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SanDisk USB SmartMedia Reader (SDDR-09-01)

SanDisk USB SmartMedia Reader (SDDR-09-01)

List Price: $49.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Uploading problems
Review: After reading a number of reviews I thought this item would be just what the doctor ordered. Now if all you want to do is to download from a SmartMedia card to the computer fine and good. It does that quick as a wink at 50 times the speed of a serial port. However for love nor money I can't get it to do uploads properly from the computer to a SmartMedia card without locking things up and getting the "Blue Screen of Death". It is advertised as being able to do this as easily as downloads. So back it goes to Amazon. One of the reasons I purchased the reader was to do uploads from the computer to a SmartMedia card so I could do slide shows on the TV. Therefore the item is really of no use to me at all for that purpose. But if you don't plan on doing uploads off the computer, it reads the card just great and quicker'n greased lightning compared to a serial port. Also had no trouble at all installing it in the computer. Can't see that the reader has damaged the card as other reviewers have commented on.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Couldn't be easier
Review: After seeing some of the mixed reviews online, I was a bit nervous about buying this SmartMedia reader. But, all my fears were for nothing. Opened the box, read the instructions. Installed the software, rebooted and plugged it in. Voila! It appeared as a new "drive". No problems whatsoever. It's cute, too!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No Conflicts, No Problems.
Review: Before purchasing a smart media card reader I had read the reviews here and was not overly impressed. But since Best Buy has a 30 day return policy and the SanDisk was on sale I thought why not?

Well needless to say it was a great purchase. This reader is lightning fast! It downloads images from my Digital Camera in a matter of seconds. I also have the Adaptec CD Creator software and have had no conflicts whatsoever.

It was also very easy to install, and straight to the point. So I say if you have a Best Buy near you try it out, if it does not work return it for a full refund.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: don't try it if you have W95 OSR2
Review: both the web site and the documentation with the device say it can be used with W95 OSR2 - I spent much time with much pain trying to make it do so. I have no additional devices on this machine and I don't appear to have any other devices running with known conflicts - no Zip, no CD-R, no other USB. Ugly system crashes. Returned it for the Viking Intelliflash - while that didn't work great with W95 either, at least the machine wasn't crashing. Ended up upgrading to 98 and kept the Viking - which now works fabulously. Maybe the Sandisk would have worked with 98 but I had already returned it and the Viking Support desk was great.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works as promised.
Review: Followed the given instructions and the device installed without any problems (Win98 SE, with CD-R, Zip, Jaz drives). The device, referred to as the ImageMate, appears as a removable drive, and can be dragged to and from like any other drive. Very easy to use. Two LEDs indicate power and if the SmartMedia card is inserted properly. Its design is aesthetic, has an approximately 3.5" diameter footprint, and has anti-slide material on the bottom. The cord is about 3 feet long.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not compatible with laptops
Review: I agree with another writer who said it wasn't compatible with Dell Laptops. I had a similar problem and tech support was trying to get me to change my startup menu telling me too many programs were running at once and causing the problems because there wasn't enough memory which is totally not the case. This thing is crap and I'm definitely returning it for another brand. We had one from Zio that we lost, but it worked much better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: SanDISK Smartmedia reader on a Macintosh
Review: I am a Macintosh user using an older Macintosh 7300 with a PowerPC processor. I am running OS9. I have a MacAlly PCI to USB interface card installed and have the SanDISK plugged into that. I found that the driver that came with the SanDisk reader needed to be upgraded (easily done over the Internet) before I got the reader to work reliably.

After that, things went very well. I have used the reader several times without a hickup. It is very, very fast compared to either the serial cable approach or the Flashcard Floppy Disk reader that I have been using. I would recommend this to anyone with a digital camera using SmartMedia.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cheap, Simple, and Good!
Review: I bought this little guy over a month ago and have had no problems with it at all. I fill and download 3 or 4 64MB SmartMedia cards a week, and this has made my life much simpler. I bought two, in fact. One for my home and one for my office machine (both are iMac DVs running OS 9.1, by the way).

I like my electronics to be unobtrusive, quiet, and reliable. This fulfills those requirements well. It is a little bigger than I thought it would be, but it hides on the bookshelf next to my desk nicely.

This is USB Bus-powered, which can cause problems if you have a lot of USB devices on the Bus. I am running it off a powered Belkin hub along with two printers, a scanner, a webcam, a ZIP drive, a floppy drive, and a Palm cradle. It hasn't added any noticeable strain on the system.

Mac users: this is the one you want. I can't speak for the Windows folks who have had software issues with it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Fast, but not worth it
Review: I bought this reader a couple months after receving my digital camera and had nothing but problems. We followed the advice on the website [downloaded the driver] and still had problems. Yes the download speed was very fast compared to using the serial port, but the problems I encountered were not worth it. Using the SanDisk caused my computer to freeze repeatedly, I had to reformat my disk more than once, and even lost almost 200 photos once. Now it just sits and collects dust and I put up with the serial port to download to my computer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unbelievable machine!
Review: I finally ordered the SmartMedia ImageMate, even after reading some pretty horrific reviews (and some very good ones). The SanDisk web page says to check the CDW EasyCreate, and mine was OK (3.5c, "c" makes it OK). Received the reader, installed the software, plugged it in to an empty USB port, stuck in a half-full SmartCard from my Olympus 360L camera, clicked on the "G" drive, and there it was - all of it! Downloaded 40 images in 15-20 seconds (not 20-30 minutes!), played around with uploads, deletes, any old files (not only images) - WORKS LIKE MAGIC! (**FAST** magic...) I have Windows 98, Pentium III at 733 MHz, a Costco USB splitter, 3 or 4 other USB devices, shut down & restart each day,and the system still crashes once a day or so. Pretty standard setup, I think. Good luck to all!!!


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