I've handled around 15 librettos in the past year, and I strongly advise against disassembling them to place a CF card. The reason is straightforward - the plastic material used in those devices is extremely brittle, and even with extra care, the chances of breaking it are always high. Therefore, I recommend using any plastic card that you no longer need, such as an old visa or Costco card, and gluing the adapter right on top of it. To ensure that you can easily remove the card later, add a piece of tape to the end. Once you've aligned it, slide it into the libretto (it may take a minute to do it for the first time), and you're all set. You can now remove the "caddy" that you've just created at any time and add any files that you need. The most significant advantage of this method is that you won't break anything while doing so.
This is an excellent way to change the HDD without disassembling the machine, thank you for that - I have pinned your comment and referenced it in the decryption!
Excellent Video, thank you. My 50CT makes the very same HDD sounds, I'll have to give this CF conversion a go! I play old DOS games on mine from time to time.
It's a great little machine and handles DOS games well, I mainly wanted to change the HDD as I'm pretty sure it was going to fail imminently and I've been caught out before when the drive in my Fujitsu laptop failed, it was a real pain trying to find the Win95 drivers for it!
I've had a few of these, my last one being the 166Mhz version but the first I had was the same as yours. I do remember putting in a new HDD and installing Win95 from floppies - time stood still as I held my breath waiting for each disk to complete!
My first work laptop was a Libretto 50 back in the day. I was a Solaris admin for an ISP using Terra Term and SecureCRT to ssh and telnet to hosts. I had a Ethernet card for at the office and a modem for on the road.
Reminds me of several second hand devices I've bought, one was a police officers cell phone, another was a doctors voice recorder with lot's of detailed info on patients in my city, and a third was a tablet that was a female model photographers, each had plenty of unexpected views of the world around me. lol Personally I think outdated files of the like would be good digital museum pieces, lol. Great presentation of that Rufus program, I've been trying to make use of it to make a boot memory stick, but with no success yet. Thanks for sharing.
It's so true! I do think people are more careful now with their data but the stuff people leave on their drives when they sell them!!!!! Rufus is ace! I use it a lot for bootable thumb drives and creating install media from ISO's. Such a pain using DOS to make media bootable!
I bought some think pad ones from ebay, they have a square hole but a little modification and they work well - couldn't find any the same as the original
It's crazy what people leave on them isn't it, often not even doing a reset! I think people are more aware these days but back in 2000 I don't think data security was even a thing!
I haven't got one yet, its on my list but if you are interested in the HP LX series you should check out my friends channel ua-cam.com/users/HPPalmtopTube
It runs about the same speed (maybe a little faster) due to the limits of the IDE controller the real gain is in reduced power consumption ~30-60mA Vs ~100-500mA so battery life is greatly improved!
By far the easiest way to install win95 is by copying the install folder directly onto an already formatted hard disk and using a boot floppy to install it directly. You don’t need to install DOS - just format and literally create a folder with the install files inside. Win95 works ok on a libretto, with original 16megs of ram but 98 is a pain. I too have a slow CF card and the read/write speed does cause issues and is somewhat noticeable. What makes this worse in fact, is the IDE controller itself. It’s rubbish! Some people say it’s a 166 bus speed but I’m really not too sure. A middle of the range speed CF card would work well. I’ve had a handful of these over the past 12 years and love them. Easily overclcokable, and if you have spares, you can actually increase the onboard ram by another 8mbs or so. Onboard ram is in a stack of 2x4 which makes 16. An extra 8megs would help and would further improve performance in 98. Just a notable mention. Ensure the ram expansion card is secured properly otherwise it can cause the machine not to boot at all, and in some cases damage the BIOS flash
Thank you for your advice, yes I struggled finding any info on the IDE controller as I wanted to know the theoretical speed limit so I could choose an appropriate CF card. TBF The current (bloated) install runs pretty well on the CF card I put in. I managed to find all the drivers for it last week so clean install will happen when I get time. Going to try it with the floppies first I think 🙂
Just replying as I’ve actually bought a libretto 70CT with a complete factory install with no additional files added. I’m happy to send this to you as a VHD! You can mount it and clone it over using your tool!
@@JohnDoe-wi7eb yes I have had this issue with IDE to usb adapters, they don't always supply enough current to power the drive. I have a powered dock and that has always worked well for me. I assume the drive works in the libretto fine
@@JohnDoe-wi7eb I bought this multi bay dock as it handles 3.5", 2.5" ide and SATA as well as memory cards. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204289963602?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=lZ24xoNWTEO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=woyFakHRQ96&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY There are lots of similar ones out there, just needs to be powered
@@HandheldComputing yep, I actually have funny memories about how much people hated Windows ME. I remember when I was in a computer class in college back in 2003, I remember the professor saying that there are many different versions of Windows out there, there's Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 second edition, Windows NT, Windows 2K, and now we have Windows XP, also Microsoft is working on a new version called Longhorn. I then asked him, Well what about ME, Windows ME? He then said Oh don't even mention that, I don't want to even hear about Windows ME.
@@HandheldComputing also one thing that I found funny on Winworldpc is that for all the other operating systems that it's offers like Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000, it shows screenshots of what the desktop, start menu and boot screen looks like, however on Windows ME, the only screenshots that Winworldpc shows for Windows ME are blue screens of death that day a fatal exception oe has occurred.
@@HandheldComputing ua-cam.com/video/NH8PyhGx-1w/v-deo.html I remember this video I actually originally made using Windows Movie maker in Windows ME to import my video from a cassette that I had in a camcorder to my PC. It turns out that when I originally recorded this video back in Labor Day of 2000, it was almost about the same time that Microsoft released Windows ME. Years later, I found this video on an old DVD disk that I burnt.
I like the content of your channel (new subscriber) but I find the sound of the introduction of the videos very annoying, since there is a lot of difference with that of your voice, so if I was watching a video of yours, I probably have turned up the volume to listen to you well, when another video of yours starts in the middle of the silence of the night it's annoying, otherwise excellent channel!
I've handled around 15 librettos in the past year, and I strongly advise against disassembling them to place a CF card. The reason is straightforward - the plastic material used in those devices is extremely brittle, and even with extra care, the chances of breaking it are always high. Therefore, I recommend using any plastic card that you no longer need, such as an old visa or Costco card, and gluing the adapter right on top of it.
To ensure that you can easily remove the card later, add a piece of tape to the end. Once you've aligned it, slide it into the libretto (it may take a minute to do it for the first time), and you're all set. You can now remove the "caddy" that you've just created at any time and add any files that you need. The most significant advantage of this method is that you won't break anything while doing so.
This is an excellent way to change the HDD without disassembling the machine, thank you for that - I have pinned your comment and referenced it in the decryption!
Excellent Video, thank you. My 50CT makes the very same HDD sounds, I'll have to give this CF conversion a go! I play old DOS games on mine from time to time.
It's a great little machine and handles DOS games well, I mainly wanted to change the HDD as I'm pretty sure it was going to fail imminently and I've been caught out before when the drive in my Fujitsu laptop failed, it was a real pain trying to find the Win95 drivers for it!
I've had a few of these, my last one being the 166Mhz version but the first I had was the same as yours. I do remember putting in a new HDD and installing Win95 from floppies - time stood still as I held my breath waiting for each disk to complete!
Ha ha floppies are so unreliable! If my disks seem OK I'm going to give it a go anyway, that'll waste an afternoon lol
This is an very engaging look at an amazing device. Well done! I enjoyed it
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it 🙂
My first work laptop was a Libretto 50 back in the day. I was a Solaris admin for an ISP using Terra Term and SecureCRT to ssh and telnet to hosts. I had a Ethernet card for at the office and a modem for on the road.
Thats so cool! I bet you were the envy of everyone when you got the Libretto out on the train/cafe/pub!
Reminds me of several second hand devices I've bought, one was a police officers cell phone, another was a doctors voice recorder with lot's of detailed info on patients in my city, and a third was a tablet that was a female model photographers, each had plenty of unexpected views of the world around me. lol
Personally I think outdated files of the like would be good digital museum pieces, lol.
Great presentation of that Rufus program, I've been trying to make use of it to make a boot memory stick, but with no success yet.
Thanks for sharing.
It's so true! I do think people are more careful now with their data but the stuff people leave on their drives when they sell them!!!!!
Rufus is ace! I use it a lot for bootable thumb drives and creating install media from ISO's. Such a pain using DOS to make media bootable!
Hello ! Nice video ! Where can you get some replacement caps for the tracepoint / accupoint mouse ? Thanks !!
I bought some think pad ones from ebay, they have a square hole but a little modification and they work well - couldn't find any the same as the original
gosh i remember eons ago i always wanted a tosh libretto 50, as we can all remember, it was for deep pockets like most tosh devices back then.
It sure was, all those small laptops were, Sony picturebook, Fujitsu P series all >£1000 at the time!
I've had many experiences finding old files on old phones I've bought from eBay haha
It's crazy what people leave on them isn't it, often not even doing a reset! I think people are more aware these days but back in 2000 I don't think data security was even a thing!
Have you got any HP 200LX to review? Id love to see it along with some nice tips and dos apps to run!
I haven't got one yet, its on my list but if you are interested in the HP LX series you should check out my friends channel ua-cam.com/users/HPPalmtopTube
@@HandheldComputing I know Terrence ;). Im just so in love with 200LXs that I’d love so see more youtube content about it….
@@regenceaudio ha ha thats good, I do intend to get one of the HP LX devices at some point but it will be a while ;-)
terima kasih, saya suka teknologi lama, sy abi Ammaar dari indonesia.
Terima kasih telah menonton dan meluangkan waktu untuk berkomentar!
This is what I did to my Libretto but it killed it :( No idea how or what I did wrong but it never recovered. Good luck with yours!!!
I remember you saying so I was holding my breath when putting it back together - so far all working well though so happy with that!
Nice job. I assume there is a performance gain when you upgrade to CF cards? I never had a Libretto, but I've always wanted one.
It runs about the same speed (maybe a little faster) due to the limits of the IDE controller the real gain is in reduced power consumption ~30-60mA Vs ~100-500mA so battery life is greatly improved!
Always wanted one of these 😄
You still should, it's ace!!!
Thank you…. Great idea
I thought so 😃
I love these. Unfortunately they are getting ridiculously expensive :(
Yes they are! Its a great little machine though once I've done a reinstall I'm going to see what its like as a daily driver....
By far the easiest way to install win95 is by copying the install folder directly onto an already formatted hard disk and using a boot floppy to install it directly. You don’t need to install DOS - just format and literally create a folder with the install files inside.
Win95 works ok on a libretto, with original 16megs of ram but 98 is a pain. I too have a slow CF card and the read/write speed does cause issues and is somewhat noticeable.
What makes this worse in fact, is the IDE controller itself. It’s rubbish!
Some people say it’s a 166 bus speed but I’m really not too sure. A middle of the range speed CF card would work well.
I’ve had a handful of these over the past 12 years and love them. Easily overclcokable, and if you have spares, you can actually increase the onboard ram by another 8mbs or so. Onboard ram is in a stack of 2x4 which makes 16. An extra 8megs would help and would further improve performance in 98.
Just a notable mention. Ensure the ram expansion card is secured properly otherwise it can cause the machine not to boot at all, and in some cases damage the BIOS flash
Thank you for your advice, yes I struggled finding any info on the IDE controller as I wanted to know the theoretical speed limit so I could choose an appropriate CF card. TBF The current (bloated) install runs pretty well on the CF card I put in. I managed to find all the drivers for it last week so clean install will happen when I get time. Going to try it with the floppies first I think 🙂
Just replying as I’ve actually bought a libretto 70CT with a complete factory install with no additional files added. I’m happy to send this to you as a VHD! You can mount it and clone it over using your tool!
@@The_Studioworkshop That would be amazing!!!
if you drop me an gmail (huwshandheldcomputing) and we could sort out a gdrive for transferring it 🙂
Windows 11 wont detect the 2.5 IDE driver only shows as a USB drive.
Presumably you are connecting a CF card via usb in which case it will show as a usb disk which is correct, just use Rufus to set it as bootable media
@@HandheldComputing Its not the CF card its the 2.5 inch IDE HDD. It wont read.
@@JohnDoe-wi7eb yes I have had this issue with IDE to usb adapters, they don't always supply enough current to power the drive. I have a powered dock and that has always worked well for me. I assume the drive works in the libretto fine
@@HandheldComputing it works fine, what dock do you suggest I use?
@@JohnDoe-wi7eb I bought this multi bay dock as it handles 3.5", 2.5" ide and SATA as well as memory cards. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204289963602?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=lZ24xoNWTEO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=woyFakHRQ96&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
There are lots of similar ones out there, just needs to be powered
You may also be able to install Windows ME on this as well.
Says 150Mhz and 32Mb Ram so with a bit of overclocking it would probably run at a push - might be fun to try ;-)
@@HandheldComputing yep, I actually have funny memories about how much people hated Windows ME. I remember when I was in a computer class in college back in 2003, I remember the professor saying that there are many different versions of Windows out there, there's Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 second edition, Windows NT, Windows 2K, and now we have Windows XP, also Microsoft is working on a new version called Longhorn. I then asked him, Well what about ME, Windows ME? He then said Oh don't even mention that, I don't want to even hear about Windows ME.
@@sburton015 Yeah ME is a bit of a non-starter it wasn't as good as 98SE and wasn't too long till the mighty XP would arrive!
@@HandheldComputing also one thing that I found funny on Winworldpc is that for all the other operating systems that it's offers like Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000, it shows screenshots of what the desktop, start menu and boot screen looks like, however on Windows ME, the only screenshots that Winworldpc shows for Windows ME are blue screens of death that day a fatal exception oe has occurred.
@@HandheldComputing ua-cam.com/video/NH8PyhGx-1w/v-deo.html I remember this video I actually originally made using Windows Movie maker in Windows ME to import my video from a cassette that I had in a camcorder to my PC. It turns out that when I originally recorded this video back in Labor Day of 2000, it was almost about the same time that Microsoft released Windows ME. Years later, I found this video on an old DVD disk that I burnt.
I like the content of your channel (new subscriber) but I find the sound of the introduction of the videos very annoying, since there is a lot of difference with that of your voice, so if I was watching a video of yours, I probably have turned up the volume to listen to you well, when another video of yours starts in the middle of the silence of the night it's annoying, otherwise excellent channel!
I'm glad you like the channel, thank you for the feedback I will bring the intro volume down on future videos 😃