Use Multi-Flash Card Readers to Overcome Data Storage Format Incompatibilities

As advanced consumer electronics like digital cameras, PDAs, multimedia mobile phones, and similar devices become more and more affordable for the daily user, we have to keep up with more and more types of technology, which makes it increasingly difficult for all our devices to be compatible. The technological marvels which have opened up so many new avenues to the Common Home User, which were reserved for the wealthy, are all sold to us with the advice that they will make our lives easier and better.

Specifically looking at digital cameras, the biggest problem of this kind is the fact that there are over 8 distinctly different types of commonly used memory storage cards, and devices that use them are rarely able to accommodate more than two types at best. SecureDigital, two-generation CompactFlash, Microdrive, SmartMedia (Smart Card), Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro, xD Picture Card and MultiMediaCard: how many of them do you use? If you know, do you know which device uses which? Fortunately, with the advent of multi-format flash card readers, you can now safely know that no matter what camera, phone, PDA, or PC storage card you are using, you can transfer data between any of your other devices quickly and easily.

A multi-format flash card reader is simply a device that plugs into your PC via one of several different types of data cables, which has a series of slots that accept one or more of the above removable media types. above. It can read and write to these cards, transferring data – be it photos, mp3s, word documents, or anything else – between the memory card and your computer's hard drive. From here you can transfer data to another card via the card reader, if desired, or perhaps edit and print photos from the computer, burn data to a data CD or DVD, or just keep them in your collection on your PC. They are surprisingly affordable for what they offer, and there is a very wide range available in the market.

Use Multi-Flash Card Readers to Overcome Data Storage Format Incompatibilities

When deciding which card reader is for you, there are fortunately only a few things you need to consider that will make a difference in your buying decision. The most obvious is to consider what you actually need: How many and what types of flashcards do you use, and are you likely to add to that number in the foreseeable future? Naturally, then you consider which of the available players has the features you need. You may want to be ready for every occasion, simply opting to buy the player that offers the most number of different formats.

Since finding a range of drives that support more formats than any user is likely to need isn't difficult, a more important thing to consider is whether a drive is compatible with your PC. The majority use FireWire or USB 2.0 to transfer between your computer and the device. Although there are some important differences between them, such as the maximum connection speed, the difference between their connection speeds is the least likely factor to limit its operation and is beyond the scope of this brief guide.

What you need to know is if you have a FireWire or USB port on your computer. Chances are if your computer's age is anything like your camera, you already have USB media. For a point of reference, USB 1.0 (which is compatible with, but slower than USB 2) started to become standard when Pentium III was released. If you're not sure, you're looking for a "female" rectangular socket - there's likely to be more than one - on the front or back of your PC measuring about 1/2" wide by about 3 /16” high (about 12mm x 3.5 mm).

As well as hardware compatibility, if you are not using a recent version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, you need to determine if your system will be able to run the software for the drive you purchase. Although not all software is compatible on Linux or Mac OS, flash card readers generally act as a fairly standard mass storage device, and cards often use a slightly modified FAT-16 file system, which means that basic read-write operation is generally easy to configure, even without the software. Finally, there is the cost to consider.

After defining the criteria for judging the products, we can compare some of the most interesting models on the market. Obviously, there is a lot more than these two, however, they serve well, for example. SanDisk's ImageMate 8-in-1, as the name suggests, supports eight different media types: Compact Flash (1 & 2), MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, xD Picture Card, Memory Stick Pro, and Secure Digital. Although it supports it, it should be noted that SanDisk recommends against using Microdrive with this device. It has 4 physical ports, each acting as a USB mass storage device (4 virtual drives in total) with any version of Windows after Windows 95, or Mac OS 9 and later.

It uses a USB 2.0 interface and offers very fast transfer speeds of all card formats to the PC. If you want compatibility with just about every major flashcard in use, then the ImageMate 8-in-1, made by a respected brand in the industry, and usually retailing for just over $60, is a great purchase.

If you need a better guarantee of compatibility with your system, you should consider the Addonics Pocket Ultra DigiDrive (UDD). It supports all ImageMate formats, plus some less common ones too. Also functioning as a USB 2.0 mass storage device, the feature that sets this one apart from the rest is compatibility. In addition to being compatible with Windows and Mac OS, it includes drivers and support for Sun Solaris 8 and above, and Linux Kernel 2.4 and above. This device represents the ultimate in cross-compatibility and also being priced at around $60, it's a tempting buy.

Flashcard readers are very affordable devices that eliminate compatibility issues. Whether it's for your camera, PDA, media phone, PC, and whatever similar device you want to name, these ingenious devices are so affordable you almost can't afford to have one.