Customer Reviews

SanDisk SDDR-88-A15 8-in-1 USB 2.0 Hi-speed Reader (Retail Package)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

In my opinion this is the best memory card reader you could get. The price at Amazon is a good deal, plus with the free shipping you won't make a mistake. Here is the summary:

Pros:
1. It looks elegant. The colour combination of silver and black makes it look like a serious tool you could display even in an office environment.
2. Comes with a bonus stand to enable the display at an upright position. Saves space in a cluttered environment.
3. Comes with another USB cable to you could position it horizontally (flat) on a table. You will have to keep the stand, in this case.
4. USB 2.0 speed which means faster transfer speed.
5. No drivers needed if you use the latest Windows XP or Mac OS X operating system. I use the Mac and there is nothing to install.
6. 8 in 1 memory card reader. Try finding that in othe products at that price and design. You connect as much memory cards that could fill the slot and they will appear individually in your desktop. This means you can transfer files between memory cards without having to transfer and use your desktop as a holding place.
7. Each slot has its own individual lights to indicate correct installation and file activity transfer.
8. Light and portable.

Cons:
1. Light - plastic construction. Feels fragile, but I guess SanDisk knows better on making it sturdy.
2. The cable for the bonus stand is long, but the extra cable supplied to lay the product flat is short - and I mean short! This is a plus for those who bring this with their portable computers and don't need the extra long cable. A big minus for those who wish to forego the stand, but decide to use with their desktop on a desk. You will need to connect it to a hub if your USB plug is nowhere close.

All in all a great buy for the price.

In regard to some earlier posts in reference to their computers freezing up I maybe able to shed some light of the subject. When I bought the San Disk 8-in-1 Card Reader it installed with no problemo under my Windows XP [built] system.

I started having problems as soon as I inserted cards for the device to read. My screen would blank out and my computer would re-boot. Everytime I tried to insert and use a Secure Digital [SD] or Compact Flash {CF} card I would get the same result over and over with a black screen and re-boot.

So I called San Disk for tech support and they asked me if I had Norton AntiVirus installed on my machine. I said that I did and they said that more than likely I needed to disable a "scan removable media" option from Norton AntiVirus. I unchecked this option and sure enough the San Disk card reader works without a hitch. What is happening [according to San Disk] is that Norton AntiVirus is looking to scan your card slots/ports for viruses when you mount a card into one of the slots and that can cause various PC machines to CRASH!

Now because I have Norton SystemWorks 2003 [with Antivirus] on my machine, I can take you through the steps. But if you have a stand-alone version of Norton AntiVirus your menu navigation may be different but I'm sure you can burrow through the options and follow me with my demostration below:

First, launch Norton SystemWorks and wait for the Norton SystemWorks pop-up menu to appear.

Second, at the top on the horizontal menu click the big yellow "Options" button and from the mini pulldown menu you want to select "Norton AntiVirus".

Third, a "Norton AntiVirus Options" dialog box will appear. On the left hand side at the very top of the vertical navigation menu pane click on "Auto-Protect" and under its pulldown menu choose "Advanced".

Fourth, to the right of the navigation menu pane you will see a sub-heading called "What activities to monitor when using floppy disks". Under that UNCHECK "SCAN ALL REMOVABLE MEDIA FOR BOOT VIRUSES EVERYTIME IT IS MOUNTED". Click "OK" to exit the dialog box and close the previous one under that, too.

Once the above option is UNCHECKED, then this may solve your crashing/freezing up problem. If it does then that's great! But be CAUTIOUS now because you have disabled auto-protect for removable media. This means that you must be careful that your media cards are VIRUS FREE when you insert them into the card reader. So be warned when borrowing your friend's or family's cards and can't verify what content is on them.

I hope this helps someone.

ROD

This is definately a must have item if you take a lot of digital pictures with your camera. I like it so much that I bought one for a friend.

I currently run Windows XP.

Pros-
1. Lightening quick speeds- I am a big big fan of USB 2.0 technology. The transfer speeds are just awesome. I have a built in CF reader in my multifunction printer. It takes about 5 minutes for the transfer, while it only takes approx. 45 secs for the same transfer with this Sandisk Reader. Just make sure that your USB ports are 2.0 compatible.
2. It's capable of reading a number of types of memory.
3. sleek design.

Cons-
1. quite possibly cost. I am sure that many of you will think that it is not worth the additional bux and that is probably what you are contemplating the most. "Do I really went to spend money on an item that would be nice to have, but something that I really dont need?"
If you take a decent amount of digital pictures, then get it. This is one item where I have not had any buyer's remorse. It's a great product that delivers as promised.
2. As with any other USB peripheral, you have to "remove the Hardware" before pulling the plug out of the port. The icon is on your desktop, on the lower right hand side of your screen.

You really can't go wrong with this reader. There are no other readers on the market that can compete with its capabilities, its quality and its price.
I have had it for a year and I use it at home, at work or when I am traveling.

What I like:
1- Portable light sturdy construction. I use it to move large files of data on a CF memory without carrying a laptop.
2- Fast data transfer with USB 2.0 connection.
3- Easy to install. Plug and play with Windows 2000 or XP (I have not tried other operating systems)
4- Stands vertically or horizontally. I was afraid it might not be stable when standing vertically, I was proven wrong. It is very stable even when you are installing/removing memory cartridges; non-slip rubber is used to prevent sliding.
5- Reads 8 different memory media. I can use my camera's CF memory, my other camera's memory stick and my Palm's SD memory all with the same device.
7- Elegant black and silver design that looks great on any desk.
8- Each slot has its own LED (small light) which indicates that the memory media has been inserted properly.

The only drawback:
1- It comes with 2 cables, one for the vertical position and one for the horizontal position. The cable for the horizontal position is really short.

I have an Olympus C2500L camera which I like except for the fact that it doesn't have a highspeed PC connection...I had to download pictures using the SLOW serial cable (10MB of pictures took ~20 minutes). I finally bought this reader and I love it, now 10MB is less than 10 seconds.

Installation was a breeze. The installation software even informed me that the USB port I plugged into couldn't supply enough power for the reader and then identified which port I should use (I'd plugged into a 1 to 4 USB splitter which can't give it the juice it needs).

Some people complain about not being able to recognize the removable drive identifiers. When you plug a card into the reader, the drive identifier in your 'My Computer' window changes shape and lights up with small red indicator. So if you're only plugging in 1 memory card at a time, there's no guessing (it's a little more difficult when working with multiple cards at once).

The unit is:
- Stable on the desk.
- Takes up very little room
- Reads just about every memory media
- Is easy to install
- Working flawlessly
- Only costs about $20

You can't miss!

This is the second Sandisk memory card reader I've bought. (The first one was a 6-in-1 reader.) Both have worked flawlessly. Since my computer runs Windows XP, there were no drivers to install, and the computer recognized the reader instantly.

The USB 2.0 interface is a great feature, as it is much quicker than older USB 1.0 devices. I have a 512MB Compactflash card, and transfer times are very fast. In comparison, a USB 1.0 keychain flash drive I purchased is much slower.

The only minor gripe I have is that installing the reader puts four "removable drive" icons in your My Computer folder. The only way to tell which drive has the memory card in it is by clicking on each icon. Annoying until you memorize which drive corresponds to Compactflash, SD, etc.

I needed a card reader for the proprietary XD memory used in my digital camera so I bought this reader. It is a great value for this price because it reads 8 different formats of memory cards. Great if you use several formats of memory cards or have friends with other cards.

It hooks up via a USB docking station and is backward compatible with the older USB standard. It also comes with a short USB connector if you do not want to carry around the docking station. It just plugs and plays in Windows XP. It creates 4 removable disks in my computer for each memory format because there is 4 slots and each slot fits 2 different memory formats. This makes it possible to move data from one format to another very easily with some obvious limitations.

Overall a Keeper

This read works wondefully. First off, don't underestimate the importance of a USB 2.0 connection. That alone makes it about 40 times faster than USB 1.0 and 1.1 card readers.

I have a Samsung SPH-i600 that I transfer mp3s and mpgs to. Before it would take about 30 seconds to transfer a single 4MB song. Now I can transfer about fifteen 4MB songs in 30 seconds. It makes a world of difference.

Also, it is very easy to setup if you have Windows XP. All you do is literally plug it in, wait about 30 seconds for the drivers to automatically install, and then you are done.

I couldn't ask for anything more.

I have used several different card readers. This has been the most stable of all of those I have used. With the USB 2.0 connection data transfers quickly. I have used it with four different types of cards and it has worked well with all of them.

I was tired of connecting my camera direct to the PC, so I looked into card readers. The SanDisk went to the top of my list after reading numerous reviews. With Windows XP, you just plug it in and it immediately finds and installs the device. The card reader slots each show up as their own drives. From there, it is just drag and drop files.

I found the device easy to use, it looks nice, and the price is great for an 8-in-1 reader. The unit also comes out of the stand so you can connect the reader to a laptop (a short USB adapter cable is provided if you use it this way). My camera uses Compact Flash cards, so that is the only type of card I have used so far. But with USB 2.0, the transfers are incredibly fast. Best of all - I now save my rechargeable camera batteries for actually taking pictures instead of powering downloads. I'm not sure how I worked so long without a card reader. I highly recommend this device.