Am running Win 98, using Dazzle smartmedia reader.  Install of reader seems to 
work and reader looks like drive d: - okay so far.  When I place a 4M
card in the reader (and PLEASE don't tell me to get a new card. I NEED to
read this one!), the drive says unavailable.  When I use the media card in
its original recorder (RCA digital voice recorder), I can access the files
and they play properly, so there's something there.

I would like to transfer the files (are they .wav?) to my PC, but since
Windoz does not seem to recognize the media as present, I don't know what
to do.  Please help.

I'm assuming that you have an RCA RP-5007 voice recorder (their other
models do not use SmartMedia cards.)

The owner's manual in PDF format can be found here:

http://www.rca.com/documents/RP5007_IB_2226_25.pdf

As you'll notice, there is no mention of copying files to a PC; if the
device used a standard format for recording and organizing the files,
RCA would have likely touted it as a "feature" of the device.
Unfortunately, this is not the case, nor is it the case anywhere on
any product description of this model that I was able to find.

While SmartMedia cards are a standard, the file allocation table and
audio format on the card itself is likely proprietary. The unit will
format the SmartMedia card when it is inserted blank, or when it is
inserted formatted for a different device (I have a Roland sampler
that uses SmartMedia cards with a proprietary format, for example.)

Unfortunately, this means that you cannot simply mount the SmartMedia
card into a reader and copy the files across to a PC.

HOWEVER, there *is* a quick and relatively easy workaround to this
problem.

That unit may not have the capability to easily transfer files to a
PC, but you can still get data from the device to the PC with a minor
degree of quality loss. The unit has a headphone out jack -- which
means you can output a stereo signal to another device, not just
headphones. Connecting the headphone out to the Microphone In or Line
In jack on your computer's sound card and using a recording program
(Windows 98 comes with "Sound Recorder" in
Start->Programs->Accessories->Multimedia, if I'm not mistaken) to
record the clip from the device as you play it from the device itself,
and you can create a .wav copy of the audio clip (and can use another
program to compress it into MP3 format if you need to save disk space,
etc.)

The only piece of hardware you might need that you don't already have
would be a 1/8" to 1/8" male to male patch cable -- you can get one of
those at any Radio Shack for around $3.00. :)

Feel free to ask for clarification if you need any more information on
the actual procedure involved in recording the audio from the device
to the PC, or if you want software recommendations, etc. There's tons
of programs you could use for it, all of which will get the job done,
but some of which may be more intuitive than others.

Hope this helps,

-brightshadow

Search terms used:
rca rp5007 "digital voice recorder" manual