Pros:
1. It looks elegant. The colour combination of silver and black makes it look like a serious tool you could display even in an office environment.
2. Comes with a bonus stand to enable the display at an upright position. Saves space in a cluttered environment.
3. Comes with another USB cable to you could position it horizontally (flat) on a table. You will have to keep the stand, in this case.
4. USB 2.0 speed which means faster transfer speed.
5. No drivers needed if you use the latest Windows XP or Mac OS X operating system. I use the Mac and there is nothing to install.
6. 8 in 1 memory card reader. Try finding that in othe products at that price and design. You connect as much memory cards that could fill the slot and they will appear individually in your desktop. This means you can transfer files between memory cards without having to transfer and use your desktop as a holding place.
7. Each slot has its own individual lights to indicate correct installation and file activity transfer.
8. Light and portable.

Cons:
1. Light - plastic construction. Feels fragile, but I guess SanDisk knows better on making it sturdy.
2. The cable for the bonus stand is long, but the extra cable supplied to lay the product flat is short - and I mean short! This is a plus for those who bring this with their portable computers and don't need the extra long cable. A big minus for those who wish to forego the stand, but decide to use with their desktop on a desk. You will need to connect it to a hub if your USB plug is nowhere close.

All in all a great buy for the price.


Must-Have Item!   February 5, 2004
 63 out of 68 found this review helpful

This is definately a must have item if you take a lot of digital pictures with your camera. I like it so much that I bought one for a friend.

I currently run Windows XP.

Pros-
1. Lightening quick speeds- I am a big big fan of USB 2.0 technology. The transfer speeds are just awesome. I have a built in CF reader in my multifunction printer. It takes about 5 minutes for the transfer, while it only takes approx. 45 secs for the same transfer with this Sandisk Reader. Just make sure that your USB ports are 2.0 compatible.
2. It's capable of reading a number of types of memory.
3. sleek design.

Cons-
1. quite possibly cost. I am sure that many of you will think that it is not worth the additional bux and that is probably what you are contemplating the most. "Do I really went to spend money on an item that would be nice to have, but something that I really dont need?"
If you take a decent amount of digital pictures, then get it. This is one item where I have not had any buyer's remorse. It's a great product that delivers as promised.
2. As with any other USB peripheral, you have to "remove the Hardware" before pulling the plug out of the port. The icon is on your desktop, on the lower right hand side of your screen.


A Possible Solution To Windows PCs Freezing Up   August 3, 2004
 35 out of 35 found this review helpful

In regard to some earlier posts in reference to their computers freezing up I maybe able to shed some light of the subject. When I bought the San Disk 8-in-1 Card Reader it installed with no problemo under my Windows XP [built] system.

I started having problems as soon as I inserted cards for the device to read. My screen would blank out and my computer would re-boot. Everytime I tried to insert and use a Secure Digital [SD] or Compact Flash {CF} card I would get the same result over and over with a black screen and re-boot.

So I called San Disk for tech support and they asked me if I had Norton AntiVirus installed on my machine. I said that I did and they said that more than likely I needed to disable a "scan removable media" option from Norton AntiVirus. I unchecked this option and sure enough the San Disk card reader works without a hitch. What is happening [according to San Disk] is that Norton AntiVirus is looking to scan your card slots/ports for viruses when you mount a card into one of the slots and that can cause various PC machines to CRASH!

Now because I have Norton SystemWorks 2003 [with Antivirus] on my machine, I can take you through the steps. But if you have a stand-alone version of Norton AntiVirus your menu navigation may be different but I'm sure you can burrow through the options and follow me with my demostration below:

First, launch Norton SystemWorks and wait for the Norton SystemWorks pop-up menu to appear.

Second, at the top on the horizontal menu click the big yellow "Options" button and from the mini pulldown menu you want to select "Norton AntiVirus".

Third, a "Norton AntiVirus Options" dialog box will appear. On the left hand side at the very top of the vertical navigation menu pane click on "Auto-Protect" and under its pulldown menu choose "Advanced".

Fourth, to the right of the navigation menu pane you will see a sub-heading called "What activities to monitor when using floppy disks". Under that UNCHECK "SCAN ALL REMOVABLE MEDIA FOR BOOT VIRUSES EVERYTIME IT IS MOUNTED". Click "OK" to exit the dialog box and close the previous one under that, too.

Once the above option is UNCHECKED, then this may solve your crashing/freezing up problem. If it does then that's great! But be CAUTIOUS now because you have disabled auto-protect for removable media. This means that you must be careful that your media cards are VIRUS FREE when you insert them into the card reader. So be warned when borrowing your friend's or family's cards and can't verify what content is on them.

I hope this helps someone.

ROD


Works flawlessly   January 8, 2004
 26 out of 28 found this review helpful

This is the second Sandisk memory card reader I've bought. (The first one was a 6-in-1 reader.) Both have worked flawlessly. Since my computer runs Windows XP, there were no drivers to install, and the computer recognized the reader instantly.

The USB 2.0 interface is a great feature, as it is much quicker than older USB 1.0 devices. I have a 512MB Compactflash card, and transfer times are very fast. In comparison, a USB 1.0 keychain flash drive I purchased is much slower.

The only minor gripe I have is that installing the reader puts four "removable drive" icons in your My Computer folder. The only way to tell which drive has the memory card in it is by clicking on each icon. Annoying until you memorize which drive corresponds to Compactflash, SD, etc.


Works Great   November 24, 2003
 23 out of 25 found this review helpful

I needed a card reader for the proprietary XD memory used in my digital camera so I bought this reader. It is a great value for this price because it reads 8 different formats of memory cards. Great if you use several formats of memory cards or have friends with other cards.

It hooks up via a USB docking station and is backward compatible with the older USB standard. It also comes with a short USB connector if you do not want to carry around the docking station. It just plugs and plays in Windows XP. It creates 4 removable disks in my computer for each memory format because there is 4 slots and each slot fits 2 different memory formats. This makes it possible to move data from one format to another very easily with some obvious limitations.

Overall a Keeper