Question Strange behaviors of Memory Card Reader

[modeonoff]

Hello, I bought a Benfei Simultaneous 4-IN-1 Memory Card Reader. On the first day, when I inserted a SD card into it, I got "Error Checking" error which I have not had experienced with another SD Card reader. Clicking Repair did not lead to repairing and the "Error Checking" continues to show up. Happened to both a SanDisk Ultra 32GB and a SanDisk Extreme 64GB cards. Few days later, when I inserted another type of card into the reader, I got the same "Error Checking" but this time Repairing worked. Do I need to worry about this? Could the reader be defective?

Some other strange things.

1. Without the reader connected to the Windows 11 PC, my PC only showed Local Disk (C: ). When I just plugged it into the PC, Windows 11 showed USB Drive (D: ), USB Drive (E: ), USB Drive (F: ) and USB Drive (G: ). Is this normal? Can it be made so that only when a media is inserted, only the corresponding drive is shown to avoid confusion?

2. When I inserted the Ultra SD card into the reader, sometimes it showed the name of the card followed by (E: ) but sometimes it just showed USB Drive (E: ). How come?Again, in both cases, drives D, F, G without the card were shown. Is this normal?

 

[helpstar]

the drives showong up is normal, i think it's a windows option to only show media which is inserted and not all available. Optical drive would disappe6then as well, if no cd/dvd is inside.

would get a different reader, if it's not hot plug able.
usually you have to tell windows that you will remove a SD card, did you do this before?

 

[modeonoff]

Do you mean it is better to get a different reader? Is hot-plug able the feature I should look for?

Yes, before removing a SD card, I either clicked the Reject button from within an application or unmount it at the bottom right of the taskbar.

 

[Misgar]

I bought a super cheap multi card reader on AliExpress recently and it wouldn't read modern 64GB Sandisk Compact Flash cards or 128GB UHS II SD cards. It worked fine on old 8GB Kingston CF cards purchased back in 2009 and ancient low capacity SD cards. Not a problem because it's only a backup reader for someone with an EOS 350D made in 2006.

I use Kingston card readers (FCR-HS3 and FCR-HS4) for CF, SD and microSD cards and they work fine, but so they should at 10x the price of the AliExpress junk. Other reputable card readers include Lexar and Sandisk.

Expect to pay even more for a CF Express reader.