Windows can’t normally read Mac-formatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. But third-party tools fill the gap and provide access to drives formatted with Apple’s HFS+ file system on Windows. This also allows you to restore Time Machine backups on Windows.
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Reading a Mac drive on Windows PC quad777 Jan 14, 2014, 11:22 PM Hi Guys Need some help, i recently damaged my Apple Mac mainboard, the HDD is working,i need to. Other than allowing you to read Mac drive on Windows, MacDrive 10.5 will also help you manage your drives. Partition and create HFS or APFS on Windows and fix any issue with your drives. Whether it is a floppy drive, flash drive or hard drive, this software will handle it. Formatting a hard drive defines how the hard drive’s media will be laid out to store the computer data. Your Mac can use five different types of formats: Mac OS Extended (Journaled); Mac OS Extended; Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitive, Journaled); Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitive); and MS-DOS. Windows' default NTFS is read-only on OS X, not read-and-write, and Windows computers can't even read Mac-formatted HFS+ drives. FAT32 works for both OSes, but has a 4GB size limit per file, so it. Oct 25, 2016 How does this work do I just hook the Mac up to PC and with these drivers in place it treats it as a hard drive that I can explore and copy particular files over to the windows hard drive? Or do I need to copy the whole hard drive (image the drive)?
If you know you’re going to use a drive on both Mac and Windows, you should use the exFAT file system, which is compatible with both. But if you didn’t foresee that, you may have formatted your drive with Apple’s HFS Plus, which Windows can’t read by default. In fact, some manufacturers sell “Mac” drives pre-formatted with this Mac-only file system.
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How does this work do I just hook the Mac up to PC and with these drivers in place it treats it as a hard drive that I can explore and copy particular files over to the windows hard drive? Or do I need to copy the whole hard drive (image the drive)?
When you connect a Mac-formatted drive to Windows, you’ll be informed that “you need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.” Don’t click the “Format disk” button or Windows will erase the contents of the drive–click “Cancel”!
This message appears because Windows doesn’t understand Apple’s HFS+ file system. That’s fine, because other applications do. Just don’t format the drive until you get the important files off the drive.
Of course, if the drive doesn’t have any important files on it, you can go ahead and format it. But be absolutely sure there’s nothing you need before you do.
Option One: HFSExplorer Is Free and Basic
RELATED:How to Restore Files From a Time Machine Backup on Windows
If you only need to get a couple files off the drive, we recommend HFSExplorer. It’s the only completely free way to access a Mac-formatted drive. It does require Java, however, so you’ll have to install that first. Then, install HFSExplorer like you would any other Windows program.
HFSExplorer isn’t fancy, though, and doesn’t have a lot of features. You can’t use it to write to Mac-formatted drives, and it doesn’t install a file system driver that integrates into File Explorer. But you can open HFSExplorer, read a Mac-formatted drive, and copy the files to your Windows PC without paying a dime. It can also mount Mac .dmg disk images to get at the files inside them.
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This application’s read-only nature isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It ensures that no bug in the third-party driver can damage your Mac-formatted drive and the files on it. You can set read-only mode in other applications, too–but, if you’re not going to use their write support, there’s less reason to pay for them.
To use HFSExplorer, connect your Mac-formatted drive to your Windows PC and launch HFSExplorer. Click the “File” menu and select “Load File System From Device.” It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. You’ll see the contents of the HFS+ drive in the graphical window. Just select the files or folders you want, click “Extract,” and choose a folder. They’ll be copied to the location you choose on your PC.
Option Two: Paragon HFS+ is $20, But Offers Write Access and Better Integration
Paragon’s HFS+ for Windows is a bit fancier, but it’ll cost you. This tool installs a file system driver that allows you to access a Mac-formatted drive like any other drive in File Explorer, or any other Windows application with an open or save dialog. It boasts improved speed, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it were faster than HFSExplorer. And, unlike HFSExplorer, it offers full read/write access to Mac-formatted drives, so you can write to them from within Windows. Just install it, and Mac drives will show up like any other drive.
If you need to work with Mac-formatted drives on a regular basis and you want the operating system integration, speed, and write access, Paragon HFS+ is a great choice and will be worth it for you. But, if you just need to get some files off a Mac-formatted drive occasionally, this is overkill and you can save $20 by sticking with HFSExplorer.
Paragon does offer a 10-day free trial of HFS+ for Windows, so you can give it a try and see if it works for you. And, if you just need to get files off of a Mac-formatted drive once, you can just use the trial and be done with the application by the time it expires.
Option Three: Mediafour MacDrive Costs $50 to $70, But Includes More Features
Mediafour’s MacDrive is similar to Paragon’s HFS+ for Windows, but with more features and polish. It’s noticeably more expensive than Paragon HFS+ too, at $50 for the Standard version and $70 for the Pro version.
For most people, this software won’t really be worth it. But it offers a few unique features, like support for Mac-formatted RAID disks. It also offers a graphical interface with support for verifying, repairing, and formatting Mac-formatted drives. Paragon’s HFS+ gets out of your way and doesn’t provide a graphical interface–it just enables access to HFS+ drives in File Explorer and other applications.
If you need all these tools, go for it–this is the most full-featured solution for working with Mac-formatted drives on Windows. But you probably don’t need all these tools.
Mediafour does offer a 5-day free trial of MacDrive–both the Standard and Pro versions–so you can give it a try and see if those features are worth it for you.
Option Four: Format the Drive as exFAT–But Warning, This Will Erase Your Data!
RELATED:What’s the Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?
Once you’ve gotten all the data off the Mac-formatted drive, you’ll probably want to format it with the exFAT file system. Both Windows and Mac OS X have full read-write support for exFAT drives without any additional third-party software. FAT32 has some serious limitations–individual files can only be up to 4GB in size each, for example–but exFAT doesn’t.
Rather than use a Mac-formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exFAT-formatted drives for moving data between Macs and PCs.
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To format the drive in Windows, right-click it in the File Explorer window and select “Format.” Choose the “exFAT” file system in the list and click “Start.” Remember, this will erase all the files on the drive! Be absolutely sure you have your files off the drive and that you’ve selected the correct drive you want to format!
When you’re done, the drive should work on both Windows PCs and Macs with no problem.
By the way, this works great for Windows users too–Macs can’t natively write to the Windows NTFS file system, although they can read files from NTFS drives. So no matter what your primary platform, exFAT is probably the way to go.
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I have an Iomega 500GB external hard drive that I purchased about 2 years ago that I used exclusively with an iMac, until that computer crashed beyond affordable repair last month. My new computer is an HP Pavillion PC running Windows 7, and when I connect the drive I see in Devices and Printers that it's recognized that an Iomega drive is connected to a USB port, but in Computer it shows the computer's internal hard drive and the DVD drive with their respective letter designations. However, the external drive does not show up at all.
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Quick background about the drive: I did purchase the drive through the Apple online store in early '08, and when I initially unpacked it, I saw no written info stating it was somehow a Mac-only version of that Iomega drive, nor was there anything stating that using it with a Mac would format it for Mac-only use. When I first connected it to the Mac, I was never prompted about formatting or anything else Mac-specific, in fact I was never even prompted regarding drivers. Upon plugging it in, it behaved just like the USB flash drive and the 40GB extrernal drive I have- a small orange icon would appear on the desktop, with the name of the drive and the USB symbol. So for two years I moved files between the drive and the Mac without any problems, until now when I try to use the drive with my current PC.
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So far it's been suggested to me that indeed the Mac *did* format the drive in a way that makes it Mac only, and I can't reformat because I have data I first need to get to move to the new computer. Another theory is that since it came from Apple despite it being an Iomega product, it might have been shipped with a Mac-specific tweak- perhaps it was already formatted for Mac use. A third theory suggested to me is that it might be the supplied cable somehow makes the PC not quite fully recognize it.
Any info would be greatly apprecitated. Worst case scenario, I can find someone with a Mac and we can move files from the Iomega drive to the Mac, then to the 40GB drive that *does* work with both types of OS, and do that several times until everything is safely moved to the new computer, then I can do what I need to with the Iomega so it's useable with the PC.
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What I do find a bit confusing is that the 40GB never had compatibility problems with any computer I've connected it with. In graphics courses I was in we have Macs and PCs in the same building and that drive never cared what it was connected to.