We do not usually pay attention to the SD card reader that is usually included in many computers today, however, they could be considered the current replacement for the old floppy drives. Of course, with the ability to share files over the Internet, they are no longer used as much. However, this time we will tell you why install an SD card reader on a computer or another old system is an excellent idea.
You will be surprised to know that there are many companies around the world that, because they depend on software that is too old that causes errors in the most modern systems or for fear of touching something to break it, continue to use very old computers, so much so that they do not even use hard drives with SATA connection, but IDE. So they have a chance to fail one day. Another different scenario is that of very old systems that work with units such as CDs, flexible disks where the medium degrades over time.
Why should you add an SD card reader to your old PC?
One of the biggest problems that we have been facing for a long time is the conservation of software, that is, the existence of those programs and their versions that appear on different platforms. From a utilitarian point of view, the fact of using old versions of current applications is nonsense, but if we take into account that new versions are less and less optimized with respect to software, then it is important to keep them.
Our advice is that if you have a very old PC, then upgrade the system and buy a new one. In the event that for reasons that we are not going to go into you cannot do it, a good option is to connect an SD card reader to your old computer. Of course, it must have support for USB 2.0 for a good transfer speed. So you can install it on any computer that is 20 years old.
All you need is an SD card reader that you can connect to your PC, which will also serve to replace Blu-Ray or DVD once and for all. Once you’ve done that you won’t have to worry about that old and failing hard drive. You just need to duplicate the contents of the hard drive to the new drive and make it the primary one. Of course, we do not recommend such an update on a new PC, since there are much better storage options.
The best upgrade for retro consoles and microcomputers
Another issue is that of extinct systems, mostly for historical reasons, since many of them use formats that are breaking down with age. Hence many retro system users have ended up applying SD cards to their systems through mods. Which allow not only to load several or even collections of games without getting up from the chair a thousand times to change the title.
SD cards are not only better than these formats because they are much more perishable, but because they are based on flash memory they have much higher latency and bandwidth. If we talk about video game consoles, at least until the PlayStation 2 generation we can enjoy instant loading speeds and in some cases even faster than cartridges. Of course, in some old consoles a kind of modified cartridges called Everdrive are used.
In the case of old computers that go with tape or diskette, we have the case of recently created devices that allow the use of SD cards in said systems. Although those who use them are a minority, it is the demonstration that an SD Card reader is an update that can give a second life to that microcomputer or console that you had stored in the attic.
