[Windows 3.11/95/98SE] How to access data from PC Card (PCMCIA) Flash Memory Card?

[saperkus]

I have two Intel Flash Series 2 Memory Cards and can't get them to work. Win3.11/95/98SE detects them and installs drivers properly, but doesn't display them as a storage. It's possible to display them in My Computer as another partition? If not, then how to access them?

[Thinkpad4by3]

They're a linear write card. You need special software and I believe they work on a full erase/full write basis.

[TP-Grrl]

Here is a little more information.

http://www.synchrotech.com/support/faq- ... .html#Q002

I need to use PCMCIA Linear flash card because I have a TP350 without HDD ribbon (a weird one). And I want to boot from floppy, load card and sockets services and use as a hardisk. Even if is read only it can be very useful.

A friend told me that only have luck doing the format of the card with an old Compaq laptop. I test this on next week and post results here. With the same card (Intel flash series).

[saperkus]

Here is a little more information.

http://www.synchrotech.com/support/faq- ... .html#Q002

I need to use PCMCIA Linear flash card because I have a TP350 without HDD ribbon (a weird one). And I want to boot from floppy, load card and sockets services and use as a hardisk. Even if is read only it can be very useful.

A friend told me that only have luck doing the format of the card with an old Compaq laptop. I test this on next week and post results here. With the same card (Intel flash series).

Thank you for these information.
Did you had any luck finding any not absurdly priced application, which would support them?

[RealBlackStuff]

Is this usable? https://www.csm.de/en/products/cards-an ... uct-series

[saperkus]

Is this usable? https://www.csm.de/en/products/cards-an ... uct-series

Can't say, as it costs over $700 on the local market...
IBM was selling this type of memory cards back in middle 90s for their devices. Do you maybe know what application was used to access them back then?

[RealBlackStuff]

Did you even look at that link?
I was referring to the free driver download from there...

[JPOESQ]

If you want to access linear flash (LF) then you have a few options. One option is to buy the OmniDrive USB2 LF (has to be the LF version or it won't work). It's an expensive option but the drive is well-built and works very well. With that drive and associated software called PC Card Manager (PCM) you can:

Copy files to PC Cards
- Copy PC Card contents to files
- Compare PC Card with file(s)
- Compute checksum over PC Card (regions)
- Linear FLASH: Erase Card / Blank Check
- Perform a surface scan on ATA cards
- Format SRAM- or ATA PC Cards with FAT file system
- Socket Status
- Analyze PC Card (detect type/size)
- Edit PC Cards (hex-editor)

PCM is completely format independent. PC Cards are treated as a binary array of bytes. PCM handles SRAM, Linear FLASH and ATA (FLASH and hard disks). PC Card type and size are detected automatically whenever possible.

Another option is to put the card in the PCMCIA slot of a computer running Windows 95 or 98 and run a software package called Memory Card Explorer v3.16 (MCE) from Elan Digital Systems Limited.

The MCE product is designed for Windows 95 and Windows 98.
Windows Millennium is also supported (from issue 3-07).
It will not work on Windows 3.x.
From issue 2-01 beta NT4 is also supported.
From issue 3-07 Windows 2000 is supported.
From issue 3-13 XP is supported.
Two variants of MCE may now be obtained from Elan:
* Memory Card Explorer ( 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP )
* Memory Card Explorer ( 95/98/Me )

Windows 95, 98 & Me
For MCE and or MCELIB to function PCMCIA hardware must be
installed on the PC and Card and Socket Services drivers
enabled.

I hope that this helps.

[saperkus]

Did you even look at that link?
I was referring to the free driver download from there...

Yeah, I've checked it. Otherwise I wouldn't bother you. This is what I've got:


This application won't work without a dedicated hardware.

If you want to access linear flash (LF) then you have a few options. One option is to buy the OmniDrive USB2 LF (has to be the LF version or it won't work). It's an expensive option but the drive is well-built and works very well. With that drive and associated software called PC Card Manager (PCM) you can: [...]

PCM is completely format independent. PC Cards are treated as a binary array of bytes. PCM handles SRAM, Linear FLASH and ATA (FLASH and hard disks). PC Card type and size are detected automatically whenever possible.

Another option is to put the card in the PCMCIA slot of a computer running Windows 95 or 98 and run a software package called Memory Card Explorer v3.16 (MCE) from Elan Digital Systems Limited. [...]

I hope that this helps.

Thank you for detailed post.

Topic can be closed.