Maximum Capacity of SD Card in PC Card Adapter

Message

rwoodson · #1 Post by **rwoodson** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:34 am

Has anyone used an SD card greater than 1GB in a PC Card Adapter, Windows XP/Vista?

Example:

Setup:
T42p (2373-Q1U)
SanDisk PC Card Adapter
Windows Vista Business

Works:
SanDisk 1GB Ultra II SD Card
Windows sees it as 1GB and can open it.

Does not work:
SanDisk 2GB Extreme III SD Card
Windows asks to reformat the card upon first access; then formats it to 1GB (does not allow anything larger). When the formatted card is put into a digital camera it confirms the card is now 1GB. The camera is able to reformat the card back to 2GB

If the 2GB card is inserted into the machine via a USB reader, then Windows sees it as a 2GB card and there are no issues. Therefore, it would appear that the PC Card (Cardbus) interface cannot handle anything larger than 1GB.

Comments?

sugo · #2 Post by **sugo** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:49 am

If you are using the SanDisk 6 in 1 PCMCIA adapter, it only supports up to 1GB SD cards.

rwoodson · #3 Post by **rwoodson** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:52 am

Yes, that is the adapter I am using so that was what I thought might be the limitation.

I have also tried the Delkin SD Cardbus adapter, but Windows cannot even access the 2GB card in that case although it can successfully access a 1GB card in the adapter. And that is using the Delkin "XP" driver installed in Vista even though Delkin does not consider it Vista compatible (probably they haven't even tried it to see if it works).

Do you know if the Delkin one can support greater than 1GB (at least in an XP configuration)?

sugo · #4 Post by **sugo** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:54 am

Sorry I don't have experience on Delkin cardbus adapters. I did read that cardbus adapters that support SDHC (Panasonic ones for example) tends to support SD (non-HC) cards that are over 1GB.

#5 Post by **rkawakami** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:07 am

I have a Panasonic BN-SDABPU SD-PC Card adapter and it recognizes a Patrioit 2GB SD card under Windows XP. A partially filled card with MP3 files for my Rio Forge player, it shows about .5GB used and just under 1.5GB free. Quite rare on eBay, as I've been looking for another one for some time. (I should add that I'm looking for one less than $15).

rwoodson · #6 Post by **rwoodson** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:17 am

Thanks for the info. I have a query into Delkin on the capacity of their CardBus adapter but no reply yet. The only other high-speed CardBus adapter I know of is the Panansonic BN-SDPC3E but the tests done by dpreview were with a 1GB Extreme III card and I have not yet found any specs for the adpater. Also, that adapter seems to show up only on German (and nearby countries) web sites and I can't find an English version of those sites.

w0qj · #7 Post by **w0qj** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:21 am

I use the "EagleTec" PC-Card adapter that lets you fit a CF-Card in, and from experience it can recognize 2 GB CF-Cards.

I've also put in it another EagleTec SD-Card adapter and it can recognize 2 GB SD-Cards.

I then put a Kingston Mini-SD card adapter into the above 2 adapters, and can recognize 2 GB Mini-SD Cards.

Imagine that, an adapter within another adapter, holding a 2 GB Mini-SD Card....

rwoodson · #8 Post by **rwoodson** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:35 am

I have considered the "adapter within an adapter" approach, but would like to avoid that, if possible. Even then, when high speed is considered, it seems like a Panasonic adapter is involved and they seem almost non-existent.

sugo · #9 Post by **sugo** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:44 am

Yeah, it's sad that panasonic doesn't sell the cardbus (SD/SDHC) adapters in US for some silly reasons.

This Panasonic JP page specifically indicates that it supports 2GB SD/MiniSD cards.
http://ctlg.panasonic.jp/product/info.d ... =BN-SDDAP3

This is the new SDHC cardbus adapter.
http://ctlg.panasonic.jp/product/info.d ... =BN-SDDBP3

One feature I really like about the two Panasonic adapters is that the slot is spring loaded (similar to the slot in X60s). When you have both cardbus slots filled on a T4x, spring loaded slot will allow much easier card removals.

rwoodson · #10 Post by **rwoodson** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:17 pm

You nailed that one correctly. The spring loaded slot is one of the reasons I was trying to locate the Panasonic adapters. The reason I want to use a CardBus adapter instead of a USB reader is that it gives my T42p the same feature as a built-in SD slot as comes on newer machines.

The links are appreciated - maybe I can figure out a way to e-mail the German sites and get them to sell me an adapter; it's just I have to communicate in English only!

#11 Post by **rkawakami** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:20 pm

If that's the case (spring loaded slot), then the Panasonic adapter I referenced (BN-SDABPU) does NOT have one.

rwoodson · #12 Post by **rwoodson** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:45 pm

Noted...thanks. That adapter (BN-SDABPU) appears to have been discontinued. The few English sites I found listing it also mentioned is was discontinued. The Panasonic online store lists it as backordered.

rwoodson · #13 Post by **rwoodson** » Tue May 08, 2007 8:44 am

*** UPDATE***

I have located two adapters that are CardBus enabled and support 2GB SD cards (no SDHC that I know of ):

Delkin 5-in-1
Available from: http://www.delkin.com/
Pros: Supports 2GB SD cards, CardBus, manual load mechanism (like SanDisk 6-in-1) for the SD card
Cons: Included driver does not support Vista; however, you can install it by overriding the Vista driver installation warning messages. It uses the CardBus32.exe driver listed on their support page.
Notes: This card is not listed on their web site through the normal adapter page (it is NOT the 6-in1 adapter listed on that page). However, you can find the correct page by Googling "Delkin 5-in-1"; or you can call them to order it. The adapter seems to be working fine with my SanDisk Extreme III 2GB SD card in Vista.

Panasonic BN-SDPC3E
Available from: http://www.dvdupgrades.ch/
Pros: Supports 2GB SD cards, CardBus, spring-load mechanism for the SD card (push and release to remove SD card)
Cons: Included driver does not support Vista. Because of this, I am not able to verify the functionality of the adapter with my SD cards.
Notes: The shopping cart on this site is unlike any other I have ever used, although it maintains a history of all activity and once you learn to refer to it, the transaction ordering process did (finally) complete. This would be the preferred adapter because of it's spring-loaded operation - it would let the ThinkPad act like one with a built-in SD card slot - but without the Vista driver it is not usable for me.

Alexander Heß · #14 Post by **Alexander Heß** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:50 pm

Does anyone know if the Panasonic BN-SCPC3E works with linux?

Maximum Capacity of SD Card in PC Card Adapter

Maximum Capacity of SD Card in PC Card Adapter

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