Targus Card Reader
August 20th, 2008 by ComputerBob
A few months ago, my online friend, MALsPa recommended that I buy a memory card reader as an alternative to plugging my digital cameras directly into my computer. He told me that card readers are pretty cheap, and with one, my photos would transfer to my computer faster than with the camera/computer connection. I figured that it would also help protect my cameras from damage in the unlikely event that something ever goes wrong with my computer’s hardware.
At the time, I told MALsPa that I appreciated the suggestion, but that I thought that the Compact Flash memory in my digital cameras wasn’t very easy to access, and it was difficult to see which way to insert it correctly so as not to damage it or my cameras.
But in the past week, I gave it some more thought and decided to try a memory card reader. After shopping around awhile, I went to Walmart and bought a Targus Universal 32-In-1 card reader and writer. I don’t need it to accept 32 different types of memory cards — I chose it because it was the cheapest memory card reader that accepts my cameras’ Compact Flash memory cards.
Its packaging says that it is PC/Mac compatible, but I discovered that it also works great in Linux. It plugs into any available USB port and is completely powered through that connection, so it doesn’t need a separate power cord. And I didn’t even have to install any software at all — Debian Linux (Lenny KDE) automatically mounts it every time I plug a memory card into it. When I’m done, I simply right-click on my memory card in Konqueror’s “Storage Media” menu, select “Remove Safely,” and then remove my memory card from my card reader. My photos transfer to my computer a lot faster than when I connected my camera directly to my computer.
I’ve also transferred photos from my computer to my memory cards four times already, so that I could take my memory cards to Sam’s Club and plug them into their photo ordering system to get reprints of my favorite photos. That sure beats having to burn a CD every time I want to order reprints.
And once I did it a few times, it became an easy task to pop my memory cards in and out of my digital cameras.
So, MALsPa, you were right. Thanks for the suggestion!
Update: After I wrote this post, I eventually bought a used PC that came with multiple memory card reader slots built into it. Several months later, I was given an almost new PC, by a client who I had successfully switched from that PC to a new Macintosh. That PC also has multiple memory card reader slots built into it. So now I simply insert my Canon camera’s memory card into either of of those PCs and use the Linux file manager to quickly and easily transfer my photos to my home network’s NFS server.
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September 6th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Can you please instruct me how to plug this into my computer
I have just purchased a Targus USB 2.0 SECURE DIGITAL
CARD READER/WRITER
CAN FIGURE IT OUT
THANKS IF YOU CAN HELP ME I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE THIS
September 6th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I don’t use that particular reader/writer, but the “USB” in its name tells me that it plugs into any available USB port on your computer. My computer has several USB ports back where my monitor plugs into my computer, but many people’s computers also have USB ports on the front, to make it convenient to plug in USB devices like cameras, memory cards, printers, external hard drives, etc. Just look for one or more ports that have that USB rectangular opening, and don’t try to force anything to plug-in — if you have your USB cable oriented the correct way, it will plug right in to your computer very easily.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I bought that exact targus card reader from Walmart for about $15. for my daughter. It works for pictures but not for video. This was supposed to be a plug and play thing. No driver downloads necessary except for win98. We have xp. We spoke with a guy from the company, not that easy to get connected to because of the other targus company!!! He said that he didn’t know what the problem was and we are to call him back if we can’t get it working……we can’t. Do you know anything about uploading videos with that card reader?
July 20th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Dear Partricia,
As far as I know, you should be able to transfer both photos and videos. When my Targus card reader was working, I was able to transfer both photos and videos with it without any problems.
But after a couple of months, it stopped working reliably, as I described in a follow-up Journal entry titled, Targus Card Reader - Part 2.
Since it takes much longer to transfer a video than it does to transfer separate photos, video transfers are much more sensitive to bad connections than photo transfers. That makes me suspect that you may be experiencing the same type of intermittent connection problem that I described in my later Journal entry.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I can’t figure out how to upload pictures from my card reader. I have used it one time when I initially bought the card reader. Now, I have it in the same port that did originally, but when I put my memory card back into it to upload more pictures, it doesn’t do anything at all. Can you help me figure out if I’m doing something wrong?
September 10th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
@Ann Marie,
My card reader used to act like that, too. I don’t know if this will help or not, but when I ran into that problem, I would unplug the card reader from my PC, then shut down my PC, wait 20 seconds, and then boot up my PC again. After my PC was done booting up again, I would then plug in the card reader again. My PC always found the card reader after I did that.
October 4th, 2009 at 3:12 am
HELP i can’t find a driver download for my Mac for this new 32 in 1 Targus Universal card reader. HELP!!!
October 30th, 2009 at 2:33 am
bought a targus today gave error unknown driver first time i plugged it in, no driver needed yeah right, wouldn’t recommend it to anyone pay a little more money and get a sandisk or sony.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Hi, I too cannot find the proper drivers for my mac. Although it says it works out of the box, I cannot get my mac to recognize it. THE “POWER” LED does light up when plugged in but that’s all… Any help or recommendations (other than trash it) is more than welcome.
Thank you
Yan
March 6th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I just bought the Targus card reader/writer and it works great with how fast I can transfer everything but, earlier that day, I accidently deleted all the photos I was going to develope. All of the photos are on my computer but not on my memory card. How do I transfer those photos from my computer back to my memory card so I can go get them developed? Can someone body help me? Do I need the card reader?
March 6th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Jennifer,
I don’t know if your computer’s operating system will allow you to transfer your photos back onto your memory card or not, but you could always just burn a CD of the photos that are on your PC, then take that CD to a photo-processing place to have them printed.
June 20th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
yea… i got the targus sdhc secure digital card reader/ writer. and i have a macbook, and of course it doesnt work. the light doesnt light up, nothings connecting. what do i do?
June 29th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
We have a new computer with Windows 7 and can’t get the card reader to work! Plugged it in as usual and received an error message - the card reader did not install properly.
September 5th, 2010 at 3:23 am
Stay away from this card! It is way too sensitive to connection fluctuations. (or something else, no one at targus has a clue). It couldn’t read a nikon formatted card (WHY!?!?) at all and had a difficult time with a Lumix. Mine transfers anywhere from 3 to 5 Canon files and ejects itself. This can not be good for the memory cards. They should stick to making good cases.
November 3rd, 2010 at 6:19 pm
I am having the same issue as Debbie. I have tried it on 2 computers; 1 with XP; 1 brand new computer with 7. I can’t get it to do anything.
November 16th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Everything went fine connecting the 33-in-1 Targus and inserting my camera’s memory card. But, my wireless mouse pointer will not move, so I can not complete the first instruction under “How to create a folder”. Any suggestions? Thanks.
February 1st, 2011 at 10:51 pm
Yep. Just bought the thing tonight along with my brand new camera. i have the latest version of the macbook, and it won’t work. can’t believe i bought it without researching it a little more first.
March 22nd, 2011 at 4:56 pm
I’ve purchased two card readers at radio shack. They both worked with my MacBook for a few months and then I started getting errors so not all my photos were getting transferred to my computer. Then when I would plug it into my computer, it wouldn’t connect. The last one was a Targus USB 2.0 capable of reading 3 different sizes of cards. So I need to know what brand of card reader to purchase that will work reliably. Any suggestions?
July 9th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
I bought the Targus reader too a couple weeks ago…whenever I try to use it, (I have a SanDisk Memory stick PRO duo). it doesnt fit all the way in. In order to work, I have to hold the memory card up a little at a unusual angle while pushing it slightly into the reader. Usually it stops and I have to lift up a little and push in again.
Does that mean there is something wrong with the reader? Should I have to be doing that?
Thank you
July 9th, 2011 at 1:29 pm
William, there’s either something wrong with your new card reader or something wrong with your PC’s USB port that you plug the reader into. If other USB devices work fine when p\lugged into that UWB port, then the problem is definitely with your new card reader.
July 20th, 2011 at 12:16 am
My problem is that it did not upload all of the pictures. About 750 pictures are missing. They are on the memory card but not in the folder. I cannot figure out how to get to the remaining 750 pictures. I bought this because the USB port on my camera is broken. When I put the memory card back into the the Targus reader it says that there are no new pictures to upload. Um, yeah, there are 750 new pictures to upload, it just won’t do it. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks.
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:00 pm
I have…Mac OsX (10.4.11). Can’t get the Targus to read in my comp. I only have 2 USB ports; 1 on my keyboard & one in the back of my tower. Has anyone w/a Mac been successful getting the Targus to read?