Paragon MacBrowser Public Beta Testing (HFS for Windows)

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Dear Forum Visitors,

For the past year Paragon has been working on new software - Paragon MacBrowser. Paragon MacBrowser is a driver allowing to access HFS (HFS+) file systems under Windows.

The product is almost ready for market release and we want to offer you the Public Beta version. This is the first time that we've offered beta testing for this driver. We do it because we want to make Paragon MacBrowser a useful tool for every dual-boot user -- that is why we need your opinion about it.

What we expect from you:
1. Bug reports (though we hope that there won't be many). If you find a bug, describe with details how it can be reproduced by our developers. We need every detail, every step (even if it seems minor).

2. Usability issues. We want to make the product as easy to use as possible. Write us with your suggestions on what you think we can improve upon or what should be changed. Make your suggestions both detailed and reasonable so we can understand what your concerns are as well as determine if possible to implement.

To download the public beta version, please fill out a short web form here.

Meantime you can look at our short Product Description. There is not much text.

Know Issues:
1. You can not "drag'n'drop" files from HFS partitions. To copy a file/folder you have to use the "copy and paste" function;
2. Apple Partition Map is not supported.

Our commitment to you: We will read your feedback in this thread very carefully. Please excuse (in advance) any perceived lack of replies to your posts. We won’t be able to reply to all of them, but we will do “summary” replies once or twice a week in this thread.

PS. We value this forum's community members very much. That's why we selected you for our Public beta testing. In exchange for your help, we will be glad to provide the most active beta testers with Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X along with MacBrowser free of charge.

Thank you in advance and best regards,
Anatoly.
 

cwa107


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I will always be the first in line for new Paragon products. I've been hoping you guys would do something like this - it completes the Boot Camp bridge. Well done.

I've already registered and downloaded my copy. I'll give it a test drive over the next couple of weeks and report back.

Thanks again for considering Mac-Forums for your beta group.
 

cwa107


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Anatoly,

I've installed Mac Browser in Windows Vista Business SP1, which is installed on my Boot Camp partition. The installation proceeded smoothly, but after reboot, I did not notice that the HFS+ OS X partition had been mounted. So, I proceeded to locate the documentation (which, by the way, I would recommend creating a shortcut for on the desktop following installation). According to the help file, I should see my HFS+ partition appear in "Computer", under the header of "Other". I see nothing there.

I do not see any seemingly relevant entries in the Event Log. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot?
 
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Dear Forum Visitors,

We should inform that we found a serious problem that will be fixed soon. The problem appears when copying data (files or folders) greater than ~3GB in zise to a HFS partition. I hope to upload a fixed version on Wednesday.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Anatoly.
 

cwa107


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Thanks. I am still stuck at this point - the driver doesn't appear to do anything, however, I am unable to uninstall it (it always fails).
 
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Dear Forum Visitors,

The issue is fixed. Now you can download MacBrowser and test it as you wish.

cwa107,

It seems you have not disabled UAC (user account control), have you? The current beta version does not work with enabled UAC, we are going to fix this issue. Also, do you use 64-bit Windows Vista?

Looking forward to hearing your feedback soon.
Thank you in advance.
Anatoly.
 

cwa107


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Dear Forum Visitors,

The issue is fixed. Now you can download MacBrowser and test it as you wish.

cwa107,

It seems you have not disabled UAC (user account control), have you? The current beta version does not work with enabled UAC, we are going to fix this issue. Also, do you use 64-bit Windows Vista?

Looking forward to hearing your feedback soon.
Thank you in advance.
Anatoly.

I'm using the 32-bit version, but UAC *is* turned on. I'll try installing the latest version with UAC disabled. Thanks Anatoly!
 

cwa107


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Anatoly, after switching off UAC, everything has been working fine.

Maybe I missed it during installation, but you may want to update the installer so that it's painfully obvious that UAC needs to be turned off when a user installs the software. I would have had no idea had you not said something (and the documentation doesn't cover it at the moment). That's my lone suggestion for the time being.
 
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Installed the beta.

Macbook 2.16ghz Leopard, fully up to date
Bootcamp XPSP3, fully up to date

Copied files from mac osx to xp using copy/paste and drag and drop. So far all is working perfectly.
 
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Dear Forum Visitors,

Thank you very much for your great feedback. We are planning to release MacBrowser by the end of this year. Your feedback was very useful for us to release a good product.

All beta testers will receive NTFS for Mac OS X 7.0 along with MacBrowser free of charge. I will let you know it later (after the release).

If you still have questions – please ask them.

I wish you have a very nice time during coming holidays.
Merry Christmas and joyful time.

Thank you again.

Best regards,
Anatoly.
 
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Couldn't register, sory.

Don't know if im a bit late though :p
 
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I am testing this on a late 2008 Macbook Pro 2.8 running a fresh installation of Vista 32-bit SP2 and it just made the MBP hang (forcing me to do a hard power-off).

I copied the program directory of Ableton Live from the subdirectory "Macinthosh HD/AUDIO" to the Vista desktop when the hang happened.

Furthermore I noticed quite high CPU load (kernel load) while copying files (27% CPU load according to Task-Manager when the computer hang) and find copying files to be rather slow (250 gb, 7200 rpm drive, partitioned into two halves). Even worse, while the copy operation is running the Windows Desktop is not useable (colored circle mousepointer showing). That doesn't happen with even much larger copy operation from a local or a network drive.

Last but not least I find it very inconvinient that every sub-folder of "Macintosh HD" is opened in a separate window even when Explorer is not set to do that by default.

Integration with "Total Commander" doesn't seem to work unfortunately. It is not possible to copy anything back and forth between the HFS+ and the NTFS volume unless you already copied it via right-click copy/paste before (not CTRL-C/V) from inside Total Commander's windows. Once you copy and paste it via right-click you can also copy it via Total Commander's F5 command.
 
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Thank you for offering your product for public beta. I have installed it on my MacBook Core 2 Duo 1.8 ghz with Combo Drive running Mac OS X 10.5 and Vista Business with SP1 and all updates; UAC disabled.

The install worked just fine. After reboot my first attempt to browse the HFS+ drive caused the Explorer to stop responding. All I did was access the root level of the drive. After the Explorer relauched the problem did not recur.

Usability: Here are some recommendations from a usability standpoint:
1. Display the Mac HFS+ Drive right along with other drives under the "Hard Disk Drives" area.
2. Allow for changing the "View" just like any other folder.
When browsing the HFS+ drive the drive the "Organize", "Views" and "Burn" disappears. I always like browsing by Details but I couldn't find a way to do that with the toolbar gone.
3. Browse only in a single window.
When I browsed on the HFS+ drive I noticed every folder I opened brought up a new window. My desktop quickly became cluttered. Browsing should utililze the preferences of the Explorer and browse in the same window if that is the preference that has been set.
4. Add a "Mac Browser" control panel.
The user will expect some user interface component representing the software after installing with the configurable options. I checked in Control Panel expecting to find a "MacBrowser" control panel but couldn't find one. Even if there are only a couple options (e.g., like there are in NTFSforMac) that would be nice to pull into the Control Panel.
 
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Oh, one other usability enhancement came to mind...
Disable viewing "Hidden Files"
It'd be nice to have an option to "hide" Mac OS "Hidden" files. Or perhaps it should be the opposite: default to hiding these files and add to the recommended Control Panel an option to "View Hidden Files". Since there are so many of these hidden files at the root level, it could confuse novice users and potentially cause issues if the user should modify/delete an important system file.
 
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Cannot install on Windows 7 x64 beta

Hi, I've got stuck at the first hurdle.

I tried installing on Win7 x64 beta. I got partway through before getting error 1721. Every time I try to install now I just get a remove option and the same result.

I didn't know about UAC before trying the first install - I'm not a Vista user. Now that is disabled but it doesn't help me uninstall the failed attempt so I can start again from scratch.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Robin
 

cwa107


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Hi, I've got stuck at the first hurdle.

I tried installing on Win7 x64 beta. I got partway through before getting error 1721. Every time I try to install now I just get a remove option and the same result.

I didn't know about UAC before trying the first install - I'm not a Vista user. Now that is disabled but it doesn't help me uninstall the failed attempt so I can start again from scratch.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Robin

This product is for Windows Vista, not for Windows 7. And since Windows 7 is still in beta, any problems like this should be completely expected.
 
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I see no one is reading the macrumors.com macbrowser forums...

I also tried it on windows 7 (64bit) and it didn't work. Is 64 bit support going to included soon or at release?
 

cwa107


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I also tried it on windows 7 (64bit) and it didn't work. Is 64 bit support going to included soon or at release?

Considering Windows 7 doesn't even have a release date and since Boot Camp doesn't even officially support it, I wouldn't hold your breath.
 
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Dear Forum Visitors,

I am sorry for keeping silence for so long. We have released Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X 7.0 that includes MacBrowser.
Thank you very much for you help with testing Paragon MacBrowser. We appreciate it very much. As I promised the most active beta testers will be provided with the product for free.
The most active beta testers are:
cwa107;
mrplow;
T1mur;
tomcxp;
rduxfield;
pinchies.

Please send me your names and email as a private message and I will provide you with the product link soon.

Thank you all,
Anatoly.
 

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