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The good thing about standards, as the old saying goes, is that there are so many of them. And that's certainly true when it comes to the storage devices used by the peripherals and digital gadgets that you can plug into your computer these days.
If you're fond of gadgets you can easily find yourself with a collection of cameras, PDAs and MP3 players that all use different types of storage cards.
Connecting and disconnecting all these gadgets from your PC every five minutes can be a bit of a nuisance, so it's often easier to use a separate media reader to add or remove files from the storage cards.
These media readers simply treat storage cards like floppy disks, displaying them on the Windows desktop for easy access. Most readers work with only one or two types of card, but LaCie's Hexa Media Drive is the first one we've seen that works with all the main types.
As the name implies, it can work with six types of storage: CompactFlash, Microdrive, Secure Digital, SmartMedia, Multimedia Card and even the unloved Sony Memory Stick.
Setting up the Hexa Media Drive is straightforward. Once the driver software is installed the unit is plugged into a USB port, and that's it. Now, any storage card inserted into the drive shows up on the Windows desktop just like a floppy disk or any other type of storage device.
The three slots on the unit between them accept six different types of card. A small indicator light shows which slot is being used so that you don't accidentally remove a card during data transfer.
Specifications:
- External media reader with USB interface
- USB powered; requires no separate power supply
- Supports CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital card, Microdrive and Sony Memory Stick
- Displays storage card contents on Windows desktop.
Price: £45.82 (inc VAT)
Minimum requirements: PC with USB port, Windows 98SE or later.
Contact: LaCie 020 7872 8000
www.lacie.com
See also:
All Flash Drives & Card Readers
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