“Unfortunately MacDrive didn’t seem to want to play (seemed geared up for CD-roms not usb hard drives)”
According to their website:
“MacDrive works with just about anything you can throw at it including hard drives, CD-R/RW, DVD RW/ R, floppies, iPods, flash drives, Zip, Jaz, MO, DMG virtual disk files and more.”
It’s possible that the trial version has some functionality disabled. I’ve never seen the sense in this approach with trial versions. If you can’t try out the full functionality, how do you know if it will suit your needs?
There are other Mac emulators available, however. A google search might provide you with a suitable solution.