Expresscard PCIe Compact flash reader

cowasaki

cowasaki

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Darren
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Well there have been discussions about the speed of USB2 and firewire compact flash readers but following my USB2 one loosing a pin I found this little gem on ebay at £10.99 !!

expresscard.jpg


You need a laptop with an express card slot like a macbook pro but this thing is FAAAAASSSTT......

Just transferred a load of stuff off an Extreme III card and the speed was virtually the listed speed of 30Mb/s certainly faster than either FW or USB!!

If you have a camera that uses SD cards then they do a much more elegant solution that completely slots inside the computer and gives you the card slot in the side just like the newer macbook pros. Unfortunately the expresscard standard is smaller than the compact flash standard so this is not possible. You can buy a compact flash to PCMCIA adapter for older laptops too which is not quite as fast but slots away more tidily!

The one I got was from a seller called uranium99 > LINK TO STORE NOTE: They sell two versions, a £9.99 version that is 30Mb/s and a £10.99 version that is 45Mb/s max
 
Ian_H said:
Thanks for that, been looking for one of these for a while but always unsure about what you get from these Hong Kong sellers but glad to hear it works well.


Cheers
Ian
Click to expand...


I had been a little sceptical but thought "what the hell" and just bought it. If you are getting one I would make sure you pay the extra £1 !
 
If you have a 54mm Express card slot then one of these will almost completely disappear and can be left inserted permanently.....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CF-Compact-Fl...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439dda210c

I bought two back in 2007 from this same seller. They only cost £6 each, including insured delivery. :) The one in my Dell XPS M1710 is flush with the laptop casing. The one in my Philips X67 sticks proud by maybe 5mm or so. They've both worked flawlessly for 2.5 years.
 
tdodd said:
If you have a 54mm Express card slot then one of these will almost completely disappear and can be left inserted permanently.....
Click to expand...

I know, it is a shame that the macpro doesn't !
 
KIPAX said:
I use one of these on my laptop.. yes it dissapears into the side and yes its super fast... But my laptop wont boot up while its inserted ..everything works ok when in accept booting.. its a dell lattitude and winXP . Any ideas?
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Check the BIOS of the laptop, it is probably trying to boot the card/non existent car in the PCIe express card's slot
 
just loking

diskette ..is that floppy cus there isnt one..
usb storage .. looks like thats the one
dvd cd etc
internal hd


i have a feeling it should be

dvd cd etc
internel hd
usb
diskette

thoughts?
 
KIPAX said:
just loking

diskette ..is that floppy cus there isnt one..
usb storage .. looks like thats the one
dvd cd etc
internal hd


i have a feeling it should be

dvd cd etc
internel hd
usb
diskette

thoughts?
Click to expand...

Yes, that should sort it BUT the computer might look for the disc in the PCIe slot if it is inserted so look for any option like "use other boot devices" and untick that. Then give it a try.
 
i can tick and untik whats in the list....thus

dvd cd
internal hd

untick diskette and usb ?

sounds like a plan?
 
Just did.. all i had to do was untick diskette and storage and it then listed dvd then internal hd

with pc card IN and NO CF card the laptop takes 1.50 minutes to boot

with pc card out the laptop takes 20 seconds to boot

so hmmm...? :)
 
KIPAX said:
Just did.. all i had to do was untick diskette and storage and it then listed dvd then internal hd

with pc card IN and NO CF card the laptop takes 1.50 minutes to boot

with pc card out the laptop takes 20 seconds to boot

so hmmm...? :)
Click to expand...

It is clearly looking to boot from the PCIe interface, all you can do is go in the BIOS with the interface in the computer and check each option till you find one that is relevant. If there are none that are relevant it is possible that you cannot stop this from happening!
 
cowasaki said:
It is clearly looking to boot from the PCIe interface, all you can do is go in the BIOS with the interface in the computer and check each option till you find one that is relevant. If there are none that are relevant it is possible that you cannot stop this from happening!
Click to expand...


it stops dead for a while before windows kicks in.. then stops again for a while while windows is starting..

in bios theres only that setting.. i am guessin gthere wont be anything in winXP to control bootup

hmm.. wel at least it boots if i leave it long enough.. you need to use a cf card to get the express card out and thats a pain so if cant find any other options then will make do wiht the wait


cheers:)
 
KIPAX said:
it stops dead for a while before windows kicks in.. then stops again for a while while windows is starting..

in bios theres only that setting.. i am guessin gthere wont be anything in winXP to control bootup

hmm.. wel at least it boots if i leave it long enough.. you need to use a cf card to get the express card out and thats a pain so if cant find any other options then will make do wiht the wait


cheers:)
Click to expand...

You know that you can pop them in and out whilst switched on usually don't you!
 
I'm using mine in a Dell XPS M1710, which has been run with Vista Home Premium X86 and X64 and is now running Windows 7 Home X64. No problems at all with booting or general operation.

I also have a Philips Freevents X59 (Twinhead/Avaratec H12Y clone) with Vista Home Premium X86 and no problems there either. I've put a Twinhead BIOS on it, since the supplied "Philips" BIOS was utter pants and would not enable CPU throttling, but the CF adapter worked perfectly with the old BIOS. I haven't actually tried it with the new one for reading a card. Either way, booting is fine.
 
:thumbs: Thanks Darren - just ordered one for my MacBook Pro
 
cowasaki said:
You know that you can pop them in and out whilst switched on usually don't you!
Click to expand...

yeagh but like i say.. needs a cf card to get it out.. if i need a fast start i can pop the card out and boom it loads windows... :)
 
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