So I recorded a lot of music (live concerts, lessons, etc.) to cassette tape. Now I want to transfer the information to digital to preserve the information and edit it. I acquired a “plus deck 2c” which is a PC cassette deck.
This “deck” must be installed in my computer and I don’t have an extra 5.25" bay. Do I have any options besides buying a new tower? My current tower is a Dell. Is there something I can get to make my internal hardware work externally?
Is this going to be an ongoing project? Or do you need to make this a one-time, massive transfer?
If it is a one-time event, simply remove one side panel from the tower, unplug whichever I/O device will not be needed during the transfer, use those connections to hook up the separate drive, (lay it on a book or something), reboot, transfer the music, then reverse the process.
If this is going to be an ongoing process, you will either need to change one of the devices to an external unit or buy a new tower. If the latter, good luck; Dell makes a whole bunch of stuff in proprietary format so that they can gouge you if you ever need to upgrade or modify your hardware configuration.
tomndebb I thought about this earlier today, but it will be an on-going project, so I need to work out a more permanent situation. (I thought about punching a hole in the plastic part of my computer, then realized it was a bad idea). You’re right about Dell, I’ll keep it in mind if I end up buying a new tower.
Enclosures like those are for IDE drives. The PlusDeck 2c “[r]equires PC with sound card with line-in and line-out ports, an RS-232 9-pin serial port (or adapter), 5.25” drive bay, empty PCI slot panel and Windows Me/2000/XP," so it’s not an IDE drive.
If I were you I’d just put the drive on top of the tower and draw any necessary wires out of the computer through an empty PCI slot hole. The RS-232 is already on the outside of the computer, so it’s just the line-in/line-out and the power.