Do I need a card reader

[John Hewat]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

... the "PCI Express to ExpressCard 34|54 Drive Read-Writer Front" device ... is the device hot-swappable with Sony SxS cards:

I think I could probably live with that. I much prefer the idea of it being inside the computer to being another peice of USB hardware sitting on the desk like the Sony one.

And it's substantially cheaper.

My only question Piotr about what you said is do you have to have the SxS card in the drive during start-up for it to be recognised? Or can you insert it whenever?

[Robert M Wright]

One of these might be worth trying:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=Add-On+Cards

I don't have an EX1, but I believe those card readers should work with SxS cards. Should be full speed too.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by John Hewat

I think I could probably live with that. I much prefer the idea of it being inside the computer to being another peice of USB hardware sitting on the desk like the Sony one.

And it's substantially cheaper.

My only question Piotr about what you said is do you have to have the SxS card in the drive during start-up for it to be recognised? Or can you insert it whenever?

Yep, I can live with it, John. And no, it's not necessary to boot with the card in - just insert it any time and use Device Manager to scan for hw changes.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

After another thought, I tend to think the need for hardware scanning is not related to the Synchrotech device, but the Sony SxS driver implemenation. The reader is visible to the system all the time; the problem is that with an SxS card removal, Windows doesn't "refresh" the device which "thinks" it's still holding the card - therefore, when you re-insert even the same card (or another one - no difference), Windows gets lost and suggest formatting it before use... Only removing the device as a whole, and scanning for it again with the new card inserted, will make it accessible to Windows.

So, I guess this is another point on the update wishlist... But then again, with the laptop ExpressCard reader there is no such problem at all - you can "safely remove" an SxS card, and on iserting another it's properly visible to the system.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

FWIW,

After installing SP1 over my Vista x64, the SxS driver causes system crashes and cannot be used at all. Has anyone managed to harness it?

Edit: I managed to solve the problem - not quite sure why, but downloading the same driver version (!!!) and re-installing it helped.

[Bob Pascucci]

Maybe I'm just being too simple here, but I just installed the card reader software on my (fairly old) office PC running Windows XP and I've not had any real difficulty swapping cards. The system seems to treat a card as any other disk in a removable-disk drive - if I change cards, all I have to do is "refresh" the card reader, and the files on the new card appear and are ready for use.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Bob Pascucci

Maybe I'm just being too simple here, but I just installed the card reader software on my (fairly old) office PC running Windows XP and I've not had any real difficulty swapping cards. The system seems to treat a card as any other disk in a removable-disk drive - if I change cards, all I have to do is "refresh" the card reader, and the files on the new card appear and are ready for use.

Bob, are you talking SxS cards? Or some other ExpressCards (presumably using USB)?

[Bob Pascucci]

I'm talking SxS cards - the Sony card reader is connected via USB. Clips show up in the "source" panel of the card reader software (I'm using the version that came with the camera - I have not gone to the web to update it). Once I've finished transferring files from one card, I simply swap cards, click on the drive icon to be sure that's the active drive (just like you would in Windows Explorer) and then click "refresh" in the View menu. The clips on the new card appear and are ready for use.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Oh, you mean the Sony reader - yes, this one is hot-swappable, but only offers USB2.0 speed. The discussion here is about the PCIe->ExpressCard adapter/readers, that use much (several times) faster PCIe connectivity.

[Michael H. Stevens]

Surely you either have or you need a current laptop for collecting fields data so use the built in express card reader.

[Bill Ravens]

surely?
ohhh, puhleeeze!!

[Michael H. Stevens]

Originally Posted by Bill Ravens

surely?
ohhh, puhleeeze!!

Bill: Stop calling me Shirly.