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.
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.
Possibly the best solution to using a hard drive with both Windows and Mac without the use of third-party software is creating two partitions on the drive, one for Windows and one for Mac. Any External Drive that i connect to my OSX machine that i plan to also use with Windows i make the volume an NTFS volume. OsxFUSE(googlecode) will allow you to write EXT3&4,ZFS,NTFS, and basicly any Filesystem on your MAC. Macs can easily read PC-formatted hard disk drives. Writing to them, however, is a different story. If you've switched to the Mac, welcome aboard. Your old external Windows PC drive will work great on the Mac.
Don’t Format the Drive! (Yet)
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.
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.
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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HFS+ is one of the primary file systems of macOS. If you work on Windows computer and need to read or write files from HDD, SSD or flash drive formatted under macOS, you need HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software.
Stable Operation
Fail-safe operability across compatible hardware and software systems for both general-purpose and specialized applications
Data Safety
Protection of data integrity and prevention of accidental data corruption and possible loss
Guaranteed Performance
Steady throughput and balanced goodput with effective flow control, reduced overheads, and congestion avoidance
Efficient Use
Thrifty usage of processor, memory, and disk resources
Mac Hard Drive Reader Software
Native look and feel
PC Advisor MagazineIt simply works out of the box too – previously inaccessible drives suddenly show up like any other, and you can now easily transfer data to and from a Mac using an external HFS+ formatted drive as an intermediary. There’s no performance penalty either – we happily transferred multi-gigabyte files via a USB 2 connection at around 40MB/s, for example.
pcadvisor.co.uk
MacBreaker,Paragon HFS+ runs in the background and automatically starts on bootup, so accessing your Mac drives will feel exactly like accessing normal Windows drives.
macbreaker.com
MakeUseOf,Paragon HFS+ does cost $20, but it also offers a 10-day free trial. If you just need to recover files from a drive, 10 days is plenty of time to install this file system driver, copy your files over, and uninstall it. If you want to use Mac drives on Windows on an ongoing basis, paying $20 so you can use the drive properly is a pretty good deal. As a bonus, Paragon HFS+ doesn’t require you have the insecure Java installed.
makeuseof.com
How it Works
Install
Download and install the HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software
Use
Your drive will show up in Explorer
- Straightforward UI for working with HFS+ partitions as easily as native volumes
- Easy to navigate all features from a single application menu
- Check the integrity of HFS+ partitions to fix errors and view status report
- Quickly access HFS + partitions from the Windows taskbar
Features
Supported Operating Systems |
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Supported File Systems |
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Write Access | When a volume is mounted in write mode, you can do everything with files and folders it contains: read, edit, delete, rename, create new. |
Automount | HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software mounts supported volumes automatically at startup, so you don’t need to bother about it each time you restart the operating system or power your computer on. However, this feature can be disabled at any moment in the program interface. |
Internationalization | HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software supports all alphabets supported by your operating systems, including those that use non-Roman and non-Latin characters, so you will never face a problem of not getting access to file names on volumes mounted in non-native OS. |
Support for journaling | HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software supports native HFS+ journaling, thus ensuring that in case of any failure the disk file system is not irreversibly corrupted and can be put back on track easily. |
Compatible with Apple Boot Camp | HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software is fully compatible with Apple Boot Camp software and provides direct read and write access to Mac partitions from Windows installed on a Boot Camp. |
Compatible with 3rd party software | HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software is compatible with popular virtualization and encryption applications including VMware Fusion and Workstation, Parallels Desktop, TrueCrypt and its forks. |
Need APFS support for Windows 10?
GET APFS FOR WINDOWS NOW!
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- Full support of Windows 10, 8/8.1, 7 SP1
- Availability to read and write data on APFS-formatted disks
- Automount
Frequently Asked Questions
Due to the specifics of Windows 8 or Windows 10 Fast Startup feature, we highly recommend that you disable it before installing the driver to avoid possible file system corruption. For more details, please refer to the Microsoft Knowledge Base ››
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| It doesn’t work! My HFS+ drive is not recognized in Windows, even after installing HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software | |
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| Can I open my Time Machine backup using HFS+ for Windows? | |
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| I frequently work with NTFS, HFS+, APFS-formatted partitions on my Mac and Windows PC. Can I get a discount, if I buy all drivers at once? | |
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Ensure multi-platform access - activate required file system drivers based on your IT park, regardless of OS, in any proportion.
Resources
Sony reader for mac. Current Version | Download Paragon HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software |
Product Documentation | Download HFS+ for Windows by Paragon Software One Pager |
Product Tour | View Product Tour |
Need help? | Contact Support or file a support ticket |
Paragon Technology Center
Mac File Reader For Windows
Want to learn more about the technology behind Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software? Check out the Paragon Technology Portal!
