Why do my 4GB cards take longer to transfer than 8GB cards?

L

Larry McKee

Active member
I want to apologize if this has been covered before, but I couldn't find anything in the archives that covers the problem. When I use 8GB cards, I can transfer a full card through the PCMCIA slot in my Compaq laptop to an external USB 2 hard drive in about 10 minutes. But, when I transfer a full 4GB card through the same path, it takes 15 to 20 minutes. It takes a full 2 minutes for the P2 Viewer just to load the clips from the 4GB card.

Is there an firmware update for the 4GB cards or something? Thanks.
 
You are doing something wrong, or the card is faulty, or something. It takes about 4-5 minutes to transfer a 4GB card to a laptop via PCMCIA. I would test the cards on another laptop. If you get the same results, I would try a testing a different 4GB P2 card. Obviously, as you know, half of the storage space should equal half of the transfer time. In my tests, thats what I came up with.
 
Thanks THoff. I downloaded the firmware updates and thought that was the answer. But, the problem continues. It took a little over 3-1/2 minutes just for the P2 Viewer to load the clips from a 4GB card that was 80% full.

I did a transfer in Windows Explorer to see if it was a P2 Viewer issue. The window said it would take 6 minutes to copy. At 25 seconds left, the time changed to 5 minutes left. The transfer ended up taking 12 minutes.

I don't get it. The 8GB cards I used before copied over in about 10 minutes.
 
I've been hearing from a few people that P2 card transfer times are varying a lot from system to system. Not sure why, lots of variables in the equation.
 
Yes, it makes sense that times would vary between systems, but this is happening on the same computer with the same external drive. Everything is identical except the size of the P2 cards.
 
OK. My dealer arranged for me to talk to Panasonic's P2 guru. We went through the whole setup. He had me reinstall the P2 drivers and suddenly everything works fine. Have no idea how they got broken, but I'm very happy now.

Thanks, Panasonic for making your people available. It's a totaly new experience for me after so many yeas of owning cameras made by the "four letter god."
 
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