not recognising smartmedia adapter as a drive

Hi.

I just fitted a Datafab PCMSM smartmedia pc card adapter, 128mb compatible,
into slot 2. It is has been detected as a plug & play device and has
installed as a "Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller" and it doesn't show
as a drive in Explorer as it is supposed to. According to the maker website,
separate drivers are not required.

Slot 1 contains a Netgear FA511 cardbus adapter, works fine.

Have tried swapping slots but result is the same.

Setup is as follows:
Thinkpad 600e, std internal hdd (C-drive), external hdd via USB caddy
(D-drive). CD-ROM is E-drive, F-driveletter is reserved for either USB
Zip100 or USB PikaOne Ripcase depending on which is connected. Drive letters
H to Z are available. Win98SE

All replies appreciated, thanks.

The device you have described is an adapter, not a mass storage device. It
provides a Windows device that emulates an IDE controller, as the installed
device description indicates.

When you install one of the memory cards supported by this device then
Windows will see it as a mass storage device and assign it a drive letter,
provided that the memory card you are using supports the drive emulation
function.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"stefaroo" wrote in message
news
Hi.

I just fitted a Datafab PCMSM smartmedia pc card adapter, 128mb
compatible,
into slot 2. It is has been detected as a plug & play device and has
installed as a "Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller" and it doesn't
show
as a drive in Explorer as it is supposed to. According to the maker
website,
separate drivers are not required.

Slot 1 contains a Netgear FA511 cardbus adapter, works fine.

Have tried swapping slots but result is the same.

Setup is as follows:
Thinkpad 600e, std internal hdd (C-drive), external hdd via USB caddy
(D-drive). CD-ROM is E-drive, F-driveletter is reserved for either USB
Zip100 or USB PikaOne Ripcase depending on which is connected. Drive
letters
H to Z are available. Win98SE

All replies appreciated, thanks.

Hi Jeff

Thanks for your quick reply.

Maybe the following extra info would help in solving my problem, so here
goes....

If I fit the SMcard into the adapter and then fit the combination into the
slot, it is detected as a plug and play device and is installed as a Standard
IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller and it doesn't show as a drive in Explorer.

If I fit the empty adapter into the slot there is no detection at all. Tried
the Install New Harware option, no detection whether plug and play or not. If
I then insert the SMcard into the fitted adapter, the screen goes black, the
lights on the Netgear cardbus adapter go out and stay out, there is no
response from the keyboard, so I have to reboot.

SMcard is a Fuji 128mB, works fine when put back into Olympus C370UZ camera.
The card DOES show as a drive if I fit it into the camera and connect the
camera to the laptop using the USB lead supplied.

Could this be a card-to-adapter incompatability problem, or perhaps the
initial formatting of the card by the camera is a factor?

It could be both of the things you mention, or it could be a problem with
the machine-to-adapter interface. You could confirm the card is OK by
inserting it in another PC and checking the properties of the mass storage
drive that is created. Note that the fact you can see the card as a drive
when inserted in the camera and the camera is connected tells you very
little that is useful - it is actually the camera acting as an adapter that
is providing the information that Windows needs to see the card as a device.

I would recommend trying the adapter and card in an XP machine - that would
at least tell you that the hardware is working OK. Then contact Datafab for
advice on using it with your machine.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"stefaroo" wrote in message
...
Hi Jeff

Thanks for your quick reply.

Maybe the following extra info would help in solving my problem, so here
goes....

If I fit the SMcard into the adapter and then fit the combination into the
slot, it is detected as a plug and play device and is installed as a
Standard
IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller and it doesn't show as a drive in Explorer.

If I fit the empty adapter into the slot there is no detection at all.
Tried
the Install New Harware option, no detection whether plug and play or not.
If
I then insert the SMcard into the fitted adapter, the screen goes black,
the
lights on the Netgear cardbus adapter go out and stay out, there is no
response from the keyboard, so I have to reboot.

SMcard is a Fuji 128mB, works fine when put back into Olympus C370UZ
camera.
The card DOES show as a drive if I fit it into the camera and connect the
camera to the laptop using the USB lead supplied.

Could this be a card-to-adapter incompatability problem, or perhaps the
initial formatting of the card by the camera is a factor?

Hi again, Jeff

Just tried card and adapter combination in a Compaq laptop running XP. This
time it detects it as a Standard IDE/ATAPI Hard Disk Controller, still not
showing as a drive.

I emailed Datafab a couple of days ago, no reply yet.

I'm considering putting the card back in the camera, connecting camera to
laptop via USB then trying to make windows format the card.

I'll keep you posted!

Bye for now, I'm off to fry a not - so - smart media card. . . .

Hi again, Jeff

Well the card did not fry. I did a full windows format and then ran scandisk
with surface scan. No errors detected. Took some pics, they show OK via the
camera via USB but still no show with the pcmcia adapter.

Just waiting on Datafab now.

Stef