Also, any experience/suggestions on Win95 or Win98? It has a P75

Easiest way is to put the CF card in the machine, use a DOS 7 / Win9x DOS floppy to format as FAT32 with system files, and then use a USB adapter to plug it into your main computer and copy the contents of the Windows 95 disk to a folder called WIN95B or something. Then boot the laptop and run SETUP from that folder.

This works only with Windows 95 OSR2+ since it supports FAT32.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-07-16, 18:15:

Easiest way is to put the CF card in the machine, use a DOS 7 / Win9x DOS floppy to format as FAT32 with system files, and then use a USB adapter to plug it into your main computer and copy the contents of the Windows 95 disk to a folder called WIN95B or something. Then boot the laptop and run SETUP from that folder.

That's how I do this. I have 70CT (120MHz) and I'm using Windows 95 OSR2. Tried Win 98 for a moment but 95 runs better. You can even copy entire system backup that way.

Thanks for the help! I got things working, I first tried to format the drive on another machine but it wouldn’t boot off of it. Ended up making a Win95 boot disk and formatting the CF/HDD in the machine, then copying install files and going from there.

It’s actually amazingly handy, I can treat the PCMCIA CF adaptor as a USB key to put things on the 50CT much like the 200LX. And to be honest Win95 is much more keyboard friendly than the 13 year old me remembers. Shame that suspend and resume are so slow compared to the 200LX.

Thanks for the help!

Good work @trueno. I faced this scenario for the first time last night too. I had picked up a small form factor Aptiva that lacked HDD & ODD along with the brackets to hold them, but I still had the floppy and a CF adaptor. Win98 installed without a hitch! Who needs those lumpy old drives.

trueno wrote on 2020-07-18, 02:24:

Thanks for the help! I got things working, I first tried to format the drive on another machine but it wouldn’t boot off of it. Ended up making a Win95 boot disk and formatting the CF/HDD in the machine, then copying install files and going from there.

It’s actually amazingly handy, I can treat the PCMCIA CF adaptor as a USB key to put things on the 50CT much like the 200LX. And to be honest Win95 is much more keyboard friendly than the 13 year old me remembers. Shame that suspend and resume are so slow compared to the 200LX.

Thanks for the help!

How much RAM is on that Libretto 50CT - also, how difficult was it to get into the 2.5” HDD bay?
I was kinda surprised that your Libretto didn’t give you any issues with a 16GB CF card - my Thinkpad 560E adamantly refuse to work with anything over 8GB...

Mine has the stock 16MB, looks like there is a proprietary upgrade to bump it up to 32.

It was fairly straight forward, I bought one off Amazon. I didn’t realize that there are different heights but I took the plastic off the top and it fit just like a normal drive. Oh and had to cut a pin. Link below.

It detected the CF/Drive as 16gb and formatted as FAT32 and things seem to work fine - I only have about 3 gigs of stuff on there right now so not sure if it will cause trouble later.

Next step is some minor surgery to replace the cmos battery, it seems to be keeping time very poorly. And maybe to overlock it to a blazing 100MHz.

Link to drive: Syba Best Connectivity 2.5-Inch... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0036DDXUM

Pierre32 wrote on 2020-07-18, 03:02:

Good work @trueno. I faced this scenario for the first time last night too. I had picked up a small form factor Aptiva that lacked HDD & ODD along with the brackets to hold them, but I still had the floppy and a CF adaptor. Win98 installed without a hitch! Who needs those lumpy old drives.

Yeah pretty sweet with old machines retrofitting them with an “SSD”. The Libretto has no fans to begin with so now it’s all solid state, quiet, and speedy too.

trueno wrote on 2020-07-18, 06:00:

Mine has the stock 16MB, looks like there is a proprietary upgrade to bump it up to 32. […]
Show full quote

Mine has the stock 16MB, looks like there is a proprietary upgrade to bump it up to 32.

It was fairly straight forward, I bought one off Amazon. I didn’t realize that there are different heights but I took the plastic off the top and it fit just like a normal drive. Oh and had to cut a pin. Link below.

It detected the CF/Drive as 16gb and formatted as FAT32 and things seem to work fine - I only have about 3 gigs of stuff on there right now so not sure if it will cause trouble later.

Next step is some minor surgery to replace the cmos battery, it seems to be keeping time very poorly. And maybe to overlock it to a blazing 100MHz.

Link to drive: Syba Best Connectivity 2.5-Inch... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0036DDXUM

Hi folks. For whatever reason my 70CT will recognize only a 2GB CF card. I can install windows 98 on it successfully. However I would like to use a 16 or 32 GB card that I have, but the Libretto is not booting to those cards only to the 2GB one. Amy idea how can I fix this? Does BIOS upgrade/downgrade help? The 16 and 32 GB cards are recognized in windows and can use them read/write. But not for booting. My libretto has a 1.6 GB original HDD.

Thank you for the info in advance.

Andy.