Something's fishy with Lexar's New CF Cards and Reader

[scottbergerphoto]

I just bought 2 Lexar 1GB 40X CF Cards in preparation for the 1D MarkII, you know kind of like painting the room for the new baby. The cards come with the Rescue software and a Lexar JumpShot Reader. I installed the reader and software today. The new Lexar JumpShot reader will not recognize my 1GB SanDisk Cards, only the Lexar cards. My old Lexar Media CF card reader reads the new Lexar Cards and my Sandisk cards, but will not be recognized by the Rescue software regardless of which card I put in the reader. So basically if you want to use the new Lexar Reader or the Rescue software, I can only use Lexar cards in/with it.
Now that really bites! I did a little looking on Google, and found that Lexar puts their USB controller in the card and not in the card reader. So only Lexar Cards will work in the JumpShot Reader, and only the JumpShot Reader will work with the Rescue software. Lexar's advertisement says that this way you don't need a card reader, just a JumpShot Cable because the USB controller is in the card. In my opinion, that's proprietary BS.

The question that comes to mind, is whether the 40X WA technology requires this restriction on the new reader (although I don't see why they couldn't have made it backward compatible), or if Lexar is doing this to encourage me to make all my future purchases Lexar?
Any ideas?
Scott

[Belmondo]

You're right...that bites. I've bought two of those cards, and I'm using them without incident, but have not tried the card reader that was included. In fact, I was going to give it to a friend, but without the card, it sound like it might be pretty useless.

Thanks for the 'heads up'.

[IanD]

Hmmm, strange. I have a couple of 40X 512's and they read in both of my readers. The Jumpstart reads any card I put in. Could it be something only with the 1's??

[PacAce]

Yes, the Jump Start cable will read any card. However, the Image Rescue program doesn't work with just any CF card you put in there. I tried to run the IR program against my Lexar 512 MB card and it wouldn't even read them either. That kind of ticked me off because, after all, these 512 MB cards are Lexar cards, too. Why shouldn't IR be able recognize them? I sent an email to their tech support to inquire about this. I'm wondering if we need a different version of IR? I noticed that the one that came with the card is v 1.1.5. I noticed on their web site that the latest is 1.3 or something like that.

:?

[rockos]

hmmm i just got a lexar 512 40x yesterday... that came with the rescue software as well as the jumshot reader...

it will NOT read my simpletech 256 cf card...but as soon as i put in the lexar it comes right up.


hmmm dont know what it would be

rockos

[PacAce]

I'm downloading IR v2 from their website now. As soon as it's done (dang slow dialup :evil: ) I'll see it that makes a difference. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[PacAce]

But as far as the other brands go, the docs says that the Jumpstart cable and the IR program will only work with USB enabled CF cards, whatever that means. AFAIK, only Lexar stamps their cards as USB enabled, no?

[IanD]

This is weird. I tried just now to see if the Jumpstart would read any card. No problems. The IR will only work with the 40X cards but that is OK as they are what I am currently using. One thing I remember is that when I tried to install the software (IR) off the original card, it would not work. I have to download the newest version Now everything works and the Jumpsrart cable is always in the backpack.

[PacAce]

Just installed IR 2.0 and the good news is that IR will now work with all my Lexar cf cards.

The bad news is that neither the IR nor the Jumpstart cable works with my Viking cf cards. I don't really care about the Jumpstart cable since I have an firewire card reader that's a lot faster but the bummer is that the IR software won't work with anything but the Jumpstart cable. Now, how annoying is that?

[IndyJeff]

For the answer as to why your Lexar card reader will not read SanDisk or Viking cards, look on the back of your Lexar card. There you will see that it is a USB device. Their readers only read USB cards, SanDisk and Viking are not USB.


edit: Opps, PacAce beat me to it, you da man PacAce.

[scottbergerphoto]

Thank you all for your replies. From what I've read since I originally posted, the JumpShot is a Cable and not a reader. They call it that because it has no USB controller. That is in the Lexar card. In order to use the JumpShot Cable, you must use a CF card that has its own USB controller. I don't know of any USB enabled cards other then Lexar. Rob Galbraith's site suggests that they are the only company currently producing it. Fot those of you able to use another brand card, please check to be sure you have a JumpShot Cable and not a Lexar Card Reader.
Has anyone been able to use the Rescue software on a regular CR reader?
Scott

[PacAce]

Scott, according to some of the write-ups I've read of IR 2.0, it's supposed to be able to recover data from any CF card using any card reader. I've already downloaded and installed IR 2.0 but I didn't try testing it with my firewire reader and my Viking card. I'm going to try that when I get home tonight.

[Scottes]

I did have problems reading another Lexar "USB enabled" card, and older 12X, on my Jumpshot cable. I never did figure it and they never answered the phone...


Anyone ever test the speed of reading via Jumpshot vs Card Reader?

[Webster]

Scott,

I agree that it would be very annoying to discover that the Lexar reader only read Lexar cards, but unless you paid extra for the reader and rescue software, or unless the Lexar cards were not able to be rescued by other rescue software, I don't see that you have much to really complain about. You can toss the software and the reader in the trash and be none the worse for the experience.

[PacAce]

I did have problems reading another Lexar "USB enabled" card, and older 12X, on my Jumpshot cable. I never did figure it and they never answered the phone...


Anyone ever test the speed of reading via Jumpshot vs Card Reader?

Scott, are you saying that the system does not recognize your older Lexar cf cards using the cable or are you saying that ImageRescue doesn't recognize it. My experience with the original IR that came with the 1 GB CF card is the latter. I didn't have any problems reading the older lexar cards via the cable in Windows Explorer.

If your problem is the latter, also, download IR v2 from the Lexar website and you should be OK with the older Lexar cards.

[scottbergerphoto]

Scott,

I agree that it would be very annoying to discover that the Lexar reader only read Lexar cards, but unless you paid extra for the reader and rescue software, or unless the Lexar cards were not able to be rescued by other rescue software, I don't see that you have much to really complain about. You can toss the software and the reader in the trash and be none the worse for the experience.
A reason to bitch is in the eye of the beholder. You know the old saying, "It's better to be pissed off then pissed on!"
Kidding aside, Lexar made a calculated business decision to move the USB controller into the CF card, rendering the JumpShot cable unuseable with non-Lexar cards. Most people will not want the clutter of 2 USB card readers. If Lexar can get some people to put their other card readers away, they gain market share. This in counter to the goals of open systems and consumer choice. In addition, Lexar does not make a point to tell you up front that other cards won't work. You find out by it not working with non-Lexard cards, and then you go look for a reason.
Scott

[Scottes]

Scott, are you saying that the system does not recognize your older Lexar cf cards using the cable or are you saying that ImageRescue doesn't recognize it.

The Jumpshot didn't recognize the card.

The Jumpshot cable came with a 256M 40X Lexar. The card it wouldn't recognize was a friend's 12X Lexar USB-enabled. I had to dig out my card reader to get the images to my PC. Never figured out the problem, but I didn't need to bother as I had the "bad" card for less than a day while I tested out his camera.

[scottbergerphoto]

Scott, according to some of the write-ups I've read of IR 2.0, it's supposed to be able to recover data from any CF card using any card reader. I've already downloaded and installed IR 2.0 but I didn't try testing it with my firewire reader and my Viking card. I'm going to try that when I get home tonight.
I just finished downloading and installing IR v2.0. It now works with my SanDisk cards and Lexar cards and CF card reader. Thanks for the Info. I'm not sure why I even need the JumpShot cable now.
Scott

[Belmondo]

Good information. Thanks.

[DaveG]

I did have problems reading another Lexar "USB enabled" card, and older 12X, on my Jumpshot cable. I never did figure it and they never answered the phone...


Anyone ever test the speed of reading via Jumpshot vs Card Reader?

Scott, are you saying that the system does not recognize your older Lexar cf cards using the cable or are you saying that ImageRescue doesn't recognize it. My experience with the original IR that came with the 1 GB CF card is the latter. I didn't have any problems reading the older lexar cards via the cable in Windows Explorer.

If your problem is the latter, also, download IR v2 from the Lexar website and you should be OK with the older Lexar cards.

I have a 16X Lexar 512 meg card and the reader that came with my Lexar 40X card won't read the 16X either. And it SAYS USB on the 16x.

[scottbergerphoto]

Great Cards (1GB 40X WA), Great Software (Image Rescue v2.0- recognizes all CF cards and readers as opposed to v1.x which doesn't), Useless JumpShot cable(unless you only plan to use Lexar 40X USB enabled cards.
Thanks everyone for contributing, and letting me know about v2.0 of Image Rescue.
Scott

[PacAce]

Great Cards (1GB 40X WA), Great Software (Image Rescue v2.0- recognizes all CF cards and readers as opposed to v1.x which doesn't), Useless JumpShot cable(unless you only plan to use Lexar 40X USB enabled cards.
Thanks everyone for contributing, and letting me know about v2.0 of Image Rescue.
Scott

Ain't it great being able to sleep at nights knowing that if ever our cards should fail or the images get deleted accidently, we have a good chance of being able to recover them with IR? :D