You would think that after all these years, we’d have agreed on a universal file system format. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, and different operating systems still prefer to work with certain file systems and simply won’t work with others. No matter what your operating system prefers, sometimes you just need to work with a certain type of drive. If your operating system doesn’t support that drive, that’s where an app like iBoySoft Drive Manager comes in very handy.
What Is iBoysoft Drive Manager?
This software is essentially a multi-tool for dealing with hard drives, flash drives, and other types of external storage on a Mac. It supports tons of different formats and filesystems, plus it has features like connecting to FTP servers and automatically reconnecting network drives. The software is handy for anyone dealing with multiple external drives on a regular basis. As you’ll see later on in the article, it’s especially handy if you’re a Mac user working with people who frequently use Windows-formatted drives.
System Requirements and Supported Devices
In order to run iBoySoft Drive Manager, you’ll need to be running a supported version of macOS or OS X. For more recent versions, the software supports macOS 10.14 Mojave, 10.13 High Sierra, and 10.12 Sierra. The software also supports Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, 10.10 Yosemite, 10.9 Mavericks, 10.8 Mountain Lion, and 10.7 Lion. The software supports a wide range of different storage types. In addition to external hard drives, it supports USB flash drives and cards in a variety of different formats. Supported card types include SD cards, CF cards, MicroSD, SDHC, memory cards, memory sticks, and microcards.
Features
One of the key features of iBoySoft Drive Manager is its ability to read Windows-formatted drives. Out of the box, macOS will read exFAT and FAT32 drives, and it supports NTFS, but only in read-only format. If you need to write to these types of drives, the NTFS for Mac functionality alone may make this software worth the purchase price. The software can also map network drives as local. This is handy, as many applications don’t work with network drives out of the box. Using this software to map them locally, however, will allow these drives to work with them exactly as if they’re local drives. You’re not limited to controlling just one external drive, either. This software will easily handle working with multiple drives, and it makes it easier for you as well. You don’t have to worry about a complicated interface full of hierarchical layouts of drives and directories. The most recent version of iBoySoft Drive manager adds support for macOS 10.14 as well as a faster read/write speed, making it even speedier.
Using iBoysoft Drive Manager
This is a menubar app, meaning you only interact with it when you want to. The rest of the time it sits quietly in your menubar working in the background. This is great if you’re already running out of space in the dock. All of the various drives and options are available as soon as you click on the icon. From here you can easily reach commands that let you mount all external drives, disconnect all external drives, and more. This is very handy if you plug your Mac into a dock for part of the day and don’t want to manually safely eject each drive before unplugging. Like other good Mac software, everything about iBoySoft Drive Manager’s interface seems to aim for simplicity. There aren’t a lot of options you need to configure, and those you do want to get to are easy to find and understand.
Pricing
Pricing for iBoySoft Drive Manager doesn’t vary by features included and instead varies by how many computers you wish to install it on. A license for a single Mac will cost $29.95. If you want to run the software on more than one computer, you can opt for the three-Mac license for $49.95. Paying $69.95 lets you install the software on as many as five Macs, each with its own license. All of these grant you free lifetime upgrades for the number of licenses you chose. It’s nice to know that you won’t have to pay again in a year just to keep using the software.
Conclusion
Not everyone is going to need this type of software. If you never use a drive with your Mac except for the internal drive it shipped with, you don’t need this. That said, if you frequently work with external hard drives, especially from different companies, you’ll run into an occasion where iBoySoft Drive Manager will make your life much easier. This isn’t the only software of its type, but in our testing it seemed to do what it does very well. It’s also not prohibitively expensive, so it’s not going to cost you a lot of money. If you’re not sure, you can always opt for the seven-day free trial, which will give you a good overview of the features available.
