seaken
Veteran Member
Hello all,
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has come across this problem. But, to my surprise, when I put the CF card into my modern Windows 10 machine, which has a built-in media reader on the front panel, the CF card would not read. I think this is because this Windows 10 machine started out as a Windows 7 or 8 machine. When I got it I put a new hard drive in it and installed Windows 10 and Linux. Apparently Windows 10 does not have a driver for this particular media reader built-in.
So, I found an old USB Compact Flash reader I had in my drawer. I plugged it in. The computer saw that it was there, and it showed in the Drive Manager, but it would not read the CF card. Hmm. Can I find a driver for this thing for Windows 10? Nope. No driver for Windows 10. But I did find a driver for Windows XP. So, I moved over to my Windows 7 machine where I have a Virtual PC with XP. I ran the driver installer in the Virtual PC copy of XP and then plugged in the USB reader and mounted the USB port in the XP virtual machine. XP proceeded to install the driver and then showed me the CF card files. It worked! I was able to backup the CF card and copy files back and forth between this Windows 7/XP machine and my old NEC PowerMate 286 Plus machine that I have been playing with for the past few days.
But then I thought it is pretty inconvenient that I can't just put the CF card in my daily driver Windows 10 machine to move things back and forth on the CF card. Surely there is a solution to using Windows 10 without having to buy a new CF/media card reader. Well, while I was looking for drivers for the old PNY media reader (that works on XP) I ran across a CD for an old SONY media reader I used to use with my Sony camera and PDA's for Smartmedia. I scrounged around and found that SONY reader. I plugged that in to the Windows 10 machine and it immediately worked. I did not even need to run any installation of drivers from the CD. It just works. So, that is my solution for Windows 10 and I've been using ever since. I can copy files back and forth to the 3 CF cards I am using as "hard drives" for both my old Tandy 1000HD and my NEC PowerMate 286.
So, the lesson is this: Not all modern Windows machines will read CF cards. CF cards have been a big help for my old PC's and AT's. But you can't expect to just put these cards into your modern daily driver and expect them to work. I had the same problem in Linux. Even though the computer has a media reader built in to the front panel (and it is connected to the motherboard) it doesn't automatically work. Special drivers may be needed. Or you will have to buy a USB media reader that is supported by the modern operating system.
Seaken
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has come across this problem. But, to my surprise, when I put the CF card into my modern Windows 10 machine, which has a built-in media reader on the front panel, the CF card would not read. I think this is because this Windows 10 machine started out as a Windows 7 or 8 machine. When I got it I put a new hard drive in it and installed Windows 10 and Linux. Apparently Windows 10 does not have a driver for this particular media reader built-in.
So, I found an old USB Compact Flash reader I had in my drawer. I plugged it in. The computer saw that it was there, and it showed in the Drive Manager, but it would not read the CF card. Hmm. Can I find a driver for this thing for Windows 10? Nope. No driver for Windows 10. But I did find a driver for Windows XP. So, I moved over to my Windows 7 machine where I have a Virtual PC with XP. I ran the driver installer in the Virtual PC copy of XP and then plugged in the USB reader and mounted the USB port in the XP virtual machine. XP proceeded to install the driver and then showed me the CF card files. It worked! I was able to backup the CF card and copy files back and forth between this Windows 7/XP machine and my old NEC PowerMate 286 Plus machine that I have been playing with for the past few days.
But then I thought it is pretty inconvenient that I can't just put the CF card in my daily driver Windows 10 machine to move things back and forth on the CF card. Surely there is a solution to using Windows 10 without having to buy a new CF/media card reader. Well, while I was looking for drivers for the old PNY media reader (that works on XP) I ran across a CD for an old SONY media reader I used to use with my Sony camera and PDA's for Smartmedia. I scrounged around and found that SONY reader. I plugged that in to the Windows 10 machine and it immediately worked. I did not even need to run any installation of drivers from the CD. It just works. So, that is my solution for Windows 10 and I've been using ever since. I can copy files back and forth to the 3 CF cards I am using as "hard drives" for both my old Tandy 1000HD and my NEC PowerMate 286.
So, the lesson is this: Not all modern Windows machines will read CF cards. CF cards have been a big help for my old PC's and AT's. But you can't expect to just put these cards into your modern daily driver and expect them to work. I had the same problem in Linux. Even though the computer has a media reader built in to the front panel (and it is connected to the motherboard) it doesn't automatically work. Special drivers may be needed. Or you will have to buy a USB media reader that is supported by the modern operating system.
Seaken