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| Playing with PCMCIA to USB Adaptors - Mac Driver Needed | |
| Posted by: DoctorClu2 on 2026-09-28 13:22:13 Hello all, As announced by Matthias earlier this month, Einstein now reads and works with ATA PCMCIA card images at least made by Apple's Disk Utility. Had lots of success using my Powerbook G4 15" with PCMCIA slot. I wanted to test other options for other people wanting to try the new Einstein ATA trick. I picked up the "USB 2.0 to 68 pin ATA PCMCIA Flash Disk Memory Card Reader Adapter Converter " And the other variety of this USB adaptor currently on eBay looks like this: The first one when I got it looked solid enough. Apparently Macs of the OS X era do not have a built in driver that picked up this device. On a read, it appears "WINDOWS 7,WIDOWS XP,WINDOWS 2000,WINDOWS VISTA and WINDOWS ME system, no need to Install driver, but in WINDOW98 or other old systems need to." Truthfully, I would love to find that windows 98 driver, that would at least be something. Anyway, if you are a Windows user, great. So far I have not found a PCMCIA to USB driver for Macintosh computers. And I invite those that know of a Mac driver to please share here. Thanks, Greg / "Doc Clu"  | |
| Posted by: DoctorClu2 on 2026-09-28 21:34:03 Found out a few things about this device. Seems the earliest this showed up on the interwebs was in 2021 at this site: https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...5TB7&priceId=baebdd1d68c54832865fb867e579f06f One website, Electroshop, gives the most information about this device which some are calling "SZBJ PCMCIA CARD READER" https://electroeshop.com/products/s...ia-pc-card-ata-mass-storage-ata-flash-pc-card There is a FAQ on that site which says this was designed for Windows specifically. No Mac support. | |
| Posted by: DoctorClu2 on 2026-10-02 18:10:22 thank you for the 97 people who viewed this message as I write this. | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-10-02 19:58:49 Wondering about the terminology being used in the listings. One says PCMCIA and the other PC Card, which interface are you playing with? | |
Posted by: Byrd on 2026-10-03 00:19:08thank you for the 97 people who viewed this message as I write this. ? because they viewed and had no answer, there is no need to bump a thread impatiently like this. The device is clearly Windows Me, XP and above due to it predating patchy USB implementation as found in Windows 98. You could try the NUSB 3.3 driver as found here under Windows 98; or just run a later OS. 
Windows 98 USB Storage DriverThis enables the use of USB flash drives in Windows 98. I've used this on a range of machines, from an old Slot 1 system to newer Athlon 64. Very convenient, but without USB 2.0 it can be quite slow....
www.philscomputerlab.com
If you have a desktop PC, a Ricoh branded PCI to PCMCIA card works out of the box generally on PCI-equipped Macs running OS 9 if the specific card has PCMCIA drivers for Mac OS. | |
Posted by: DoctorClu2 on 2026-10-07 09:36:51Wondering about the terminology being used in the listings. One says PCMCIA and the other PC Card, which interface are you playing with?PCMCIA cards. Playing with PCMCIA to USB adaptors, trying to possibly find one that works with Macs. The device is clearly Windows Me, XP and above due to it predating patchy USB implementation as found in Windows 98. You could try the NUSB 3.3 driver as found here under Windows 98; or just run a later OS.Great, all reading and those responding are greatly appreciated. And this appears to be the fabled win 98 driver was talking about. Thanks for sharing that. | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2026-10-07 10:28:38 Cool, what Mac OS and models are you trying to go cross platform via PCMCIA? If you're using Win98 on a desktop/tower there are ISA/PCI cards with PCMCIA slots in the back that might be another avenue to explore. | |
Posted by: DoctorClu2 on 2026-10-07 10:48:12Cool, what Mac OS and models are you trying to go cross platform via PCMCIA? I am familiar with the ISA cards you are talking about. My Dad had one, and probably still does. Was quite nice with push button eject and everything. As for Mac OS: Mostly trying to find a more modern solution for Mac users. Found that using Disk Utility you can create an image of a ATA card (from a Newton Messagepad) and use the image in the Newton emulator called "Einstein". I've been able to do this with a G4 PowerBook (with PCMCIA slot), and was trying to find solutions for those with more modern Macs that don't have a PCMCIA slot. Thus why I tried the PCMCIA to USB adaptor mentioned above. PC solutions are also good. The above adaptor works great with a Windows XP laptop I tried. Now to figure out what utilities to use to make a image of the ATA PCMCIA card. I don't tinker with PC or Win computers very often these days. | |
| Posted by: finkmac on 2026-10-07 12:10:01 I mean if you're using ATA cards you're likely using the ATA driver. why bother with PCMCIA, just use CF in an adapter... USB adapters for those are a dime a dozen. | |
| Posted by: Byrd on 2026-10-08 03:01:04 Yes, and coupled with the USB card reader, having a CF to PCMCIA adapter would also help the cause (also a dime a dozen). And this appears to be the fabled win 98 driver was talking about. Thanks for sharing that. No worries, it's an old classic and certainly saved my bacon a few times trying to get new data onto an older Windows 98 PC. | |
Posted by: DoctorClu2 on 2026-10-08 20:46:51I mean if you're using ATA cards you're likely using the ATA driver. why bother with PCMCIA, just use CF in an adapter... USB adapters for those are a dime a dozen. Yes, and coupled with the USB card reader, having a CF to PCMCIA adapter would also help the cause (also a dime a dozen). I've come to realize this, and something I was playing with. Should work just fine. 🙂 | |
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