Mac Hdd Reader For Pc

How to read Mac OS HFS drives in Windows for free. Access and copy files from a Mac-formatted hard disk on a Windows PC. By Jim Martin| 15 May 2015.
Updated by Tina Sieber. Windows and Mac OS X use different file systems What A File System Is & How You Can Find Out What Runs On Your Drives What A File System Is & How You Can Find Out What Runs On Your Drives What is a file system and why do they matter? Learn the differences between FAT32, NTFS, HPS+, EXT, and more. Read More.Windows uses the NTFS file system for its internal drives, while.

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Have you ever saved an important file onto a flash drive or external hard drive on a Mac and then were unable to open it on a Windows machine?

Or copied files onto your Windows external drive that you couldn’t edit on your Mac?

The problem lies in the way in which the drive was formatted. By default, Windows devices use the NTFS file system. Modern Macs can read but not write to NTFS-formatted devices. By default, the Mac uses the HFS+ (or “Mac OS Extended”) file system. Windows machines, by default, cannot read HFS+ drives. Both Macs and Windows devices can read and write to drives formatted in the FAT file system, but FAT32 (the latest version of FAT) only allows for a maximum of 2 GB of data — enough for flash drives, perhaps, but no longer sufficient for most hard drive uses.

So, what can you do? Install software that recognizes the “foreign” drives.

An excellent list of tools you can use is found on MacWindows.com:

In particular, I’ve had good experience with both MacDrive ($49.99, 5-day free trial) and HFSExplorer (freeware).

Tags: cross-platform, macintosh, os, windows

Hello,

Thank you for posting the query on Microsoft Community. I am glad to assist you on this.

Unfortunately there is no such application in Windows to read MAC files on an external hard drive. However, I would suggest you to find any third party application using your favorite search engine and see if it helps.

DISCLAIMER

Using Third Party Software, including hardware drivers can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Third Party Software can be solved. Using Third Party Software is at your own risk.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you need any further assistance.

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Thanks for the prompt reply but I can understand your reason for providing such a 'safe' reply. I continued to search and I'vre run into a program called Paragon HFS... still haven't tried it yet... will post results as soon as I can.

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Hi,

We suggest you to try the software and reply with the results.

Note:

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So the Paragon software was a waste of $20 bucks and it resolved nothing. RossmanRepairGroup.com repaired my MacBook Pro which I am using right now... the ? remains.... How can i transfer my files from mac to PC? I borrowed my girlfriend's PC and I searched the net and I was able to download a program called Fat32Formatter... very simple file you just unzip and run. it doesn't even install anything on your computer. The format of the external hard drive took 30 hours... BUT.... I now have 1 TB of Fat32!! So it was well worth the wait... just leave it running until it is done. I have transferred all my music, pics, etc to my external drive from the mac and i was able to access and USE those same files on my girl's PC (which is Windows 8 btw) ..... In summary: I was never ab;e to get the PC to read from a Mac format HFS drive. I needed both the Mac and a PC to get the job done. Just get a hard drive formatted as FAT32 and you can plug it into a Mac, get your files and plug it into a PC... and you're done. The tough step here is finding the Fat32Formatter that will format the whole drive THIS IS WHAT I USED: http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/ NOTE: This program only works on Windows/PC Good Luck everyone! #F*CKAPPLE

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Mac Hard Drive Reader For Pc

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I don't get it. If you format the external drive, wouldn't you lose all the files in it?

Anyway, for anyone who is having the same issue, I was searching for this same issue (reading files in a Mac formatted drive from Windows 10) and found HFSExplorer.

Have not tried it yet, but description says it can read only (the files in you Mac formatted external hard drive).

This way, although not being able to edit or write, you can at least copy the files to Windows.

Just not sure about files inside Time Machine backups...

Hope it helps.

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