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Thursday, June 9, 2005

Driver is not intended for this platform

If you use CF adapters or SD, Memory stick or any such removable flash memory in your laptop via a pcmcia (pc card) adapter and you get the following error “The Driver is not intended for this platform”, you could go out to google and try to search for it.



Here is what I got:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22driver+is+not+intended+for+this+platform%22+atapi



All of that was basically crap!



Just go to windows/system32/drivers and rename the atapi.sys file to something else (I renamed mine to atapi.sys.old) and try inserting the card again.

Whamo! Things work. After spending a day and a half trying to figure out what was going on, I figured I would share it here to save others the aggravation and also so I don’t forget how I fixed it the next time I have to rebuild my machine.

31 comments:

  1. Philip, you have just saved me hours of aggravation, many thanks

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  2. Woohoo! A solution that works!

    What a stupid solution tho ... I've been waiting months for someone to figure this one out after I gave up all hope.

    Thanks Philip!

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  3. Not a problem. Glad I could help. Oh, and it's moderated. :)

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  4. Thanks! Worked like a charm!

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  5. Lifesaver... If the atapi.sys file keeps regenerating after you rename it, type the new name for the file and immediately after you hit enter to accept the filename, put the SD card into the adapter. Works like a charm. Thanks!

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  6. Excellent, thanks. But a warning: Don't try (re)moving the file - just rename it.

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  7. Thank you!!!!!

    I've been bashing my head against every brick wall I could find over this. You're a legend Phil!

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  8. i renamed every atapi.sys file in my pc, including system32\atapi.sys.

    and still i habe the same problem.

    but there is a atapi.sys in system32\drivers which cannot be renamed.

    i tried too many things, nothing works.

    i am on windows xp SP2 !

    help, thanx

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  9. Try going into safe mode or doing the rename from a command prompt. I didn't have to do any of that, I just selected it in explorer and chose rename.

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  10. thank you, can't believe it works!

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  11. A *HUGE* thank you for this one -- hours of frustration solved in seconds. THANK YOU for sharing the solution with the rest of us!

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  12. I join the fanclub. Brilliant. When I saw this problem on my Vaio a few weeks ago I just groaned knowing that it was going to be a time vampire problem. Thanks a bunch.

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  13. Thanks ALOT. I was just about to go return the sandisk pc card adapter i just brought 2 hours ago.

    works like a charm.

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  14. Thanks for this info, I had the same problem, this was just what I needed to get my Viking/Sandisk PCMCIA Compactflash adapter working with my Lexar Twister CF card and Windows XP Home laptop.

    After renaming the atapi.sys file, re-inserting the card didn't work right away; I also had to go to Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager -> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, right-click the Lexar (with the yellow exclamation point), and choose Uninstall. Re-inserting worked after that.

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  15. Unbelievable.. So simple. Thanks for making this publicly available!

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  16. Great! Many thanks Philip! It was an "old" pcmcia Hama CompactFlash card reader, on my new Dell Inspiron 9100 with a also new Sandisk UltraII CF card, and I was really wondering where it came from, especially since:
    -my pcmcia port worked with a LAN card
    -the pcmcia CF card reader worked on another laptop running the same OS (XP SP2)
    -other USB card reader where recognized also...
    You saved the life of my digital camera batteries :-)

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  17. Awesome! Works by reinstalling the driver!

    Thanks a lot.

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  18. Thank you very much Philip, you're life saver! I have had this problem since I updated my XP to service pack 2, now I don't need to carry my memory card reader along with my laptop anymore!!! Thank You!!!

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  19. You are welcome. It's neat to see the number of hits I get on this one post. So many people have hit this page and been helped. This is why I started bloggging. I just hope I have one of these kinds of posts a year. :)

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  20. Finally, a solution that works!!

    I've been contacting HP technical support for ages about this problem and their help has been completely useless.

    Thanks A Lot

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  21. Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!

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  22. Phil, you're my hero. I couldn't get my SanDisk 6-in-1 PC Card Adapter with the "guaranteed compatibility" promise on the packaging to work, and was about to blame the adapter. Thank you, Phil!

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  23. MOST EXCELENT ADVICE! I just went out and spent $50.00 plus on a CF and 6-in-1 PCMCIA adapters and had the same problem! Thank you for keeping me from spending what could have potentially hours in search of the solution! Simple, eligant, and works! MANY THANKS!!!!!

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  24. Thanx You're the best.

    No problem with xp sp2!!

    thanx al lot

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  25. Hi Philipp, thanks a lot, really !! i wasted yet about 4 hours, without any results, and now i tried your suggestion, and it works,,thanks a lot....

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  26. and best wishes from Vienna...

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  27. I spent two weeks in Graz and had a blast!

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  28. Hello all!

    Thanks A LOT from a French guy!
    I baught a sandisk pcmcia card yesterday and didn't find how it can works until now!

    job's done!
    THANK YOU!

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  29. Tried this, but my system wont boot if i rename or remove atapi.sys... :( Any other suggestions?

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  30. Don't reboot between the delete and re-insertion of the card. Just rename it and let the system pull a new copy when it sees the new hardware.

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  31. Worked for me on an Acer TravelMate 8002LCi laptop running XP SP2 for an O2Micro SmartCardBus device. Many thanks.

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