I have a camera using 256MB XD, my sister got a Fuji F30 one using 1GB XD and I use 2GB MicroSD for my NDS. I only "need" a reader for XD since the cameras work anyway, but my sisters use a non-standard mini-usb variant so if the reader takes XD and can handle that one it would be nice to.

I have one reader which I got with a magazine subscription, USB 1.1, sees the 2GB card, quite slow but what do you expect, corrupts the data on the card very often... Not reliable at all and a piece of shit.

This autumn I bought another one, USB 2.0, but 2GB microSD wasn't available in europe so got 512MB, worked well until I got my 2GB card and found out it only supports 1GB ...

My MicroSD card is Sandisk Ultra II 66/60x rating so it can transfer data at 10/9 MB/s so I'd prefer a fast reader/writer.

SVP got one from Sweex which seems popular, specs says 700-4000kbps, 0.5MB/s? Only 4000 seconds or 67 minutes to fill my card? No thanks.
They have a few datawrites, no speed mentioned.
They have one from kingston, no speed mentioned (well, USB 2.0 upto 480mbps! ...)
and finally they had Veneco or something like that, no mention about speed their either. But if it's similair to this page: http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/speed-tests.html it's quite slow.
They also have a datawrite microsd only version, that one would do if it's not slow as shit and supports my card.

So where can I find an affordable FAST card reader/writer, which doesn't corrupt my cards and which can handle large cards?

Try IOgear

They had this one:
http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=p...&Item=GFR201TF

Sweet design, cost three times more than the datawrite one thought, but I can't find any speed ratings anywhere, do you know it's fast?

Hi,I had a similar problem (here with a 1GB xD card). Fortunately the manufacturer offered a newer firmware (Yes, you can flash cardreaders, at least some of them), now that beast is not only recognized as USB 2.0 device (it wasn't before) but it can read my 1 GB xD card without problems.
So it is worth checking, if there is some newer firmware for your reader.

Michael

Do you need the one for miceo SD cards I have the GFR202SD works great with 2GB they told me it is tested to 4GB

http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=p...0Card%20Reader

USB 2.0 Speeds, up to 480 Mbps

Well, the issue here is that I bought the card reader at "Biltema" which is a company which mostly sell car accessories, but also some other random stuff they find nice to sell ;D
Price and quality are often good, but the card reader is unbranded and they doesn't seem to have any updates. I guess there could be for the chip thought, but I'll try to return it instead saying I bought it to use it with my 2GB card..

It's this chip: http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
But I don't know if firmwares are generic.

Yeah, but all USB 2.0 readers are "up to 480 Mbps", for example the Sweex one, but the transfer speed are still 700-4000kbps, that is 4 Mbps at max... So as long as they only mention cable transfer speed it's totally worthless.

How fast are writing and reading to your card? Could you test with hdtach or similair?

It is fast enough for me and for a $15 item I have no reason to do more tests.
I have used it with 512MG, 1GB, 2GB cards even a 4GB SDHC card.

Try a Sony MRW-620. This model can be only found in stores that sell OEM parts. The reader's pretty good and what's best is that it can be used internally or externally