MacDrive Standard

With MacDrive 9 Standard, you can access, manage, and even create and format disk drives for Apple's Mac OS from inside Windows Explorer. Not just hard drives, but removable USB drives, too. MacDrive can repair damaged Mac disks, burn Mac-compatible CDs and DVDs, and do other things disk managers are supposed to do.

Pros

Peace: MacDrive's peace symbol icon emphasizes the software's mission: cross-platform peace and seamless interoperability between the Mac and Windows worlds.

Create Mac disks: MacDrive can create, format, and modify drives in Mac OS Standard (HFS), Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and Mac OS Extended (case-sensitive; HFSX).

Advanced options: We could prevent changes to Mac disks, customize MacDrive's compatibility with earlier versions of Windows and Mac OS, and select files to view in dual-format hybrid CDs and DVDs.

Cons

Balky disk list: Mac-to-Windows interoperability can be a bit slow or balky at times. For instance, the MacDrive Disk Manager's drive list wouldn't or couldn't scroll until after we'd formatted a Mac drive.

Cheaper alternatives: If all you want to do is transfer files between a Mac and PC, cheaper and easier options aren't hard to find (Dropbox, for example).

Bottom Line

If you own or support both Windows and Mac machines, MacDrive 9 Standard can make your life much easier.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of MacDrive 9.3.1.1 Standard.