Convert mds and mdf files on OS X

mdf and mds files are created by the PC application Alcohol and can be burned or mounted on a Virtual Drive in Windows. However, sometimes these data DVD's or CD's need to be read and burned on a Mac.

On a Mac, you don't need the smaller .mds file, just the .mdf one. Highlight the mdf extension and change it to ISO. The Mac will ask if you want to change to iso or keep mdf, select ISO. Now you can mount it with Disk Utility, burn it or copy files from it. If this doesn't work for you, then most likely the file is corrupt and a last ditch effort to get it to mount with Alcohol on a PC may or may not correct any errors.

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Maxtor One Touch III and formatting on OS X

What is it with hard drive makers and the Mac? Western Digital has the same poor software implementation, but at least you can format a WD drive using the OS X Disk Utility. With the Maxtor One Touch III, when you try to format it to a Macintosh Extended Journaled (GUID so its bootable) format, you get an error.

OK, let's fix this one as well. First off, don't install any of that crappy Maxtor software. If you did, then go to your System folder/Library/Extensions and remove these two, MaxtorPowSecDriver.kext and IOFirewireMxBt.kext. Find your startup items folder and remove the MxBtDaemon and any other file that has Mx or Maxtor associated with it. You will also find NotificationExec next to MXBtDaemon, dump that too.
That is the important stuff.

Now, how to format. First, go to the Maxtor support site and find the software package for Mac for the OneTouch4. It's called OneTouch 4 Lite. Here
(UPDATE) Here is the link for the Plus version.

Now unzip this folder of about 200MB, and you will see a bunch of Windows stuff and a Mac application called Mac OneTouch 4 and a disk image called OneTouch 4.dmg.

If you have messed up your OneTouch, you can use disk utility to format it as MS-DOS for now and mount it. Once it is mounted, drag the Mac OneTouch 4 app and the OneTouch 4 DMG to your attached OneTouch III drive. Now launch the Mac OneTouch 4 application from your new drive.

It will run an applescript, mount the disk image and format your drive you as a Macintosh Extended Journaled one. Now, when you launch disk utility, you can reformat any way you want, including MS-DOS or Macintosh.

Now throw out all that Maxtor software. If you want to clone a drive, I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner. You can also use Apples new Time Machine software. Leave the one button stuff alone.

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