Hmmm, apparently Nikon not going to continue supporting Coolscans.

[benhasajeep]

Just got my new desktop today, Windows 7 of course. Well to my suprise Nikon Scan does not support Windows 7 (super coolscan 5000), nor do they plan too. Their site (Nikon) basically says buy Vuescan or Silverfast to use it with Windows 7. Also says will not work with Vista 64 bit. Which is what's on both laptops we have.

The old desktop that I used the CS 5000 with was XP. And it is totally dead with no chance of revival. I just bought the scanner just over a year / year and half ago. Can't believe they are not going to support it with new drivers for new Windows.

Now considering maybe I can find a cheap Vista 32 bit desktop to run it. What a pain.

 

[Derrel]

Well, either Silverfast or Vuescan is probably better scanner software than Nikon's!!!

Yeah, I know what you mean though--discontinuation of software support for still perfectly good hardware is a royal PITA. No matter who the company is, Adobe, Apple, Minolta, Nikon, whoever, it sucks when new software makes one's hardware either obsolete, or one step away from it. I still have my Minolta scanner hooked up to an old "obsolete" PowerMac G4/450 because it has a SCSI connection system...

 

[icassell]

Which version of 7 do you have? Can't you run 7 in XP mode?

 

[flea77]

Just curious, did you not look up the supported specs when you bought the scanner? I mean a year and a half ago Vista 64 was in wide use so it should have been easy to see if they had modern drivers before you bought the scanner. Just saying.....

Allan

 

[manaheim]

Vuescan is the mac daddy.

Interface tends to be a bit clunky but it kicks the snot out of the Nikon software, and if you pay your very cheap registration fee you get free upgrades for life. I bought mine like 14 years ago now and still get upgrades.

 

[benhasajeep]

Just curious, did you not look up the supported specs when you bought the scanner? I mean a year and a half ago Vista 64 was in wide use so it should have been easy to see if they had modern drivers before you bought the scanner. Just saying.....

Allan

My computer and laptop at the time were both XP machines. And with Vista having so many complaints I was not going to upgrade to it. Not sure what happened to the Desktop as it started to crash more and more often. When I finally gave up it was crashing hourly. I tried to do a fresh install of all software and it would not run long enough to do the reinstall of XP.

As for the Windows 7, Nikon site even says Nikon Scan will not work with any 64 bit programs even in emulation mode. I have never tried Vuescan, have Silverfast with my Epson flatbed. Silverfast is too expensive though. Vuescan might be the only option.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Well, either Silverfast or Vuescan is probably better scanner software than Nikon's!!!

Yeah, I know what you mean though--discontinuation of software support for still perfectly good hardware is a royal PITA. No matter who the company is, Adobe, Apple, Minolta, Nikon, whoever, it sucks when new software makes one's hardware either obsolete, or one step away from it. I still have my Minolta scanner hooked up to an old "obsolete" PowerMac G4/450 because it has a SCSI connection system...

DAMN DUDE that must take FOREVER!

 

[Dallmeyer]

I miss my ol' G4.

 

[KevinDks]

As for the Windows 7, Nikon site even says Nikon Scan will not work with any 64 bit programs even in emulation mode. I have never tried Vuescan, have Silverfast with my Epson flatbed. Silverfast is too expensive though. Vuescan might be the only option.

I have a Coolscan V, and I like NikonScan, so when I moved my main laptop from Windows to Linux I went looking for a solution that would mean I didn't have to dual-boot (i.e. so I didn't have to install Linux and Windows and choose which to boot into), or run two PCs.

The answer for me was VirtualBox, which is a free (for personal use) virtualisation application that comes in different versions for Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris computers, and in 32 and 64 bit versions. I installed the Linux version, created a virtual machine, then installed Windows XP in that virtual machine. This was possible because I have a full version of XP, not "recovery disks", and it meant I could reinstall NikonScan in XP in the virtual machine, and it works perfectly. I also installed iTunes, so I can use my iPod Touch under Linux as well.

If I was running a Windows PC, I would download the Windows version of VirtualBox, and then I could create one or more virtual machines and install other operating systems inside them. For example, I could have a Vista PC and install XP inside a virtual machine. I haven't checked, but I would guess that VirtualBox for Windows will run on Windows 7, so if you have a full version of XP or Vista you could run that in a virtual machine inside Windows 7.

Just an idea. Am I making sense?

Kevin

 

[benhasajeep]

Maybe I should grab a full version of XP just for safe keeping. All mine are oem installs on recovery discs. My wifes old laptop is an XP machine but after doing a recovery it failed. So now its running Ubuntu. Think I may try Ubuntu on the desktop that kept crashing too. See what it does.

 

[usayit]

Well, either Silverfast or Vuescan is probably better scanner software than Nikon's!!!

Yeah, I know what you mean though--discontinuation of software support for still perfectly good hardware is a royal PITA. No matter who the company is, Adobe, Apple, Minolta, Nikon, whoever, it sucks when new software makes one's hardware either obsolete, or one step away from it. I still have my Minolta scanner hooked up to an old "obsolete" PowerMac G4/450 because it has a SCSI connection system...

DAMN DUDE that must take FOREVER!

Unless we are talking really old SCSI (narrow bus, ultra2 and older), the transfer rates are faster than either USB 2.0 or Firewire. The killer of using SCSI for home or small office use was the cost. This is the reason SCSI continued on for years for large systems but died pretty quickly on scaled down applications.

Derrel, at least from the SCSI side of things, you should still be able to find SCSI cards that are compatible with later PowerMacs. It won't be cheap though.... and I'm not sure about the software support either.