is there any real use for the SD card slot on the left side?

like most of the users on the board I LOVE my AAO's but have a question

Both my machines are the XP flavor (I'm just not a linux kind of guy) and am wondering what if any use the SD card slot has any effective purpose? If I need to read the data off a camera memory card I find the multi-format slot on the right more useful. I've got a number of shared drives mapped on the network so I don't have a need to transfer files back and forth on any physical media.

Anything or is it just a hole to suck dust into the case?

 

It's meant to be a permanent expansion for the SSD models (ie stick a 16GB card in there and leave it). For the HDD models, it's just a dust hoover.

 

for xp, I use it as the drive for eboostr. Otherwise, I can see how it could be useless to some.

 

in linpus, anything you put in there is meant to stay there and automatically merges with the hdd.
can be done in vista (and poss xp) as a dynamic spanned volume (I think) but isnt worth the hassle
t is good on the 8gb ssd version though

 

thanks for the comments!

 

Not really. I have a 16HB SDHC card in there "permanently" and use it for image backups of my boot & apps partitions for my 160GB model. I have my AA1 partitioned: 16GB,16GB,*. First partition is boot/windows, second is apps/programs, third is data. If I ever have an issue that System Restore can't save me from, I can easily & quickly restore my system. Since cards don't stick out of the left SD slot, it's pretty useful to have such an SD card in there all the time. It doesn't draw very much power at all, I regularly see 5+ hours battery life (on my 6-cell) even when I have WiFi on most of the time.

 

I have a 4Gb card in the left side slot that I use to store the contents of My documents on. The cards is basically always in there, so that I can easily transfer all of my work if necessary. The AAO is still a portable device and is a bit more risky when it comes to HDD damage, so I find a bit more safe to have my most important data stored on a separate device.

It was a great idea from Acer to have 2 memory-slots btw. It adds a lot more flexibility with memory storage, and it was actually one of the reasons why I chose the AAO.

 

I hated the automatic merge of the left side slot when running linpus... Because it doesn't work anywhere else than file-explorer.

Now I run UNR and keep a 16 gig SDHC card in there for my files, so I'd say the slot definately has use. The card you insert there won't stick out like in normal card reader slots, it only comes out like 1 mm.

 

I use it for movies on SD storage. The slot reads HC cards, which is nice.
I have a 32GB SSD. Space is limited so I am interested in alternate movie storage that takes up little space while traveling.

I have several 4GB HC SD cards and have started ripping movies to the SD cards for travel entertainment. A selection of movies is nice to have while waiting in the airport.

The entire card is enclosed in the slot. I do not have to remove the card to get the AAO into the case quickly which is nice when it is time to bug out.