Copying files from CompactFlash cards

Sep 17, '02 08:42:16AM

Contributed by: Arrakis

Problem: I had quite a lot of troubles with CompactFlash pc card adapters and OS X on a PowerBook G4 (I haven't it tried with G3s). I've tested four different CompactFlash cards (128Mb Lexar, 32Mb Sandisk, 16 Mb Nikon and 8Mb Sandisk) with two different adapters on two different Powerbook G4s.

Boot in OS9 and you won't see any problem. In 10.1.5, the problem is the same as the "WebDAV folders not mounting" problem; a Finder relaunch or a display of the "Volumes folder" (option+~) allows you to browse the card. In 10.2, I can import my photos with iPhoto, but I can't retreive any other kind of files (.MOV for example). In the Disk Utility, the card is diplayed as "mounted" with this path: /Volumes/MyCardName.

Solution: Launch the Terminal and type (instructions for unix beginners like me):

 % cd /Volumes/MyCardName
% cd MyFolder
% cp *.MOV /Users/MyUserName/Movies
Try man cp for more info on the copy function. As a reminder, you can find your card's name using the Disk Utility.

If anyone has a better solution, please publish it! Apple knows about the problem but has no answer to it.

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