Detroit, Michigan
Terbografx wrote:
PULSELOOPER wrote:just put a 2.5" HDD on that and use a usb-sata adapter for file transfering.
Can I drop an SSD in there? Also, when I do drop in a new drive, what would be the best pay to get an OS on there?
Sorry for all the questions. I appreciate all your help.
I'd also like to know this
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São Paulo, Brazil
Terbografx wrote:
Can I drop an SSD in there? Also, when I do drop in a new drive, what would be the best way to get an OS on there?
Don't know about the SSD. I mean, it's the same slot as the 2.5" HDD, but I don't think an old OS would know how to deal with that. Or maybe I'm talking shit. I'm sure Carl Radlib can answer your question.
Regarding the OS, my Libretto has good old MS-DOS installed. I just got a SATA 3.5" to 2.5" cable ('cos the startup bios can't deal with USB, at least in my old PC), plugged it into the HDD and into my PC motherboard. Chose the 2.5" HDD as startup disk on the bios and popped the MS-DOS disks (yeah, I still have a floppy drive). Maybe there's an easier way.
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Long Beach, CA
PULSELOOPER wrote:
Terbografx wrote:Can I drop an SSD in there? Also, when I do drop in a new drive, what would be the best way to get an OS on there?
Don't know about the SSD. I mean, it's the same slot as the 2.5" HDD, but I don't think an old OS would know how to deal with that. Or maybe I'm talking shit. I'm sure Carl Radlib can answer your question.
Regarding the OS, my Libretto has good old MS-DOS installed. I just got a SATA 3.5" to 2.5" cable ('cos the startup bios can't deal with USB, at least in my old PC), plugged it into the HDD and into my PC motherboard. Chose the 2.5" HDD as startup disk on the bios and popped the MS-DOS disks (yeah, I still have a floppy drive). Maybe there's an easier way.
That last solution is something I would do, honestly haha. I think I will hit up Rad as well. Thanks!
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
With an IDE to SATA adaptor you can certainly use an SSD if it will fit inside the machine but the speed with be bottlenecked massively but the ancient hard drive controller. If you have an old SSD sitting around it's not a bad solution but a less expensive solution is an IDE to Compact Flash adaptor. It'll be small, inexpensive and easy to pop out to backup or transfer large files.
Installation of your OS will occur as normal, simply boot a windows install floppy or CD.
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/dev/sda2
I have a 50ct, running DOS 6.22 & Win3.1. My advice? DON'T DROP IT!
Lol. I guess that's common sense, but mine fell like 2 feet and suffered severe structural damage. The screen is kinda forced to the left a bit, because some kind of spring-bar inside it broke. I mention this only because I think these units might be considerably more fragile than other computers from this era. Some of the plastic is pretty much disintegrating, either from age or trauma. Maybe mine is just crappy though, so who knows?
That being said, I love these machines. I take it everywhere. DOS FOREVER!!
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Long Beach, CA
jefftheworld wrote:
With an IDE to SATA adaptor you can certainly use an SSD if it will fit inside the machine but the speed with be bottlenecked massively but the ancient hard drive controller. If you have an old SSD sitting around it's not a bad solution but a less expensive solution is an IDE to Compact Flash adaptor. It'll be small, inexpensive and easy to pop out to backup or transfer large files.
Installation of your OS will occur as normal, simply boot a windows install floppy or CD.
Ahh, I see. Would it be possible to boot the OS from the CF?
datawave wrote:
I have a 50ct, running DOS 6.22 & Win3.1. My advice? DON'T DROP IT!
Lol. I guess that's common sense, but mine fell like 2 feet and suffered severe structural damage. The screen is kinda forced to the left a bit, because some kind of spring-bar inside it broke. I mention this only because I think these units might be considerably more fragile than other computers from this era. Some of the plastic is pretty much disintegrating, either from age or trauma. Maybe mine is just crappy though, so who knows?
That being said, I love these machines. I take it everywhere. DOS FOREVER!!
Can I boot DOS alone without booting Windows? I owned a 486 when I was 7 (1995), but every iteration of MS-DOS I've used after that was booted from Windows (98, XP).
Thanks for the replies!
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The CF will act exactly as a HDD would.
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/dev/sda2
Terbografx wrote:
Can I boot DOS alone without booting Windows?
Yeah. You'd have to get ahold of some MS-DOS install disks. You install DOS first, then install Windows 3.1 after if you wished.
My libretto had Win98 on it when I got it, but I found that it was just barely too slow. I never tried rebooting 98 into DOS mode though... it might've worked. Nevertheless, I installed DOS 6.22 off a few floppies, and it works great. Plus, DOS gives you more street cred 