About the card reader

RB
Posted By
Ralph_Brannon
Oct 25, 2003
Views
373
Replies
16
Status
Closed
Hi folks and folkettes.
The way I take pictures with my digital and PE2 is take shot. Take the card to the computer and PE2, fix it, sell it, remove card, take the next subject. I do this 40 + times.
When I first started, I use a Zio reader for compact flash, I just put the card in, read file removed card. I didn’t eject or safely remove hardware. (Using XP home). Never had any problem with this, but I knew I should remove the hardware before pulling the card, and hence, plug card in reader before plugging in the reader to the USB port. So I have been doing it the "proper" way for sometime, just hate all the extra steps.

My question ??
Well I have my eye on the new Lexar 6 in 1 (or sometimes advertised as 8 in 1) reader that works with USB 2.0. The speed of the transfer would be nice, but…. I can’t help but wondering, so I will ask, does any of these new card readers have either the ability to just safely pull out the card, or maybe have a button or something that does the remove safely ?
I would REALLY like to be able to just plug card in, pull card out without all the extra clicks and time

Thanks, as usual
Ralph
<http://www.darkstar.us>

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LK
Leen_Koper
Oct 25, 2003
Ralph,

I have my multi card reader always connected to the pc (Win XP) and take out the card after uploading whenever I like. No problem whatsoever, so probably I don’t quite understand your problem.

I hope my lack of understanding is the solution to your problem. 😉

Leen
RB
Ralph_Brannon
Oct 25, 2003
Thanks Leen, that is what I did for awhile, and never had a problem. However if you read docs with the reader, or windows, it says you should safely remove the hardware, reader, before pulling the card.
The safely remove hardware icon down by the clock, is the where you do that at. (Have to pick the reader(device) Stop the device, then it tells you it is save to remove reader.)
I never had any problem just pulling the card either, but it isn’t recommended either by windows or the reader.

Ralph
<http://www.darkstar.us>
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 25, 2003
On my Mac, I just drag the icon of the reader to the trash, and I get a message I can now safely remove the card. The reader stays connected.

On the Win XP machine, I go to the card reader icon and right click>eject. It is more trouble on the XP, but my SanDisk gave no instructions about removing the hardware, only to make sure the reader was dismounted before removing the card.

Hmmm. I didn’t think there was that much difference amongst readers. Learn something new every day!
NS
Nancy_S
Oct 26, 2003
Ralph,

I used to right click icon and click eject (SanDisk reader) but lately have been using the Safely Remove icon in Notification area. I don’t unplug the reader though, I just take out the card at that point. I thought the crucial thing was to make sure the reader or anything else really, wasn’t accessing the hardware when you wanted to remove the card. In four years, haven’t had a problem (knock on wood). FWIW

Nancy
LM
Lou_M
Oct 26, 2003
If I understand what you’re saying, Ralph, you’re removing the card reader’s USB plug from the PC’s USB port when it says it’s safe to remove hardware? You shouldn’t need to do that. When Windows says it’s "safe to remove hardware", it’s talking about removing the card/stick from the reader, not the reader from the PC.

<warning, no guarantee for the following segment>
Actually, if all you’re doing is *reading* from the card, then you probably don’t even need to "safely" eject it by doing all those right-clicks and OK clicking. You can *probably* just pull it right out. However, if you’re modifying files on the card, or copying new files to the card, then it is *VERY* important to remove it safely with all the requisite mouse clicks. What Windows (or Mac OS) is doing is keeping some of the file information in memory (it’s faster that way) rather than writing every byte to the card immediately. So if you add a file to the card and them immediately remove the card, all the data may not have been written to the card even though it looks like Windows is done copying the information.
</end warning>

If that’s more information than you wanted to know, or too confusing, then you’ll probably want to eject the card properly every time. 🙂

Lou
RB
Ralph_Brannon
Oct 26, 2003
I pull the plug on the reader because in a few minutes I will be putting the card back in it. Since the reader has been safely removed, the only way the PC can determine the card is back in the reader is to plug the reader back in, then windows recognizes the reader again. I tried just putting the card back in, after hardware has been removed, but it doesn’t know the reader is pluged in.
I suspect, Lou, you may be correct as long as nothing is accesing the card the card is safe. I also just pulled the card and put it back in for a long time with no problem. I just got to thinking though, I would really be mad at myself if I killed a card, so I have been doing it the long way.
I quess I have been hopeing that by now these manufactors would design there new readers so that a push of a button would disconnect the reader and a lite would go on or off or something to signal OK to remove the card.
I know on my little Zio reader it has a lite on the reader when it is connected, and as soon as windows disconnects the reader the lite goes off.

Thanks all,
Ralph
<http://www.darkstar.us>
LM
Lou_M
Oct 26, 2003
I have 3 readers myself: a Dazzle Memory Stick reader, a no-name Memory Stick reader, and a PNY Compact Flash reader. Some have lights, some don’t. Some lights go off when they are successfully dismounted; others the lights just blink slower.

But in every case, I can safely eject a card, then remove it physically from the reader (leaving the reader still connected to the USB port), then reinsert it and Windows (Win 2000 and Win XP Home) (and Mac OS X) will recognize the card when it’s reinserted.

So must be something with that particular reader you have.
SS
Susan_S.
Oct 26, 2003
You do have to be careful with the memory cards – at least on macs running OS9 anyway! My husband’s laptop failed to recognise my card reader – little light came on the reader but it wouldn’t show up the CF card on the desktop. I jiggled it around a cople of times to see if it would work, but it didn’t so I pulled it out and restarted the machine. Worked fine then. But…..two excel documents that my husband had open had become corrupted. And they were important. And they weren’t backed up. Luckily I managed to recover their contents, but for the half an hour or so that it took me to recover them I felt rather guilty…altho’ they should have been backed up of course.

Susan S.
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 26, 2003
Ralph, we ARE talking about a USB reader and a desktop machine here, aren’t we? Because the "rules" change if, like I often do, you use a PowerBook/laptop and a PCMCIA card as your reader. When using one of those, the PCMCIA card does have to be removed from the computer and reinserted each time you want to mount the camera card.
RB
Ralph_Brannon
Oct 26, 2003
Good morning Beth.
Yes, I haul around a desktop computer with USB 2.0.
One of the reasons I am looking at the Lexar reader is the 2.0 would give me a little boost in transfer speed. By the way, they also make a firewire version of this multi-format reader.
I have just always been annoyed with the remove hardware procedure since I take many pictures in a day and constantly move card from reader to computer with every shot.
When I started my little buisness, I wanted a laptop, and it would be so much easier, but calibrating one doesn’t seem to work well.
So I have been hoping for smarter readers since during the course of a weekend I will probably take and sell 100 or more photos. Each one going individually from camera to reader.
Sure hope the little door and button on my camera don’t wear out.

Ralph
<http://www.darkstar.us>
NS
Nancy_S
Oct 26, 2003
Ralph,

This is for your ‘kid on pony’ images I presume…wow, I wonder where you set up that you have so many ‘takers’??

Nancy
PL
Paul_L_UK
Oct 26, 2003
Ralph

I have not noticed a great difference with my USB2 comapct flash reader (about 2Meg/s), but I am not using fast cards.

You may want to think about a bay mounted USB2 multi-reader, fits in a 5" bay mount, and accessed from the front. Te lead runs thru’ your PC to either an internal card or via a blanking plate to your on board ports.

Another idea would be to copy a shortcut to the desktop, then you can right click/eject from there.

Paul
RB
Ralph_Brannon
Oct 26, 2003
Hi Nancy,
No, I take old west photos were they dress up. I go to craft shows, fairs, etc. <http://www.darkstar.us/gallery_1/index.html>

Its alot of fun actually.

Ralph
<http://www.darkstar.us>
NS
Nancy_S
Oct 26, 2003
Ralph,

I thought there was a pony in there somewhere, I did remember the Western outfits. Kids are fun!

Nancy
BH
Beth_Haney
Oct 26, 2003
Ah, one of the disappointments of my 1940s and 1950s childhood – I never got to have my picture taken on one of those cute Shetland ponies. 🙂
EA
Earl_Alexander
Oct 26, 2003
I use to ride an old gray mule down the road to the cotton patch in south Mississippi and I never had a photo taken with him either, but I did get to use his a** as a compass up one row and down the other while plowing.

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

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