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Card Readers for your Computer: Crucial USB 6 in 1 Card Reader (Read Storage Options for your PDA: an explanation of the different types of cards here.) Crucial, a major manufacturer and seller of computer and flash memory products, now offers several card reader solutions. They make single slot card readers and two different multi-slot 6-in-1 readers: a compact design called the Portable, and the standard model which we received for review. The Crucial 6 in 1 reader works with CF type I and II cards, the Microdrive, SD, MMC, Memory Sticks and SmartMedia cards. It's a USB 1.1 device and it comes with a 4 foot removeable USB cable. You'll also get a brief printed installation guide and drivers for Windows and Mac on the included CD.
While on the large side, the Crucial is the Cadillac of card readers. Not only can it read every common card standard, but it has 4 separate slots and activity LEDs for each slot. If you have several devices such as PDAs, digital cameras and MP3 players, you're going to love having all these slots! Why? Because you can simultaneously have an SD or MMC card, CF card, Memory Stick and SmartMedia card in the reader, making it easy to copy files from one storage format to another. If you've got digicam images on a CF card that you'd like to put on an SD card for your Palm, just drag the image files from one card to another. No more temporarily copying the files to your computer's hard drive in order to get the files from one card type to another. The Crucial reader comes with drivers for Win98 and Windows 2000, as well as Mac OS 8.6 through 9. You don't need to install drivers for Windows ME and XP since these natively support card readers, and Mac OS X (version 10.1.3 and higher) supports card readers natively without additional drivers. The unit performed reliably for me under Windows XP and Mac OS X (version 10.2, aka Jaguar). The manual states that you don't need drivers for Windows 2000 if you have service pack 3 installed, and this is indeed true. On our Windows 2000 desktop machines with AMD processors, I did have problems getting the reader to work reliably. Our AMD desktops, like most, use VIA USB controllers, and it seems that the driver software doesn't like to play nicely with the VIA. However, the card reader and drivers did work well on these same machines when plugged into a 3rd party USB PCI card instead of the built-in USB ports. It also plays well with USB 2.0 ports, though you will of course only get USB 1.1 speeds since this is a USB 1.1 device. I had the same results with the Asante card reader which uses a newer version of the same driver software (1.7 vs. 1.5). Once the card reader is installed, you'll see 4 additional drive letters under My Computer (PC) representing these slots. If you're running Windows 98/2000 and have installed the included driver software, the drive letters will have icons that make it easy to identify each card slot. If you've ever tried to remember and guess which drive letter represents which slot, you'll appreciate this feature! On the Mac, the cards mount on the desktop after you insert them. Conclusion: a reliable reader that gives you four slots and activity LEDs for each: handy if you want to transfer files between card types. Nice software for Windows 98/2000 that gives you icons for each drive letter. If you have an AMD desktop running Windows 98 or 2000, you may have trouble getting the reader to work unless you've got a 3rd party USB card installed. www.crucial.com $49 US
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