SD Card Reader for my G4?

Question

SD Card Reader for my G4?

I've successfully used a CF Card Reader on my G4 to access cards from my camera. But in the way of the world, I now have a camera that uses the smaller format SD card.

My CF reader requires a driver for Mac OS 9. Without it, the reader simply complains that the driver is missing and does nothing else. All of the SD readers I've seen advertised say "Plug and Play" - implying that no driver is supplied.

If you know of a product that will work with Mac OS 9, please pass that info along.

Gary

G4, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Jul 3, 2011 3:29 PM

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Answer 1

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Jul 4, 2011 10:38 PM in response to Gary - former developer

A few years ago, I bought a discontinued, USB 2.0/1.1 multi-card reader/writer (brand: "ohm" - product of China) from Target. It's for PC/Mac use and is plug-and-play. With (4) slots, it's compatible with the CF, MS, SD, and SM formats. I just plugged it into a beige G3 running OS 9.2.2, with the SD card from my Nikon camera in it. It mounted on the desktop as an "untitled" disk, and I was able to view the JPGs contained therein. If your G4 is running OS 9.2.2, you should have no problems with a generic reader. With each update to OS 9 (OS 9.1, 9.2.1, and 9.2.2), the included USB support drivers (USB Support, USB Mass Storage Support, USB Device Extension, etc.) had a larger database of supported devices. In fact, I used the USB support drivers from the OS 9.1 Update on Macs running OS 8.6, as the support was broader than the original version designed for 8.6.

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Answer 2

Jul 5, 2011 4:38 AM in response to Jeff

Jeff,

Could you please clarify your statement:

"In fact, I used the USB support drivers from the OS 9.1 Update on Macs running OS 8.6, as the support was broader than the original version designed for 8.6."

What was 'the original version?'

Ji~m

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Answer 3

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Jul 5, 2011 11:20 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man

The downloadable "USB Adapter Card Support 1.4.1" was Apple's recommended driver package for Power Macs (lacking onboard USB ports) running OS 8.6, after installing a USB PCI card. After having done so, I tried a USB flash drive and it wasn't recognized. I decided to experiment with the updated drivers, so I extracted each set from the Mac OS 9.1, 9.2.1, and 9.2.2 Update tomes. Those from the latter two updates weren't compatible with OS 8.6, but the drivers from the OS 9.1 Update (USB Mass Storage Support 2.0.9, USB Support 1.4.6, USB Device Extension 1.4.6, USB Software Locator 1.4.6, HID Library 1.4.6, EnetShimLib 1.4.6, and SerialShimLib 1.4.6) were compatible - and the USB flash drive was recognized and functioned perfectly.

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Answer 4

Jul 5, 2011 11:34 PM in response to Jeff

Thanx, Jeff. Just the detail I was wondering about. Hope Gary also finds it useful - so I am not jacking his topic! : )

We were fortunate enough to have things be plug and play so I never had reason to tinker with that generation. In fact, OS 8.1 on our first G3 was so reliable that we basically skipped 8.6 and went straight to 9.1.

Ji~m

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Answer 5

Jul 6, 2011 4:42 PM in response to Jeff

Jeff -

So if I understand your post correctly, I should try an SD Reader with my 9.2.2 system but expect it to fail. Then I should replace the extensions you listed with the ones from the OS 9.1 installation CD. Is that correct?

Gary

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Answer 6

Jeff

Level 6

12,328 points

Jul 7, 2011 12:16 AM in response to Gary - former developer

"So if I understand your post correctly, I should try an SD Reader with my 9.2.2 system but expect it to fail. Then I should replace the extensions you listed with the ones from the OS 9.1 installation CD."

As I stated in my first response: "I just plugged it (USB 2.0/1.1 multi-card reader/writer) into a beige G3 running OS 9.2.2, with the SD card from my Nikon camera in it. It mounted on the desktop as an "untitled" disk, and I was able to view the JPGs contained therein. If your G4 is running OS 9.2.2, you should have no problems with a generic reader. With each update to OS 9 (OS 9.1, 9.2.1, and 9.2.2), the included USB support drivers... had a larger database of supported devices."

In response to Jim's request for clarification on a tangential matter, the reference to USB Support drivers from the OS 9.1 Update was for Macs running OS 8.6 and is completely unrelated to your situation.

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