Softick Card Export II

By Laura, posted Friday, Dec. 30th, 2005
Reader Comments: 13

Quite a few times the question is asked "Is there a way to connect a USB port to my IPAQ". Just recently I found a solution to this, thanks to a fellow contributor in the HP Forums. He explained that he used a piece of software called " Softick Card Export II".

This software enables your storage cards to be treated as a logical disk on your PC. Now as I have a PC that won’t read SD cards larger than 1GB, and a SD card of 2GB, this interested me. The only way I could copy movies to my SD card was via Activesync and, as we all know, this is painfully slow.

Softick Card Export II allows you to switch from ‘Active Sync’ mode which is the standard mode and will enable standard syncing, to ‘Card Export’ mode. In ‘Card Export’ mode, you no longer sync when you put your IPAQ in the cradle. It effectively connects your storage cards via USB to your PC.

I decided that I would like to test this product, and possibly give a review for Dave’s IPAQ. I emailed Softick asking them if I could do a review. Within 12 hours, I received an email back agreeing to this. A few days later, they sent me a registration. I was really pleased with such prompt communications.

I have a 4700 with a 2GB SD card and also now a 2GB CF card (who needs an IPOD!). The first thing I did, as I do before I install any new software, was a backup of my IPAQ. I do this to give myself a rollback point, should I have problems with the new software.

I then went to the Softick download page, http://www.softick.com/download.php , and downloaded Softick Card Export II PPC 2.04. I downloaded the .cab file to my PC. I copied this .cab file to the IPAQ FILE STORE on my IPAQ. I clicked on it, and the software installed. I uncradled my IPAQ, then did a soft reset as instructed.

Then…………. I wasn’t to sure what to do ! I went to Programs, and clicked on Card Export, but this just asked me if I wanted to uninstall. I was hoping for some sort of Help.

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All,
One downside that I see with the software is that you lose automatic conversion to ppc format on transfer

Posted by , Tuesday, Mar. 14th, 2006

magnusBM29 - Thank you so much for your feedback. I hadn't noticed your second point, that you cannot access your storage cards from your IPAQ while the IPAQ is cradled and in 'Card Export' mode. Thank you so much for pointing this out.

Posted by Laura, Monday, Mar. 6th, 2006

I downloaded my copy of Card Export and there are two main things I noticed.

1) you do not need to have active sync installed on the computer you are using. When card export mounts your drive, it doesnt install anything to the computer, so if you are using a computer where you cant install software, this tool is incredibly useful.

2)When you switch to card export mode and you have access to your drive from the computer you are using, you cannot access your storage card from your PDA, just the computer. So if you want to load documents and files to your storage card while listening to music, your pretty much out of luck.

Magnus

Posted by magnusBM29, Wednesday, Mar. 1st, 2006

Yes, if you don't want to sync, and just want to copy files to and from your cards - then I think this would work without Activesync, though I haven't actually tried it without Activesync installed on my PC. You can download a trial to try this out though.

Posted by Laura, Monday, Oct. 24th, 2005

Does this require Active sync to be already installed on the machine? I'd like to use this and a sync cable to just connect to a machine without having to load anything on it or carry a card reader.

Posted by Bai Shen, Monday, Oct. 24th, 2005

A wonderful article Laura! It's so very helpful to those folks who do not have a card reader available to them!

I look forward to your future reviews!

Posted by , Saturday, Oct. 22nd, 2005

Excellent review, Laura. (Maiden voyage? Who'd believe it? Written like a pro.)

I can imagine the software very useful when away from our regular bases. We're set up with ActiveSync and have card readers. But suppose you're dealing with someone who isn't? This could be a lifesaver in such a situation. (At the least a real timesaver in avoiding the workarounds you'd have to do.)

Thanks, Laura, for bringing it to our attention.

Marc

Posted by MarcoMillions, Saturday, Oct. 22nd, 2005

Great article Laura, and usefull software too! I like the fact that now there is a way to speedily transfer files to the SD card without having to take the card out and place it into a reader. Much more convienient to just switch modes using the tray icon.

Posted by Physboy, Friday, Oct. 21st, 2005

I knew I was't imagining it:

Znet:
An upgrade to the OS, Windows Mobile 5.0, was announced in May, but is not expected to appear in devices for a few months. Among the key features of Windows Mobile 5 is the ability to store user data in persistent ROM rather than RAM (which is lost if the battery is drained) and to mount a handheld as a USB Mass Storage Device for quick and easy data transfer to and from a host PC.

As I understand, it's up to the OEM to actually enable it on the device. I wonder if Softick card II works under WM5?

Posted by JNGold, Friday, Oct. 21st, 2005

Laura, great job you are a natural at writing reviews.

Posted by Steve Trotto, Friday, Oct. 21st, 2005

WOW Laura great job and thank you for sharing your thoughts on this software app!!!

Posted by David Ciccone, Friday, Oct. 21st, 2005

Nice review Laura.

Does any one know if this functionality is supported natively in WM5. I could have sworn that I read that somewhere (???)

Posted by JNGold, Friday, Oct. 21st, 2005

This is Laura's maiden voyage folks.....nice job Laura!!

I like the program and enjoyed your review!

Posted by Jack Cook, Friday, Oct. 21st, 2005

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