AMUG MacDrive 6 Review

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Macintosh Drives on a PC
A review of MacDrive 6 for Windows
By Michael Bean
Sharing Drives on Macs and PCs
MacDrive 6 allows you to connect and use Macintosh formatted media directly on a PC. You can take your USB, FireWire, Zip, iPod, hard drive or any other media device formatted on a Macintosh, disconnect it and plug it into a PC. MacDrive 6 allows the Macintosh formatted media to be used on the PC as if it were a PC disk. With no reformatting necessary when using Macintosh media directly on a PC you have one more easy option for sharing data between a Mac and a PC.
Features
MacDrive 6 for Windows enables PC users to open, edit, and save files on Mac disks connected to a PC. You can even format Mac disks and burn Mac CDs and DVDs on the PC. MacDrive 6 can also format and/or partition Macintosh media using the MacDrive Disk Manager. MacDrive protects your partitions from being harmed by Windows disk tools and warns you if your drives were not properly shut down. MacDrive 6 has expanded support for various Mac files types so that they are recognized by their PC application counterparts. Application types supported include Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, Access, FrontPage, Powerpoint, Microsoft Works, AppleWorks/ClarisWorks, QuarkXpress, FileMaker Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker, InDesign, Corel Painter, Digidesign Pro Tools, Avid Media Composer and more. MacDrive 6 software makes Mac disks act just like normal PC disks. This feature allows your file handling between Macs and PCs to be easier and less complicated.
Speed
A 2.73GB folder of data was copied from a Dell 4550 2.4GHz Windows XP computer to a 120GB WD Mac formatted hard drive in an external FireWire 400 enclosure. It took 2:11 minutes. The same Macintosh drive was then mounted on a PowerMac G5 2.0GHz Dual and the same test was performed taking 1:53 minutes to complete. The MacDrive copy was about 10% slower than using the same drive on the Macintosh. When you consider the value of being able to just plug a Macintosh drive into a PC and have it work the small performance difference is amazing.
Ejecting a FireWire drive
On the Macintosh you must drag a FireWire drive to the Trash to dismount it or shutdown before removing the FireWire hard drive. FireWire drives are "hot swapable" but you do need to dismount them before turning the disk off or disconnecting it. On a PC, the Windows system tray provides an unplug or eject icon for supported devices, just to the left of the MacDrive 6 icon when a Macintosh drive is mounted. You simply click on the unplug icon to eject your device before turning it off. Not doing so can cause the data on your hard drive to become damaged and/or possibly crash your PC. Disconnecting your FireWire drive properly is important for retaining your data.
Supporting a Macintosh with a PC
If you are mainly a PC user and need to support Macintosh clients, MacDrive is a real asset. With the ability to read, write, format and/or partition Macintosh disks on a PC you can work directly with a client's Macintosh data while it is mounted on your PC. I can see how print shops would find MacDrive a very useful tool. On the other hand, Macintosh users that have a PC available and want to be able to directly connect Macintosh formatted media to it, will also find MacDrive 6 a nice option. The fact that I can just plug a Mac formatted hard drive into my PC and have it work is awesome.
Connecting
When you first turn on your Macintosh formatted drive while it is connected to a PC with MacDrive 6 installed you may get the "autoplay" dialog box within Windows trying to determine what to do. In most cases, you will simply cancel this function and look for your Macintosh disk in the "My Computer" directory of Windows. You may also get another dialog box asking what to do with the media on your disk (if you have music or movies on it). You can close this dialog box as well with a click in the right upper box of the window or by pushing "Cancel". The only exception to this would be if you actually wanted to run one of these Windows applications to play media on your Macintosh disk. Once you have opened the "My Computer" directory on the PC you will see that your Mac disk is ready to be used and shows up on the PC as if it was just another drive. You can copy files to or from the disk or work on documents directly where you have the PC version of the appropriate application. MacDrive 6 is a great tool for making Macintosh media work well on a PC.
MacDrive 6 System Requirements
Works with Windows XP, 2000, 2003 Server, Me, 98.
Reads, writes and formats Mac disks.
Burns recordable and rewritable Mac CDs and DVDs (XP/2003/2000).
Works on CDs, DVDs, hard drives, floppies, Zip, Jaz, ORB, SyQuest.
Works with all FireWire (IEEE1394a/b), USB 1.1/2.0, SCSI, IDE, Fibre Channel, parallel-port and other disk devices supported by Windows.
Installation of MacDrive requires less than 10MB hard disk storage.
Low density (400KB and 800KB) Mac disks are not accessible, due to floppy drive limitations.
Pros
Lets you read Macintosh formatted media on a PC.
Easy installation and easy to use.
Comes with a 30 day money back guarantee.
Lets a Mac formatted iPod mount as a Firewire hard drive on a PC.
Gives a PC more functionality.
Can format or partition a Mac disk on a PC.
Cons
Low density (400KB and 800KB) Mac disks are not accessible.
MacDrive gets 5 AMUGs out of 5!
MacDrive 6 is a wonderful addition to any environment that supports both Mac and PC computers. The ability to plug a Mac formatted disk into a PC and know it will work is nice. While network sharing between Mac OS X and a PC is easy, it is nice to have the option to plug a Mac drive into a PC FireWire or USB port without reformatting. AMUG members can save $14 on the purchase of MacDrive 6 ($49.95) using the discount code listed in the AMUG members only section. If you need help with your order send email to suenail@mediafour.com. You can also try a time-limited demo at: http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/freetrial.asp
Contact Information:
Mediafour Corporation
1854 Fuller Rd.
West Des Moines IA 50265-5526
USA
515-225-7409 phone
515-225-6370 fax
http://www.mediafour.com/
sales@mediafour.com
Copyright 2005
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG)