Customer Reviews

Lexar Media USB 2.0 6-in-1 High Speed Reader

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I was thinking of purchasing a USB drive to transport large files from one computer to another, but I saw this drive and decided to take advantage of the compact flash memory I already owned for my digital camera. One of the great things about this drive (it is a reader and a writer) is its size. It is quite small and convenient to carry about.

Once you plug the drive in, four new drive letters are added, one for each memory card slot. The Lexar drive has the same problem of all drives of this type in that the computer does not indicate which drive letter has the compact flash and which drive letter has the other media. But since the drive designations are the same each time you plug the Lexar drive into your computer, you can learn which is which. The first time that I plugged the Lexar drive into my XP computer, the computer kept telling me that I had added new drives which was a bit annoying. However, this only happened the first time and I have had no problems since.

I chose this Lexar drive due to its being USB 2.0. My current computer does not have a USB 2.0 port, but my next computer will and so I wanted to plan ahead. Windows gives me a warning that I have plugged a high speed device into a slower USB port, but it works just fine, just at the slower speed. (I can only vouch for how the drive works with XP. I don't know how well it works with other operating systems).

Overall, a great little drive to transfer files. I would recommend it to anyone with a digital camera or anyone who wants to transfer large data files between computers.

All in all this Lexar card reader does exactly what it's supposed to do read from almost any Digital memory card on the planet. So if you're looking for a quick multiformat card reader. This could be a good choice.

A few things to keep in mind though: the first is the design. The door opens by being pulled down, that wouldn't be bad, but it's a curved piece of plastic so the card reader is held off the table by the cover, take a look at the pictures, and you'll see what I mean. Also, the USB cable attaches to the side and not the back. So if you're looking for a card reader to sit on a table next to your computer. All neat and tidy you my will look elsewhere. I think this was more designed for on the go. Throw in a backpack etc.

Those were a few things I wanted to mention.
Have some fun and get it done

This little compact unit performed flawlessly just by plugging it into my USB2 port on my WindowsXP operating system. Instantly I was presented with six additional drives; each card slot shows up as a different drive. I could actually insert multiple cards and read them all, or transfer from one to another. It easily fits into pocket or camera bag. And it's fast!

Purchased this item to transfer pictures from a Viking 128MB smart media card, to a PC running windows XP. The media card was being used in an Olympus camedia d40zoom digital camera. The reader plugged in, came right up as an additional disk drive. We easily transferred the pictures to the PC, no problem. We didn't try to format, transfer, or manipulate any information using the reader --- simply copied the photo files onto the PC. However, when I placed the card back into the camera, it would only give me an error message (wouldn't format, was no longer usable). Previously, that card had performed flawlessly, and I had previously successfully transferred several files from it using a Dazzle USB multi-reader (so I am pretty sure the card was fine). When I contacted Viking, they stated they had had similar complaints with people using the Lexar multireader, and that the card was completely ruined. We replaced the card with another Viking, and replaced the reader with another Dazzle, and it works perfectly. Sounds like from the other reviews, most induviduals have had great luck, so I wonder if it was the particular combination of hardware we tried to use??? Maybe the card coincidentally failed at that particular moment, but that seems unlikely. So if you have the same specific hardware/card combination, you might want to avoid buying this reader, and stick with the Dazzle. Other combinations may work just fine.

I had Rev A of this reader (purchased about a year ago). While it worked great with my Transcend 256MB card, it didn't work well with SanDisk cards (both Ultra II and the new standard cards). While I could copy files off the SanDisk cards, I was unable to write TO them using the Reader.

I called up Support, and they took care of me. They didn't ask me where I purchased, when I purchased, etc. They had me ship them my Rev A, and they sent out, for free, a Rev D. All I can say is: Wow. Reading the cards with Rev D is so much faster than the Rev A (twice as fast). And writing to them works perfectly.

Please, call up Lexar support. Tell them the reader doesn't work with SanDisk cards. They should take care of it.

Beware of possible Windows 2000 USB 2.0 driver issues with the supplied Lexar drivers. I receieved one of these readers recently, and found that the driver packed with the unit (which matches the one you can download from their site) will crash my Win2000 Pro Service Pack 3 system, with a 'SPINLOCK_NOT_AVAILABLE' kernel error, whenever I plug the unit into the USB connector.

I emailed Lexar tech support and got no answer (except the automated one) after several days. I managed to get through to a live technician on their 24/7 online service this evening (after failing to raise anyone last weekend), and his advice was to *not* use any driver on Windows 2000.

This is contrary to all the printed materials packed with the unit, mind you, as well as the version matrix found under drivers on the Lexarmedia web site. Perhaps the latter Win2K service packs supplant the need for a 3rd party USB 2.0 driver. It would be nice, of course, for the driver installer to sense this, and not install a conflicting driver, which appears to be the case.

I uninstalled the driver, rebooted, and after telling the device manager to update the driver (it came up with an yellow exclamation point), it found a usbstor.inf file on my local drive, and installed it.

Now, it works like a champ. Nice, stable, high speed transfers.
By the way, I preferred the Lexar reader because I found (at least the older USB 1.1 ones) they run just fine on Linux, as well, so I can use them on either my desktop or my Linux laptop, running SuSE 8.1. I don't have USB 2.0 ports on my laptop, so I can't tell you if the RW018 runs under Linux, there, yet.

On a related matter, I had a SanDisk Ultra 128 MB CF card go bad on me recently (couldn't write or format the card) and SanDisk replacemed the card for me under their 5 year warranty. They even paid UPS shipping both ways. The replacement card carries a lifetime warranty. Very responsive technical support, compared to Lexar, I must say.

Wow! I love this card reader!

I have used it extensively for over 15 months now and have had no problems. I have used it with SanDisk CF cards (x3), SimpleTech CF cards (x2), a Viking CF card, Fuji xD cards (x2), and a Kingston SD card. It has been completely successful with all of these.

It works very fast for both downloading and uploading to all of my cards. I have used it primarily for digital photos, but have also transferred hundreds of megabytes of files through this reader. I primarily use it with a Dell Inspiron 600M notebook running Windows XP Pro. I also carry the reader with me frequently to transfer files to/from other computers.

I have successfully used it with Windows 2000 on multiple computers, and occasionally on Windows 98, when necessary. It has never let me down on any of these machines.

It is sleek - the appearance is great. The USB cable unplugs from the 'box' - this facilitates packing the reader into small pockets in a computer carrying case. I have been very happy with this card reader.

Speed-wise, comparable to other USB 2.0 reader/writer that I've tried. Size-wise, small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.

Pro: accepts the new xD media type in addition to the other types such as CompactFlash, SmartMedia, SecureDigital, MemoryStick...
Con: does not have a built-in plug for direct connection to USB port, thereby requiring you to always carry a USB cable.

The Reader would not read my I Gig IBM Drive. I notified Lexar Tech Support. They where very nice and replaced the Card Reader. The second Card Reader would not read my 1 gig Microdrive. I notified Tech support again. They suggested to check my IBM Microdrive. The Microdrive functions properly in my Canon G3. The Microdrive functioned properly when downloading to Windows XP Prof machine with, G3 Camera,2 seperate PQI USB 2 Readers( 1 I borrowed to check if my drive will work with the PQI, 2nd PQI reader was the reader I purchased because the Lexar Reader would not work), E film Reader -2. All the mentioned readers would read and download properly to my computer. The only reader that would not function with my IBM Microdrive was the Lexar Reader. My advice buy a PQI Reader. The PQI comes with an USB 2 extension cable and a little travel bag to protect the reader. PQI is will worth the money. NOT LEXAR.

I got this Item and it worked for about 4 hours, then stopped working, I tried the reader in 2 different computers nothing... I contacted Lexar customer support and they couldn't help me, save your money and buy something else.