Username Ahoy

Is it possible that your laptop isn't outputting the sound at line levels? Try plugging the cord into the red (amplified) socket, and seeing what happens. Chances are the line-out from your computer is too faint for your minidisc to notice - I have the MZ-R500, which is the "little brother" companion model to the R700, and pointing a microphone directly at a fifteen-foot speaker stack, without a "battery box" (which amplifies the signal), I'd be lucky to get two "bars" worth of sound.

I've heard accounts on another forum that contain lines to the effect of "some cut-and-pasting in a sound editor might be required" after a TOC clone. Having not yet had means to perform a cloning, I can't really state how exactly this plays out. Hopefully I'll either find a way to clone on my Sharp MS100, or acquire a MS702, and be able to do a little tinkering of my own. Having said that, though, I would suspect, without actually going back and pouring over the specifications, that data isn't fragmented beyond actual samples, and that unless a minidisc is heavily (heavily!) used-reused, the fragmentation wouldn't be too severe. At worst, you'd encounter something like "ABCDEF-JKLMNO-GHI-PQRSTUVWXYZ" (as opposed to "AB-D-F-E-C-PQR-N-M-O-K-J-L etc"). I also remember reading that heavily fragmented MDs (on the order of the second example) will cause all sorts of gooey mayhem with most players, as the optics are too busy moving back and forth to the next "block" to keep the skip buffer fresh (and suck massive amounts of battery in the process) - but this is only the dimmest of memories, from years and ages ago.

Greetings and salutations I recently acquired a very chunky Sharp MD-MS100 unit - apparently this unit is incredibly old school, being one of the first to come out in Japan way back in 1995 (back when the internet still ran on kerosene, if I remember correctly). Has a nice, substantial feel to it, like I'm actually holding something. I bought this unit for the purpose of TOC cloning, having several discs that my suddenly-unreliable MZ-R500 "ate". It's certainly an MD-MSxxx class unit, as described on this page. However, the internals seem to be completely different than the ones described on the subsequent how-tos. I see nothing that could be a "protection switch". However, it's entirely possible that I'm simply overlooking it - the more I study the picture of the MS-702, the more it begins to resemble the internals of my unit (or maybe I'm just flipping out ) I'm hoping that somebody here will know of a way, or be able to point me straight at the switch that needs to be moved - it'd bum me out if the minidisc.org page was misleading (since the instructions seem to apply to MD-MS7xx units - it's a mistake, but certainly a mistake that could be easily corrected). Anyway, here are some pictures of the unit: I'd be willing to poke and prod around, if anyone has any questions about a certain area of the recorder. I'd rather not open it up, but beyond that I'm game to explore. http://www.minidisc.org/ms100_test_mode.html has information about the test mode - has anyone heard of successfully cloning a TOC by entering test mode (similar to the Sony way)? Please don't tell me to look at the minidisc.org page. I've already read all four articles (Sony cloning, older Sony cloning, Sharp MSxxx cloning, and the cached Sharp MT-15 article). I found at least two other articles referring to the MSxxx series, though they were both geared towards the MS7xx models. Please do not tell me to search these forums - I searched for "MS100" and only found posts asking for manuals, and a post about sync recording. Sorry if I sound crabby, but generic messages do get on my nerves a little bit. Thanks in advance for any help that anyone's willing to offer me!