CF driver not much use w/o Import

[mcullum]

I don't know about you guys, but if I can't use the MS import option with the MS and the CF card, $27. for the driver is way over priced. The CF card needs to be able to be used like an add'l drive. IMHO.

[Alistar]

I just use a CF card reader. Works well.

[dark79]

MS Import is far too slow to be much use anyway, but that's just me. I prefer an external reader.

I have a USB2.0 6in1 reader that mounts in a 3.5" bay. Works very well with my CF card.

[mcullum]

I use my Clie as a portable storage device as well as all of the other cool things it can do. It just doesn't make sense to have to pull the card out and put it in a reader and then re-inserting it for the 4 computers I interact with on a daily basis. I would also like to move files back and forth in Windows explorer, not have to use 3 different card readers. Can somebody please tell me if this is in the works or even possible? If not, I'm gonna uninstall the driver and buy a 1 gb MS so I can have my Clie back instead of all these "tricks" and "workarounds"

[Reggie]

The prolem with a the Memory Stick Pro though are:

1. You need a special reader for it. I'm not currently aware of a 6-in-1 device that supports it. THe only cheapest thing I saw was Sandisk at $19.95.

2. MS Import does not yet support MS Pro. Your Clie (NX/NZ,TG) will be able to read it, and install into it using the Install Tool, but currently no way to see it as a separate drive in your Explorer through MS Import.

3. They're expensive.

Hope this helps.

[captainao]

Reggie, wth all due respect, I think you're wrong about MS Import and MS Pro - they work just fine together (just double checked with my 512MB MS Pro).

mccullum, I use a $9 Sandisk PCMCIA adapter to load data on my CF card. It's very portable, and a lot quicker than MS Import. The only downside is that you don't find PCMCIA slots on desktop machines, but that hasn't been an issue for me.

As you can tell from this post, I use both MSPro and CF - both are handy for different reasons, so I can't really call one better than the other, though CF is a lot cheaper!

[Reggie]

captainao, thanks for pointing this out. I must be doing something wrong. I'm using the 512MB MS Pro too.

[captainao]

I have the MS Pro update installed - not sure if it may be needed to make this work; good luck!

[Reggie]

Yes I have it installed. I have to try again when I get home. Thanks!

[Reggie]

captainao, just confirmed that the MS Pro works on MS Import. The problem I'm getting is a conflict with the CF driver. If the CF driver is insalled, MS Import won't detect the memory stick.

Well, at least I got to sort that thing out. Thanks.

[OcellNuri]

Yea Reggie... using Automount with the CF Driver, I just pop the CF card out before I launch MS Import. Also... you can mount the cards in an order that will let MS Import work. First unmount both cards (pop them both out). Mount the CF card first, then put the MS in. MS Import will work with both cards in the unit like this. NOTE: MS Import WILL NOT see the CF Card. Just wanted to make that clear before anyone asked. :D

[Reggie]

Gee! Thanks for the workaround Ocell!

[n2ifp]

Okay, now I am less confused than before :D!

[mcullum]

See, This is what I'm talking about. Maybe if I lift my left leg and point my toes north while blinking three times I can get this thing to work as advertised. Having to remount the card every time my NX reset or errors because of some unknown conflict combined with the other issues I mentioned make this thing unacceptable. Larry, you're a beta tester and I assume in communication with Eruware, will this be resolved or did I throw $27. bucks to the wind? It wouldn't be the first time, I just wish I could've trialed this thing first!!!

[bbinelli]

Originally posted by mcullum
See, This is what I'm talking about. Maybe if I lift my left leg and point my toes north while blinking three times I can get this thing to work as advertised. Having to remount the card every time my NX reset or errors because of some unknown conflict combined with the other issues I mentioned make this thing unacceptable. Larry, you're a beta tester and I assume in communication with Eruware, will this be resolved or did I throw $27. bucks to the wind? It wouldn't be the first time, I just wish I could've trialed this thing first!!!

mcullum...if you have a problem or question ask for help. if you want to whine about the same thing repeatedly then maybe you should just spend the money on a MS Pro, it seems a better choice for your needs. Some of us here are constantly impressed with the CF Driver and recognize benefits in it that you do not seem to see or embrace.

Peace...this is not intended to be a flame.

[ayasin]

Originally posted by mcullum
See, This is what I'm talking about. Maybe if I lift my left leg and point my toes north while blinking three times I can get this thing to work as advertised.
I've thus far pretty much stayed away from commenting on threads like this but enough is enough. You imply here that we are being deceptive in our claims. That's simply not the case. We _never_ claimed that it worked with MS Import, in fact, the fact that it does not work with MS Import is well documented. The driver DOES work as advertised, it reads and writes data off the CF card. If you want to blame someone or be upset with someone over the lack of Sony native app support for multiple volumes or the fact that they refuse to talk to anything that isn't a memory stick, might I humbly suggest that the target be Sony. MANY other applications work flawlessly with the CF driver and the fact that we have some Sony applications working flawlessly and some working with a few issues is quite an achievement since we are not patching any of them (nor could we as it would be a violation of their license agreement). You complain about the CF driver not being able to do this or that, but the fact is that it's applications that can't do this or that, the CD driver does what a driver should do...drive hardware. You also mentioned that $27 was overpriced...what would you like the price to be for this level of effort? Softpocket solutions was going to charge $40 and they weren't supporting native apps OR providing free upgrades (I had a long talk with Corey after our driver went into beta so I know these things first hand). We felt that we wanted to make this available to the most Clie users and make sure that they could derive the most benefit from it. I'm not bashing Corey here for what he was going to charge, he's a great guy and was very nice to give us some good advice, I'm simply poointing out that the only other real game in town was going to charge much more and offer much less because of the level of effort.

Having to remount the card every time my NX reset or errors because of some unknown conflict combined with the other issues I mentioned make this thing unacceptable.
Would you rather risk a hard reset? That's the situation we are trying to avoid. We ARE looking in to making auto-mount available after reset an option.

will this be resolved or did I throw $27. bucks to the wind? It wouldn't be the first time, I just wish I could've trialed this thing first!!!
I wish we could trust that people wouldn't try to crack it or otherwise steal it, but since we can't and this is a VERY small market, this is the way we have to do things. It's the only way we can make any money (even to recoup our cost). We tried very hard to make sure that everyone was aware of the product's uses and limitations before purchase. This also isn't like a game that you're going to either like or not. It's a driver, you can either use one because you have a CF slot/card or you can't use one because you don't...it's pretty cut and dry.

Sorry to sound so harsh, but that first statement got me a bit hot.

PS. I also think it's funny that the ClieSource spell checker doesn't have the words Clie or ClieSource in it's dictionary :eek: :D .

[mcullum]

I'm the one that started this thread even though this computer isn't showing me as registered. Thank you for your response. Finally a honest and direct response. I understand and can appreciate your hurdles in releasing your driver. My comments were meant to be pointed but not insulting. I apologize if that was the effect. I still wish to know if the import option is in the works or not as well as the stability of the driver. I understand all it can do, but when cruising the forums and reading all the discussions about the driver, I was under the impression that it would allow comparable funtionallity to the MS slot and that just isn't the case. My question is: Will this come to be or were my expectations set too high?

[ayasin]

Originally posted by mcullum
I still wish to know if the import option is in the works
Well yes and no. It is not possible for MS Import to work with the CF Card. It's hard coded to talk directly to the MS and patching is not an option (it's a violation of the license agreement and we don't want to give Sony an excuse to send $700/hr lawyers after us). We are however interested in providing a similar app, it's just a question of priorities and manpower.

as well as the stability of the driver.
The driver itself is actually extremely stable. Masquerading support could be better and we are working on that. There are upgrades to that coming in version 1.1 and more planned for future versions.

I was under the impression that it would allow comparable functionality to the MS slot and that just isn't the case. My question is: Will this come to be or were my expectations set too high?
Well if your impression was that the CF card would be as functional (or more functional in some cases) as a memory stick in most cases, then your impression is correct. If, however you believed that the Sony apps would work just like they do on the MS, you were mistaken. It's not just that Sony doesn't support multiple volumes, there are a plethora of apps like that and they work fine if you just remove the MS. No, the problem is that Sony went MILES out of their way to BREAK CF support. They have every conceivable dirty programming trick in the book hidden within the Clie. If you could see the code you'd be amazed at how much of it is dealing with the CF slot and how much of it is managing Sony. In addition to all this, Sony's apps are buggy...they don't behave as they should even under normal use...they mostly completely fail to take into account _any_ edge cases. That said, we will continue to attempt to make our Masquerading feature better and better, but it's highly doubtful that it will ever be just as easy as pop in the stick and play a movie. At the very least you'll have to enable MS Masquerading mode. This isn't something that we desire, it's just the hand that Sony dealt us.