Lots Of Documents To Scan - How Can I Use Two Scanners Simultaneously?

[Fitzomania]

I've got projects coming up that will involve lots of scanning...lots and lots of scanning of photos. I'm looking to make the process as efficient and quick as possible.

I have had no success using two USB scanners attached to my computer. One scanner always interferes with the other, regardless of which USB ports are used, when trying to scan simultaneously.

I do have two USB scanners; one is an HP 2210 All-In-One, the other is a Canon 3200F (scanner). I've tried multiple combinations of USB ports and the HP always interferes with the Canon. Both scanners work as they should when told to scan separately, but the HP always causes the Canon to slow almost to a stop when trying to scan simultaneously using two instances of VueScan. The output from the Canon is quite distorted, as well. The output from the HP is as it should be.

These are not the scanners that I will ultimately use for this work - I was originally looking at purchasing two Epson V700 scanners because they have gotten very good reviews and they do have both USB and Firewire outputs. They are somewhat expensive, however, and I wouldn't want to invest in anything unless I know that it works reliably and quickly.
Also, I am not terribly interested in an ADF as some photos will be old and fragile, and I couldn't trust an ADF to handle these safely.

SCSI scanners would work (I think), but they are not terribly common anymore, and the ones that are available are wicked pricey.

There are tantalizing hints that simultaneous scanning may be possible if one of the scanners is Firewire and the other USB, but I can't find positive confirmation of this. Does anyone have firsthand knowledge about this issue?

I am running XP Home on a Dell with 4GB RAM.

Thanks for any help or advice you can provide.

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[Zrock]

if your looking at 2 scanners then why not look at just one with a document feeder? Load it up and walk away

[Fitzomania]

if your looking at 2 scanners then why not look at just one with a document feeder? Load it up and walk away

Thanks for the reply. I am not terribly interested in an ADF as some photos will be old and fragile, and I couldn't trust an ADF to handle these safely.

[Orrin]

One way to use two scanners is to get another computer.

Since my main system is Linux, and there are not suitable drivers for my
Canon MP990, I picked up a cheap XP computer at a local recycling place,
and I scan directly to a USB stick. This allows me to easily impor the scans
to the Linux system.

The XP computer also acts as a printer server for the MO990.

[Zrock]

Understandable. a scanner like this one would have less distructive fource on the pic's due to it is mostly gravity fed and a strait through shot. Its a lot of work i scanned about 5000 pics a few years back. Never want to do that again Hopfully you get it working for ya. Never tryed 2 scanners running at teh same time. you could also try 1 usb hook up and 1 serial or paralel port hook up. It may be to much for usb to handle that much info at once. or one firewire as well.

Kodak s1220 Photo Scanning System User Manual

[epp_b]

Try VMWare Server (download 1.x, the newer version is terrible), it's free. Run one scanner directly from your host OS, patch the other one through to the guest OS.

It should work, in theory.

[Zrock]

Try VMWare Server (download 1.x, the newer version is terrible), it's free. Run one scanner directly from your host OS, patch the other one through to the guest OS.

It should work, in theory.

I would be surprised if that worked as it looks like mst of the problem is the usb ports cannot handle the info comming in thus one scanner looses the battle untill the other finishes. But it never hurts to try

[epp_b]

I think it's a driver problem (they're conflicting).

If you patch a second scanner straight through the VMWare guest OS, the host OS doesn't "know" it's connected.

[Fitzomania]

I think it's a driver problem (they're conflicting).

If you patch a second scanner straight through the VMWare guest OS, the host OS doesn't "know" it's connected.

How does VMWare work? Is this an application that I can AltTab to? I've looked it up, but I can't get a feel for how it works.

Again, there is no problem with two USB scanners on the same computer (Dell and XP Home, in my case). Both scanners show up and I am able to operate them separately. I need to operate them simultaneously, which doesn't work.

Also, epp b says "Run one scanner directly from your host OS, patch the other one through to the guest OS." How do I do that?