Fuji FD-A2 Floppy Adapter

With 2gb now available, the Fuji FD-A2 Floppy Adapter is hardly a viable option

Drivers are available for windows 95,98,2000,Me and XP at: http://www.smartdisk.com/ProductSupport.asp

The Windows 2000 software that comes with the Fuji FD-A2 floppy adapter card reader requires serious attention for an upgrade to prevent crashes on Windows 2000.

I looked around at card readers etc for my smartmedia cards - the cable supplied with the camera was really NOT an option as it took an age to transfer and required a free serial port.

My criteria were: the card reader had to be small enough to carry in my laptop bag, able to connect to any PC and able to read up to 64mb cards.

I settled for the Fuji FD-A2 floppy adapter and have certainly NOT regretted my choice. This thing is actually no bigger than a floppy and installs in seconds. The driver is supplied on a floppy disk, so I carry that with me aswell to use the adapter on any new PCs I meet.

To use the adapter, you just slot a smartmedia card into the side and then place the adapter in your A: drive as if it was a floppy. Your files are displayed in Explorer, just like with a floppy - a very large floppy in this case.

I have also found it possible to transfer large files via smartmedia cards - and so long as the files are deleted BEFORE replacing the card in your camera, all should be well. That saves me carrying a CD-R or ZIP drive.

The downside - it needs batteries - though Fuji state a 10 hour life and they only cost around £4.00 a set. A 32mb card transfers in about 3 minutes so thats around 200 transfers per set of batteries.

All in all, this is a fast and ultra portable device - a must for travelling digital photographers.