Memory-Card-Reader Reviews

There is a lot to praise in this little pocketful. Setting it up is a breeze, even with the terse documentation provided, and I got started using it within 10 minutes. Read and data transfer rates are good enough for home or amateur, even office use, though a multimedia professional may want quicker times. The small footprint means you can easily fit it on crowded desks and carrying it around is easy too. And carry it you will - the reason for buying this gadget of course is to ease the load on your digital camera. Using the camera to transfer images to a computer is a waste of battery time and even if you use the adaptor, you really don't need the camera's electronics to run the transfer. Instead, leave the camera in its case, slip the card into this reader and you are on your way. A small precaution: As with all USB devices, this reader draws power from the computer so before you unplug, check that no read/write operation is under way or you may lose data.

This is so much easier than trying to hook a digital camera to a PC to download pictures and videos. Once it is installed you use it like a disk drive.

The SanDisk SDDR-55 installed easily and worked well from the start. Within 15 minutes I was downloading images from my new camera. The documentation is not impressive, but the performance is. My only real complaint is that the driver software can only be installed on the computer's C: drive. Mine is nearly full, so I like to install new programs on the D: drive. Otherwise, I easily recommend this product.

Scoot over floppy CF is here in full effect. It's the fast way to transfer pictures, data, and other files. I use it to store mucho pictures on my digital camera.

I was at the airport trying to bring up a presentation I was working on... instead of spending time on the presentation, I was muddling through my floppies to find it! A buddy of mine suggested that I use CF cards to store my files on using this PC card adapter. Can you say "NO more Floppies!" Great product!

Ok, I just got a new digital camera and decided to buy another compactflash card from Simpletech and the Flashlink CF card reader, so I can get my pics to my PC fast. Then a friend suggested that I try using my CF cards as mini hard drives! I tell you it works. All I needed was the Simpletech PC card adapter and it like using a small floppy with alot more storage space!! Awesome!!

This is a nice compact 6-in-1 unit that comes in a little pouch. It's not too big, and for traveling you don't need to carry around the USB cable - it has its own short USB connector to plug into a laptop. It plugged into my Windows XP system with no trouble and simply appeared as four removable drives. The speed is excellent, much faster than the USB 1.1 device I had tried earlier. Though it's more expensive than some of the other 6-in-1 memory card readers, I think it's worth it.

Note that an insert in the manual warns of a problem writing MMC cards, and suggests checking the web site for driver updates. I haven't done this yet, as I don't have any MMC cards, so I can't vouch for whether or not there is a fix.

Recently I needed a multi-card reader and wanted to take advantage of USB 2.0. I first purchased another brand 6-in-1 reader but it did not work properly with the XP system on my computer (driver conflict?). I returned it and went and purchased this unit. Not only is it smaller, but it worked instantly! Don't waste time looking at other units. Get this one whether you have USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 (very, very fast).

The Imation FlashGO! 2.0 is a great 6-in-1 reader/writer. Worked the first time it was plugged in, and everytime thereafter. It's much more compact and lighter that the SanDisk 6-in-1 unit. And definitely much more reliable (I tried 2 of the SanDisk 6-in-1 units -- both could not be detected, hung and crashed my Win2000 SP3).

Although twice the size of its predecessor (FlashGO! USB1.1), it's still small enough to be portable. Comes with a vinyl pouch (case) and would fit most shirt pockets. Ideal for use with laptops and not too bulky to carry around. Definitely much faster than the USB 1.1 version.

Yes! This small thing is a perfect reader of compact flash cards. When I got it I was really amazed by the small size --- just a little bigger than a flash card. This is really good for traveling when space in the backpack is limited. This just adds a new drive to the computer that can read compact flash cards --- forget about aquiring pictures from cameras! I don't need to worry about installing the messy software of different cameras to my computer, as far as all the cameras take pictures with compact flash card.

I can't understand why some card readers cost literally 3-4 times the price. I've used this with Windows 98 and with Windows XP. You pretty much just plug it in and it works. I can't believe I used to connect my digital camera to the PC to download photos! This is so much easier (not to mention easier on my expensive camera).

I bought this little card reader for using a compact flash card that came with my first digital camera. At first, I had been loading directly from the camera into a software program which places the photos in an on-screen album. That process seemed too slow; and I really didn't want everything in an album. The reader is so much faster and easier. You put the card in the reader's slot, plug the USB cord into the computer, and an icon of a disk appears on screen. Click on the icon, and in the window that opens there are several folders. A couple of the folders have items in them that seem to be informational or for functionality, and which I leave untouched, but other folders are created for storing your photos when you use your camera. Click on these folders to display a window full of small images of your photos, (you can click on them to enlarge them). It is easy to remove any of them to the trash if I don't like them, or to move them into other folders on my hard drive, a disk, an album, or wherever I want to store them. Or I can immediately open them with a photo imaging program, (I usually use Photoshop Elements).

When I got this little gadget, it immediately made the process of loading my photos onto the computer much better for me. I've had it for several months, and it's been completely reliable.

If you own a digital camera and take a lot of pictures and value your own time, then get this. With SimpleTech's 128MB Compact Flash card and reader I'm able to get the most out of my Canon Powershot G2. I can store 200 photos then download them incredibly fast to my PC without wasting my camera battery life or mine.

Nothing is more waste of time that waiting for you images to download from the digital camera to your computer. I needed an extra CF card and stumbled on this package that also comes with the reader... now I can get images from the card to computer in a flash! Great stuff!

I needed a way to get my images from my digital camera to my computer faster, the serial connections are too slow. I couldn't believe how fast I was able to down load all my images from the compact flash card. My computer sees the FlashLind just like another hard drive, and with Win2000, installation was a cinch. If you take alot of pictures with your digital camera, you're going to want to get one of these!

Very pleased with the flash reader. No problmes no issues.

After using this flash ROM "drive" for a week I went out and bought another since they're so cheap, and a 128M ROM to go with it to supplement the 64M ROM I already have.

They both installed without any problems. After installing the drivers off the CD and rebooting, the drives were recognized immediately as soon as I plugged them into the USB ports on my keyboard. Pretty cool.

I use these as "fat floppies" since the files I manipulate and update everyday no longer fit on a single floppy. With the two new ZiO! drives, I can make two copies, one to each flash ROM and I'm pretty well covered. The probability that both ROMs will fail simultaneously are pretty slim. But just to make sure I back up once a week to CD-R.

The only reason I don't use the CR-R option more often is that I have Windows XP and the Adaptec CD Creator software still doesn't seem to work very well except under Windows 98. That means I have to dual-boot back into 98 to burn a CD, which is a little inconvenient and time-consuming. The purchase of these two ZiO! drives completely obviates that problem for everyday needs.

The only thing to watch out for is you might want to get a ROM with a higher write speed if you intend to update many megs worth of files every day. I don't know what the speed is, but the 64M ROM is the faster of the two, and it copies things over about twice as fast as the larger 128M ROM. I got the slower rating for the big one since it was cheaper, and both are more than large enough to accommodate anything I want to back up. But the speed difference is noticeable between the two if you're transferring lots of megs all the time.

This is mainly observable when copying many smaller files. For smaller numbers of large files, the copy rate is considerably, perhaps 2 or 3 times, faster, which is interesting.

Overall, a great little product and not that expensive either given the extra speed and convenience.

I LOVE this item.
I plugged it into the USB port on my laptop (WIN 2000) and I was able to see the CF card just like a disk drive. No problems, no hassles.

I bought this one after I returned a CF reader from another manufacturer (it was on sale). After an hour of trying to get the other reader to work, I gave up. This one worked right away.

This adapter is great. It saves time and its easy to use. Well worth the money.

Turn your CompactFlash card into a Type2 PCMCIA card, great if you are on the road w/ a laptop and a CF based camera!

I have a PC in home with Windows 2000 and another in office with Office XP. The reader works fine in Windows XP, it works like another drive. But I had problems using it in Windows 2000, the driver generated an error, I contacted Simpletech Service by e-mail and recieved excellent service, they guided me to correct the problem, unfortunately, it was not possible to do that reader works, now i will upgrade to Win XP in home.

Fast, easy, and simple to use. I bought this along the a Simpletech 64mb SD card from Amazon for my m515 and they work perfectly. Get it and notice almost zero transfer time from file to card.

Hard to find, but this is the one you need for your new Minolta Dimage X and other devices using the new, smaller memory card. It also is known as the "mini FlashLink".
Good deal, REAL FAST, and shipping from Office Depot exceeded all expectations.

I needed a card reader for the proprietary XD memory used in my digital camera so I bought this reader. It is a great value for this price because it reads 8 different formats of memory cards. Great if you use several formats of memory cards or have friends with other cards.

It hooks up via a USB docking station and is backward compatible with the older USB standard. It also comes with a short USB connector if you do not want to carry around the docking station. It just plugs and plays in Windows XP. It creates 4 removable disks in my computer for each memory format because there is 4 slots and each slot fits 2 different memory formats. This makes it possible to move data from one format to another very easily with some obvious limitations.

Overall a Keeper

In my opinion this is the best memory card reader you could get. The price at Amazon is a good deal, plus with the free shipping you won't make a mistake. Here is the summary:

Pros:
1. It looks elegant. The colour combination of silver and black makes it look like a serious tool you could display even in an office environment.
2. Comes with a bonus stand to enable the display at an upright position. Saves space in a cluttered environment.
3. Comes with another USB cable to you could position it horizontally (flat) on a table. You will have to keep the stand, in this case.
4. USB 2.0 speed which means faster transfer speed.
5. No drivers needed if you use the latest Windows XP or Mac OS X operating system. I use the Mac and there is nothing to install.
6. 8 in 1 memory card reader. Try finding that in othe products at that price and design. You connect as much memory cards that could fill the slot and they will appear individually in your desktop. This means you can transfer files between memory cards without having to transfer and use your desktop as a holding place.
7. Each slot has its own individual lights to indicate correct installation and file activity transfer.
8. Light and portable.

Cons:
1. Light - plastic construction. Feels fragile, but I guess SanDisk knows better on making it sturdy.
2. The cable for the bonus stand is long, but the extra cable supplied to lay the product flat is short - and I mean short! This is a plus for those who bring this with their portable computers and don't need the extra long cable. A big minus for those who wish to forego the stand, but decide to use with their desktop on a desk. You will need to connect it to a hub if your USB plug is nowhere close.

All in all a great buy for the price.

I got this reader to read my Compact Flash, IBM Microdrive, Secure Digital, and XD cards. I've had it for a few months now and it has transfered all my image and video files from all my cards without any trouble at all.

The nice thing also is that it doesn't require any drivers - just plug it in and it's ready to go. Has lots of pretty LED lights too!

It adds 4 drive letters to your computer. Unfortunately they only have generic names ("Removable Disk" in WinXP). The manual tells you which slot each drive letter refers to, though. It also came with some bundled software (Adobe Photoshop Album) but I haven't tried it.

The docking base has a cable that is approximately 42 inches long. It also comes with a USB cable that's like 3 inches so you can hook up the reader to a laptop without using the docking base.

It's definitely a very handy reader. The fact that it can read 8 types of cards seemed like overkill to me at first, but when I got a new camera that required Secure Digital cards, I was relieved that I didn't have to purchase an extra card reader.

Why keep those old floppies when I can store stuff on my notebook computer. Not only does it support hot swapping but I can transfer data, files, and pictures on it. Simpletech treats me well.

Read the reviews below and I have to agree... once you use this adapter and a hight capacity SM card, you'll toss all those annoying, low capacity floppies away!! Works great!

I was complaining about how little storage space 3.5" floppies provide. A friend suggested that I try using Smartmedia cards as super floppies! So I bought this Simpletech SM card adapter with a 64MB smartmedia card and it works awesome! Threw all my floppies away and now I only use the smartmedia cards to back-up and store stuff on my notebook computer!