I'd like to use my pcmcia 2GB HD (Toshiba) in my desktop machine (W2k). Does anyone know of other adapters other than the PCMRDWR from Linksys (ISA card) or the Simpletech STI-PNPR/PCI (PCI card)? Also if anyone's used the Simpletech, what was the experience? I've had hit & miss with this company's goods as far as drivers go so I'm a bit leery. The Linksys one won't do as I've no ISA slots. Thanks.

-Zeke

Have not used them, but here are some others I found after a quick gander.
http://www.pccard.co.uk/support/pdata.php
http://www.amtron.com/price.htm scroll down to "PCI Bus Card Reader/Writer"
http://www.pcisystems.com/CARDBUS.html -not what you want but intresting stuff
http://www.synchrotech.com/products/card-rw_08.html

but given that a lot of the desktop wireless NICs are nothing more then a PCMCIA wireless NIC with an adapter you should have a few to choose from......I think....<insert confused smilie>

Hey, thanks! I hadn't seen those.

The Amtron looks interesting as it also supports cardbus cards in addition to memory/storage cards. The Syncrotech requires an ISA routing card & cable to do that. Interesting. None of the front access setups seem to support 32 bit cardbus. A little further digging showed that the pccard.co.uk site is selling goods by elandigitalsystems.com.

A quick Google search shows that most 32 bit cards are NIC's. Can anyone give me a crystal ball opinion if 32 bit cardbus is something I might be running into more in the future? I can live with a back slot if it'll be worth it later.

The Elan Digital site has by far the most technical information, and it looks like there are good technical reasons why these devices aren't more common.

-Z

The majority of my card are the old PCCard standard and not CardBus. For CardBus I've got a SCSI and a modem card. CardBus is pretty much PCI shoehorned into a PCCard casing. It uses less power as well I think since it's 3.3V instead of 5V.

As to whether you need a CardBus adapter depends on if you want to use things which need a high throughput really if not then you can invariably find a normal PCCard version. If you can then I'd say get the CardBus one just in case.

- Trevor

Well, it looks like Syncrotech carries the Elan cards, which seem to be the only ones that I could find that are supporting the 32 bit cards (I also found some Firewire and USB 2.0 cards that require this). Thinking ahead, I think I'll pop for the extra $$ for the 32 bit capability ($145 vs. ~$90). Heck if I get a digital camera the flash card to PC card adapters are around $30 vs $65 for the USB versions. It looks like PCMCIA cards for USB2.0 and Firewire are only $10-20 more than the PCI card versions, plus I'd get to use them on any portable I might get in the days ahead...

Thanks guys!

-Zeke