App To Read Mac Hdd On Windows Pc
Discs, USB sticks and other external media initialized in extended Mac OS format (HFS or HFS +) will work to the best of their ability on macOS systems, but on different operating systems (such as Windows), they will be inaccessible. If you have a portable hard drive used in your Mac and you want to read it on Windows computers, it’s not impossible. If you continue reading, you will see that there are various methods to “force” the reading of these media even on non-Apple machines. Read on to find out how to read Mac discs on PC.
How to read Mac disks on PC: HFS and HFS+
There are various possibilities for reading an external HFS formatted disk on a Windows PC. In fact, there are several utilities, both free and paid, that allow you to make HFS disks visible on Windows, thus allowing you to work comfortably with the files on Mac disks. Below, I’ll show you the best currently in circulation.
Oct 28, 2016 Here is short video on how you can read or access the Hard Drive that was formatted for mac, using a windows. Software Used: HFSExplorer Software Link. A drive formatted in this fashion can be swapped between a Mac and Windows PC. However, you might choose instead a format you can use easily with OS X, Windows, and Linux.
Paragon HFS + for Windows
Software To Read A Mac Hard Drive On Windows
HFS + for Windows is a utility for Windows 7 and later that allows you to read discs initialized as HFS + on your PC. The driver installs very simply and allows you to read and write partitions, disks, CDs, DVDs and other media initialized as HFS +.
HFS + disks will be fully accessible in My Computer or from the Windows Disk Management console, without having to install additional tools.
- Mar 31, 2020 On a PC, the process is less straightforward than what you see on a Mac, but it’s now easier than ever. Step 1: Right-click on the Start button and select Disk Management on the pop-up menu.
- Mar 15, 2018 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.
HFS + for Windows works with Windows 7 and later. You can still download a demo version on the developer’s website, which can be used for 10 days.
Mediafour MacDrive
Also this application, called Mediafour MacDrive, allows you to access Mac formatted HFS or HFS + disks from Windows PC.
The standard version of the program costs $49.99. In addition to the standard version, a “Pro” version is also available that provides read/write support for Apple RAID disks, as well as implemented improvements to achieve better read/write performance. RAID functionality allows access to RAID sets of Mac disks prepared with Disk Utility and supports striped, mirrored, or six chained disks. In Windows XP, however, RAID disks larger than 2TB cannot be mounted due to intrinsic limitations in the operating system; no problem with Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Both the Standard and Pro versions of Mediafour MacDrive can be downloaded from the developer’s website, which can be used for 5 days.
HFS Explorer for Windows
If the two solutions that I showed you before seem too expensive, then the best solution for you will be HFS Explorer. It is a free utility – also compatible with Windows 10 – which allows access to initialized media such as HFS (Mac OS Standard), HFS + (Mac OS Extended) and HFSX (Mac OS Extended with a difference between lower and upper case).
It presents itself as a file manager from which to browse and extract files (copy them to a different disk), display information, including details on file-images in dmg/sparsebundle format. Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) version 5.0 or later is required for installation. You can download the application by clicking on this link.
With this other guide, we want to help you find out how to write NTFS disks on Mac.
For a Windows computer to be able to read a hard drive, it needs to have a file system format that is compatible with Windows. File systems compatible with Windows include FAT32 and NTFS.
App To Read Mac Hdd On Windows Pc Download
Why not?
A hard drive formatted for use in a Mac has either an HFS or HFS+ file system. For this reason, a Mac-formatted hard drive is not directly compatible, nor readable by a Windows computer. The HFS and HFS+ file systems are not readable by Windows.
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What are my options?
Using a third-party application, it may be possible for a Windows computer to read a Mac-formatted hard drive. A few of the more popular applications used by Windows to read a Mac hard drive are listed below.
- HFSExplorer - Free-to-use program and requires Java to be installed on the Windows computer. It allows for read-only access to files on the Mac hard drive. Updating or deleting files on the Mac hard drive from the Windows PC is not possible.
- MacDrive - Available as a 5-day free trial and can be purchased for $49.99, MacDrive allows users to view, update, and delete files on the Mac hard drive. MacDrive can integrate with Windows Explorer for easier browsing of the hard drive's files.
- Paragon HFS+ for Windows - This program is available as a 10-day free trial and can be purchased for $19.95. Like MacDrive, users can view, update, and delete files on the Mac hard drive. It also integrates with Windows Explorer.