I like Macs…I really do, but when my video card went out on my MacBook Pro I wished I had purchased a backup to keep on hand.

My screen was blank and I found myself with all my information on my computer or on my Time Machine backup hard drive with no way to access it. Oh, and I”m living in Guatemala where the nearest Apple repair center is about five hours away. Sadly, my only working computer is my wife’s PC.

Not only can I not access all my wonderful media and information, I also can’t read the Time Machine backup because PCs don’t play well with Apple’s Time Machine format. I plugged in my hard drive and had access to nothing!

After several days of trying to get my going again and praying for it to work (literally!) I found out about MacDrive.

From MediaFour's MacDrive

MacDrive didn’t give me my computer back, but it gave me access to the backup drive so I can see the files, copy them to my wife’s PC and get what I need until my Mac can be fixed. I tried out MacDrive’s trial copy and probably will buy this handy software unless I end up getting my Mac fixed in the next week or so.

Here’s my review of MacDrive:

I like it because it’s simple. Just load the software. Restart. Plug in your Mac formatted drive or Time Machine Backup drive and, voila! you’re ready to access your files!

I don’t like how you have to copy the files to your PC instead of accessing them straight from the drive, but this probably is a good safety check to keep from messing up my backups for when my Mac is up and running again.

If you’re having trouble with your Mac. You have a backup drive and your only computer is a PC…go for it. Try out MacDrive and get easy access to your files…at least until you can get your Mac back from Apple repair!