How To Read A Mac Hard Drive On Windows

1. Open Mac External Drive On Pc
2. How To Read A Mac Hard Drive On Windows 7
3. View Mac Formatted Drive On Pc

HFSExplorer is completely free; it's a basic application designed to help users read. The hard drives of Apple's Mac computers are formatted in a different way, known as HFS, than hard drives that have the Microsoft Windows XP installed on them. As a result, Mac drives cannot be read by PC computers by default. However, you can use the MacDrive program to allow your Windows computer to read files on a Mac drive. To see the HFSExplorer appear on the start menu, install it with the default settings. Then, to access the data, connect your hard drive and run HFSExplorer. Select the drive by clicking on File and then on Load Device File System. If your removable device has more than one partition, then define on which one you want to store your files. Here is how to do it: Right-click on Windows icon, select Disk Management. Select the Mac drive from the list of drives - Make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the Windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data.

The Hard Drives formatted for mac have an HFS+ file system. This file system is specifically for Mac systems and windows can't read this file system. You can have access to the HFS + file system hard drive on windows with the help of any third party software. There are a number of tools that can help you in this regard. But using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on windows is not good. A user has to know how to convert Mac formatted hard drive to Windows formatted.

The Windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the Mac systems. Windows-formatted hard drives have either NTFS file system of an FAT32 file system. Thus in order to make the hard drive Windows formatted, you have to convert the file system to NTFS or FAT32. In the further discussion, you will learn how to make a hard drive useful for Windows by changing the formatting of the drive.

Get a Backup

Before going ahead and formatting your hard drive for Windows, you should get a backup. Formatting of any kind can leave the hard drive totally empty by erasing all your data. There are a number of instances when users lose their important data due to formatting. It is very important to save the integrity of your data on the hard drive.

You can take help of any third party tool to make a backup of your hard drive. Or you may opt to make a normal backup in your external drive or another computer. Make sure you perform all the backup properly, an improper operation may leave the hard drive with error and hard drive may ask for formatting before use. However, data from formatted disk error in Windows can be recovered generally with any good tool.

Taking a proper backup is very important for your data before formatting your hard drive. Some of the most important things to take care of involve using a hard drive carefully during any kind of transfer, installation or formatting.

Delete the Mac Formatted Partition

The first step in this regard should be deleting the Mac partition with HFS + file system. In order to make it possible, you have to run the disk management tool. Here is how to do it:

Right-click on Windows icon, select Disk Management.

Select the Mac drive from the list of drives - Make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the Windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data.

Right Click on the partition and select Delete Volume – This will remove the partition.

Right click on the space and select New Simple Volume from the list.

Set the file system as NTFS or FAT 32 according to your need.

Delete EFI System Partition

Most of the times the mac drives are formatted with an EFI system partition. This is secure than the simple partition and you can't right click and format the drive. To format such a partition, you have to go through a complete wipe out of your hard drive. If your Mac drive has an EFI partition, follow the steps to format it:

Go to device management window – As explained in the above section.

Locate your drive partition which has Mac format file system.

Note the disk number from the window

To go to command prompt – Type Run in Search Box on Taskbar and press Enter > Type cmd and press Enter

OR

Go to Windows > Type cmd and press Enter

Type diskpart in the command prompt window and press Enter

Type list disk in the diskpart window and press Enter

OR

Go to Windows > Type cmd and press Enter

Type diskpart in the command prompt window and press Enter

Type list disk in the diskpart window and press Enter

Find your disk with the disk number that you have seen initially

Type select disk and press Enter

Type Clean and press Enter

This will clean your hard drive all the data will wipe out. Now in order to use this on Windows, you have to designate a file system to the hard drive partitions.

Assign NTFS File System

Once you have wiped out the content of your disk along with file system that was stopping it from use by Windows. you can go ahead and give a file system to the partitions:

Go to disk management again

Select the Mac disk from the list of drives – It shows Not initialized message in the empty disk.

Right-click on the disk and select Initialize disk

Create a partition for your disk

Right click and select New Simple Volume

Set the file system as NTFS or FAT32 as per your requirement

The drive is now formatted and ready to use in Windows Operating System.

There are high chances that when you try to connect a drive formatted in Mac to a Windows PC, you might be asked to format the drive. Why does that happen? Is there any way I can read a Mac formatted hard drive on Windows? You'll get answers to all such questions in this blog.

Why Can't Your Windows Read A Mac Formatted Hard Drive?

To read a Mac formatted drive on a Windows PC or laptop, Windows computer must have an appropriate file system. More specifically, Windows-compatible file systems include NTFS and FAT 32 whereas the file systems compatible with Mac include HFS, HFSX, HFS+ and the latest APFS.

Also Read: Best USB Data Recovery Software For Windows 10,8,7 PC

In most cases the moment you'll plug in a Mac formatted drive in Windows, the system will ask you to format the drive. We know, you might start sweating as formatting the hard drive would mean letting go of all the data which is already there in the drive. So, please! Adobe products for mac. Do not hit the format button.

If you have, you may still have hope.

How To Read Mac Formatted Drive On Windows?

So, what should be done instead? There are third-party applications which can help you access the data from a Mac formatted drive, and we have mentioned options using which you will be able to read Mac drives formatted in HFS, HFS+, HFSX and even APFS file systems.

1. MacDrive

Let's start with a software which will let you read Mac drives on Windows formatted with both HFS+ and APFS file systems. It is available in two variants. The standard variant would cost you $49.99, and the Pro variant would cost you $69.99. Here's how you can read Mac drive on Windows 10/8/7 using MacDrive :

To Make It Work:

1. Plug your Mac formatted drive into the Windows PC
2. You will now be able to access your drive from Windows desktop
3. It also gives you the ability to read and write to Mac drive

2. HFS Explorer

The best part about HFS Explorer is that unlike other software, it is free to use. It is a great application that can help you read a Mac formatted drive (Hard disks and disk images) on Windows 10. It has a clean and easy to use interface. It can help you read drives formatted with HFSX (MacOS Extended with file names that are case sensitive), HFS (MacOS Standard) and HFS+(macOS Extended) file systems.

Note: As a prerequisite, make sure that Java SE Runtime Environment 5.0 or higher is running on your Windows PC.

To Make It Work:

1. Plugin your Mac formatted hard drive in the computer running on Windows
2. You will now be required to launch HFS explorer as an administrator
3. On the top select ‘File' and choose ‘Load file system from device.'
4. Click on the ‘Auto detect' button which will automatically detect if you have HFS/ HFS+/ HFSX partitions
5. Next, pick folders and files that you want to extract and view
6. You will now be prompted to save files to a destination on your computer

3. Paragon HFS+

Paragon HFS+ mounts HFS+ partitions using Windows Disk Management. It has an automatic mount feature which automatically mounts any HFS+ formatted drives. It has a failsafe functionality, and it also keeps your data safe from any corruption.

To make it work:

1. Install the application on Windows
2. Connect the Mac formatted HFS+ drive to your computer
3. That's it; your drive will now show up in a file explorer

Install (Price – $ 19.95)

4. Paragon APFS

If you want to read a Mac formatted drive on Windows running on the latest APFS, then Paragon APFS is the option you are looking for. It lets you copy, view and edit data from the drive formatted in Mac onto a Windows PC. It is highly stable with operations, has effective flow control and steady goodput.

To Make It Work

Follow the steps as above.

Install (Price – $ 49.95)

Quick Bonus Tips

Tip No 1

How about formatting Mac drives in exFAT format? This is a format supported by both Windows and Mac, and after you have formatted it in exFAT format, you won't even need third-party software. But, before heading on to the steps to format a Mac hard drive in exFAT format, beware! You will then lose all the data on your Mac drive.

Here's how you can format a Mac drive –

1. On the File Explorer, right-click
2. Choose ‘Format'

Open Mac External Drive On Pc

Tip No 2

Should you need to format the hard drive, especially if you are not investing in a third party software, do make it a point to take a backup. For instance, you can install Right Backup for Mac.

Features:

• Automatically backup your data (data backed up every 12 hours) or schedule a backup.
• Smart and custom restore options.
• Cross-platform functionality

In The End

How To Read A Mac Hard Drive On Windows 7

You might have to shed some cash, but it is not impossible to read a formatted Mac drive on Windows 10. So, go ahead, try one of these options and if you already have been, do share your favourite choice with us in the comments section below. If you liked the blog do give it a thumbs up and follow us on Facebook and YouTube.

View Mac Formatted Drive On Pc