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-- Turning Memplug & smart media into floppy disk? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=15451)

Hi,

If I buy a Memplug and a Smart media card, and some kind of Floppy Disk sized device which the Smart media card slots into - could I then takes files off my Visor directly into a PC via it's floppy drive?

With no software installation, no syncing, no cradle, no modem? If so that is fantastic news for us cybercafe users.

Does anybody know where I can get one of these Floppy devices that Smart Media cards fit into? Wouild this plan work? I don't want to buy all of these things if it doesn't let me transfer files via a floppy disk drive.

Thanks

Jon

Yes, SmartMedia adapters to floppy drives are available under the common name "Flash Path". Here are a few from Amazon.com:
Viking $56.99
SanDisk $59.94
Olympus $69.99

I wouldn't be surprised if they're all just the same product rebranded. While these devices are great for legacy computes and save space they are supposed to be EXTREMELY slow and as you can see, not the best value. I also don't know if your required to carry around an additional disc with drivers on it.

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Matt Nichols
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The Flashpath adapters require you to install some software and drivers before they can be used. At the very least, I think you need to run some program which monitors the floppy drive to see if a Flashpath adapter has been inserted and then takes over floppy drive operation so that computer and Flashpath adapter can exchange data. Conceivably, you could just run the programs without going through the Windows installation process, so you would need a seperate actual floppy disk w/the progs and drivers. I would try this myself, but I'm not up for a software uninstall/reboot cycle. Maybe tomorrow.

Besides speed, another disadvantage is that you have to load a software driver for a computer to be able to read a Smartmedia Floppy Adapter. This can be a problem with "public" computers.

Thanks everyone,

so basically, to get the PC to read from the Floppy/smart card device, I would need to install some drivers on the PC...

Can anybody give me an indication of how complex this install process is? Is it quick and easy, does it need a reboot, would the drivers support win95\98\nt\2000 etc, would you need admin rights to the machine?

Just trying to get an idea if this would be feasable in a cybercafe environment.

Thanks

The software is easy to install. It depends on the management of the public computers whether they'll let you install software on their machines or not (big security concerns for cyber cafe management).

Additionally, I believe Fuji makes a PCMCIA adapter for Smartmedia, but I don't know if that also requires additional drivers.

Don't forget that once on the SM card you would have to transfer the files into the Visor's internal memory, unless they are text docs, movie files or pictures.

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