SanDisk ImageMate External Parallel CompactFlash Card Reader

by SanDisk

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 3 x 2.5 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001RMD7
• Item model number: SDDR-01
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

This handy device lets you quickly and easily transfer images between CompactFlash cards and your PC. Devices that use CompactFlash cards (digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs) nearly always include a transfer cable, but these often use the PC's serial port, which is much slower than the parallel port. To avoid tying up your parallel port, the drive uses a pass-through connector, which allows the drive to share the port with a parallel printer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SanDisk with USB - smooth with digital cameras, March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: SanDisk ImageMate External Parallel CompactFlash Card Reader (Personal Computers)

I got the USB ImageMate and I am impressed. Installation was easy - I was downloading pictures within five minutes. I had used the serial connection to download from the camera and was dismayed by the slowness. I just downloaded about three megabytes of pix in 15 seconds. Drag and drop - poof! Done.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars worked for me - NT 4.0 on Toshiba Tecra 8100 laptop, June 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: SanDisk ImageMate External Parallel CompactFlash Card Reader (Personal Computers)

I recently received a wonderful gift of a Kodak DX3500 digital camera, with the Loading Dock that connects it to a PC. My initial elation evaporated as I discovered that the Dock-to-PC connection requires a USB connection. The Toshiba Tecra 8100 laptop I'm using has a USB port, but it's taped over because NT 4.0 doesn't support USB (Win2000 and 98 do). I turned to look for a device that would read the camera's CompactFlash card, but didn't need USB to connect. After some scouring of the web (including a comical dead end involving "tech" reps who couldn't provide answers to compatibility questions beyond reading from the company same web page I was already looking at, and a more technical rep who informed me that the item was no longer available from the mfr. and agreed that it probably should be removed from that e-tailer's web page), I found the SanDisk ImageMate External Parallel CF Card Reader. This device provided what I needed: a CompactFlash card reader with a non-USB connection to a machine running NT 4.0.

The setup was painless. The ImageMate plugs into the parallel port, with a passthrough connection for the printer. Power is drawn from a passthrough connection to the PS/2, into which the mouse cable connector fits.

The ImageMate software makes the device appear as a mapped drive. You can read, write, and delete picture files on this drive. A provided software utility swaps out the ImageMate (to let you safely removed the picture card).

We installed the Kodak Loading Dock on a Win98 USB machine, and it works just great. But transfer on the ImageMate is almost as fast and easy.

I've been verbose in this review for the sake of others running the web search I did. You've probably come to the only right place. (I didn't find any other easily acceptable connection devices.)

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Easy Installation-Not, August 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: SanDisk ImageMate External Parallel CompactFlash Card Reader (Personal Computers)

I consider myself technically savy but installing this piece of hardware has been a nightmare. I have had this for a week and it is still not up and running. As another reviewer has already noted the drivers seem to cause a "fatal exception error" in Windows 98. You have to dig through the Read Me file to find out that you must stop nearly all processes in the task bar to even install the software. Once that hurdle was overcome my computer still did not recognize the device. At the guidance of tech support I am learning all about the Device Manager settings, getting to go into BIOS and play with ECP+EPP, match IO port numbers between BIOS and the Device Manager and so much more. And it still is not working. If this does not sound like fun to you don't buy this product. And did I mention you have to wait 1/2 hour to get through to tech support even at 6am in the morning???????