Reading SD card in Windows 98

[zentraleinheit]

For over 10 years I been using a YE-Data 7 in 1 FDD/Card Reader to read my Camera's CF card.

Recently, I got myself a tablet that used Micro SD cards.

But, when I try to use my card reader to read (with the adapter) a regular 2GB Micro SD (NOT SDHC) version of that type of card I get the following:

K: is not accessible. The Drive is Not Ready

(K is the drive letter that the card reader assigned to the SD slot)

But, when I use my lost file retriever application the drive is listed as a "physical drive" but not as a "Logical Drive"

I know it's not the Micro SD card since I can, using my portable card reader, read it on computers that use Windows XP or Windows 7.

(and, before you ask, I tried using my portable card reading on my WIN98 Computer. But, when I plug it in the mouse turns off!)

What I want to know is where the possible problem lies.

Is it the Windows 98 OS?

Is it the card reader (BTW I did download the latest driver, but its 7 years old)

Or is it something else?


And no matter where the problem is.

Can it be fixed?

 

[popatim]

Using xp or newer OS, check to see what format the card is in. (ie - ntfs, fat, fat32, exfat...) I'm thinking the card is being seen but 98se can't read it due to an incompatible format. From what I can remember win98 supports fat and fat32 so you may have to backup the data on the card, reformat it to fat32, and then load the data back in. if you do that be sure to test it in the camera and make sure it still works properly. It should but better safe than sorry.

 

[zentraleinheit]

All the SD micro cards were formated in FAT. Even tried formatting one as FAT32, but, my card reader still does not "see" them. Yet, the file recovery application still list it as a physical drive. At this point I think either the card reader and/or Win98 is past its prime 😀

Oh well, its time to upgrade to Windows XP anyways

 

[popatim]

have you tried booting up the pc witht he card installed? I recall having some issues like that with win98

 

[zentraleinheit]

I'll try that, but, first I have to get my card reader to work.

It seems that 2 nights ago, in the middle of a file transfer, something happened and the computer froze. After rebooting I discover that the reader has stop working. It is no longer in My Computer, and when I try to reload the drivers the computer hangs when trying to install the same drivers that I been using for years. Plus I get the yellow "!" in hardware profile next to the Card Reader's listing.

 

[zentraleinheit]

UPDATE: Good news and bad news


The good news is that I got my card reader to work by doing something that most of us rarely do.

Read the Instructions!

It been so long since I first insalled the reader I forgot it was reader first then driver (not the other way around).

As for the bad news?

I tired booting up with the SD card in the reader, but, that didn't work.

Then I found the reader's maker obscure web site where they write that

does not support ... nor 2GB or above SD/SDHC card. We are sorry that we do not have a plan to update the firmware of this product

So until I get either a smaller SD card or a more modern OS I am stuck.

Anyways, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[ronbow]

to zentraleinheit: I have had a Y-E Data internal 7-in-1 flash-mem-reader/floppy-drive for several years, & am very happy with it. Right after I installed it, I was having problems similar to yours, so I went online to Y-E's website & found their free downloadable firmware upgrade. With that installed, I could read/write the 2 GB SD cards, which was the largest capacity cards that I had at the time. Around that same time, I bought (on ebay) an SD to TYPE II CF adapter for the TYPE I/TYPE II CF memory socket on my camera. (TYPE I is 3.3 mm thick & Type II is 5 mm thick.) Later, I bought a 4 GB Micro-SD card, which included a Micro-SD to SD socket adapter. I tried it in the 7-in-1, but it wouldn't read the card. Then I tried plugging the Micro-SD into its SD adapter, plugged that into the SD to CF adapter, & plugged that into the CF socket of the 7-in-1 (it accommodates the thicker TYPE II CF cards), & it worked! More recently, I tried this same combination with a 32 GB SD card, & that worked as well! I don't have a way to determine the actual read/write speed of this stack of stuff, but there doesn't seem to be a noticeable speed difference between a small capacity SD card in the SD socket & the stack of stuff in the CF socket.

 

[zentraleinheit]

In the end I found that my model of the Y-E Data internal 7-in-1 flash-mem-reader/floppy-drive won't work on SD cards of 2GB or bigger. And Y-E Data has no intention of fixing that. In the end I just got a separate Multi card reader.

 

[popatim]

They actually can't fix that particular problem which partly stems from the type of protocol the newer cards use to communicate with which would mean replacing the main chip in the cardreader.
SD cards transition to SDHC at about 2gb. Meaning a 2gb card can be either type so you need to be sure what you want is what you get.
SDHC is used from 2 to 32gb but SDXC overlaps and can be found in cards as small as 16gb. Again you need to be sure to get the type you need as as the older reader cannot read the newer type card.
sdxc is good up to 2tb though there are none this big yet.

 

[ronbow]

In the end I found that my model of the Y-E Data internal 7-in-1 flash-mem-reader/floppy-drive won't work on SD cards of 2GB or bigger. And Y-E Data has no intention of fixing that. In the end I just got a separate Multi card reader.

 

[ronbow]

To zentraleinheit: Sorry I'm so late responding. I was culling out old emails and ran across your post that I missed back in April. There is a workaround regarding the 2GB barrier in the YE Data's SD memory slot, but it requires the purchase of an SD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC to Compact Flash Type II adapter (available from multiple vendors on ebay). I bought one of these adapters to adapt SD memory to my camera, but I also found that if I use the adapter in my YE Data 7-in-1, I can use up to 32GB SD memory in the Compact Flash slot, in a Windows XP PC. (The 7-in-1/adapter combo in a Windows 98 PC will successfully read SD memory as high as 4GB, but I don't know what the limit is. It won't read 32GB SD, even with the adapter. The limit for the combo when used with Windows XP may go as high as 64GB, but I don't have any 64GB SD memory to try.)