OFF
  | SimpleTech FlashLink CompactFlash/SmartMedia Reader
| ||||||
Average user rating:  | ||||||
 Fast Downloads! | ||||||
| I have a digital camera and it used to take so long just to get my pictures transferred to my computer. Since I got the FlashLink reader, I just slip my compact flash card out of the digital camera, plug it into my reader, and download... fast! Very cool! | ||||||
 Works on XP, but... | ||||||
| Once you manage to properly install this device's drivers on XP it works like a charm. If you will be using this device on Windows XP, do yourself a favor and forget about the included CD-Rom. Go to the SimpleTech web site, follow the links on the site to get to the support pages for the FlashLink product and based on your device's Part number (found on the base of the unit), download the latest FlashLink.exe installation program. Install this before plugging the device for the first time and reboot. After rebooting, plug in the reader and allow Windows XP to detect it and initiate the Driver installation routine. It will ask you whether you want to install the drivers automatically and after you click Next it will ask you whether you want to allow the installation of Unsigned drivers. Answer yes only if you have downloaded and installed the driver package from the web site, the drivers supplied on the CD-Rom do not work and cause XP to crash. If you have already installed the CD-Rom drivers and have problems, you must first uninstall them before installing the ones from the Web Site. Open the Windows XP Device Manager, plug in your device, you'll see it appear under the USB Devices branch. Right click on the CompactFlash + SmartMedia reader device and click on Uninstall. Unplug the reader, uninstall the FlashLink software (if you installed it from the CD-Rom) and reboot. Then install the FlashLink software from their web site. After this hurdle, the device works like a champ. Once plugged, it will show two new drive letters in Windows Explorer, the first for the CompactFlash slot and the second for the SmartMedia slot. Data transfer is really fast, at about 4MB per second. I give it 4 starts because of the poor job of providing XP drivers in the supplied CD-Rom, despite the fact that the packaging clearly states that it supports XP. | ||||||
| Good Product | ||||||
| I purchased this product because of its combination input. If you follow the instructions (which tell you to load the drivers BEFORE plugging in the unit), it is extremely easy to install. I used the latest driver from SimpleTech's web site - just did a site search on "Flashlink UCS-200 driver" and found the driver. Never even needed to load the CD included with the reader. Note that some of the links on their site lead to missing pages - just be persistent and keep trying other links in the list. I have a 450 MHz Pentium machine with Windows 98 (first edition), and after loading the new driver, I plugged in the reader to the USB port and it recognized both drives (slots) immediately. Allows hot-swapping (no computer power-down/up required) of either the reader or the cards. Very convenient. It's worth the extra bucks it costs to get two readers in one package. | ||||||
People who bought SimpleTech FlashLink CompactFlash/SmartMedia Reader also bought ... | ||||||
| ||||||
