How To Read An Apple Hard Drive In Windows
If you lot've always tried to use a Mac hard drive or USB fundamental with a Windows PC, y'all'd know that Windows fails to read the contents of the drive. Nevertheless, with 3rd-party software, it's still possible to view all the information that's stored on the drive, even if information technology'due south formatted for Mac.
By default, Mac-formatted drives using Apple'south APFS or HFS Plus file systems are not recognized by Windows, and every bit a result, you're only provided with the option to erase the contents of the drive when it'southward connected to the PC. This is why it's recommended to use the FAT file system if yous're going to be using the drive on both Windows and macOS. Just what if you can't format the Mac bulldoze, or what if you lot don't desire to? This is where the third party options come in.
If you'd similar a solution to this event, this article will cover how to use a Mac formatted drive on a Windows PC.
How to Read Mac Formatted Drives on Windows PC
For this procedure, nosotros'll be taking advantage of a third-political party software called HFS Explorer, which is simple to apply and completely free. You can download HFSExplorer here. Once y'all've installed the software on your Windows PC, connect your storage drive to the computer and simply follow the steps below.
- Open HFSExplorer on your PC and click on File -> Load file system from device from the carte du jour bar.
- Next, you can select your drive from the list of "Detected devices" equally shown in the screenshot below. Click on "Load" to load and view the contents of the drive within HFSExplorer.
That'due south pretty much all yous need to do, you lot should at present be able to read Mac HFS formatted storage drives on a Windows PC.
How to Format a Mac Formatted Drive from Windows
If y'all're not concerned about losing the information or contents of the drive and simply want to use information technology with Windows, you can easily format the drive to a Windows-supported format. This will permanently erase all the files stored on the bulldoze, so don't do this unless you don't mind losing everything on it. Connect your drive to the PC and follow the steps beneath.
- Open the File Explorer, correct-click on the drive and then choose "Format".
- Here, under "File System", select either "NTFS" or "exFAT" using the dropdown and click "Start" to format the drive.
That's all in that location is to it, now the drive that was in one case formatted for Mac is at present formatted for Windows PC instead (again, this erases the data on the deejay to format the drive).
It'south of import to notation that if you format your bulldoze using NTFS file system, you won't be able to write files to the drive on a Mac unless you lot fiddle with drive UUID to enable NTFS support which is not generally recommended. If yous wish for Mac and PC compatibility, you'll need to choose exFAT to access the bulldoze on both operating systems. You lot could employ FAT32 file system too, merely the maximum file size is express to just iv GB which is not as usable in many cases if yous work with larger file sizes.
For what it's worth, HFSExplorer isn't the only software that can read Mac-formatted drives. Information technology just happens to exist a free option that is open up source. But i downside to HFSExplorer is that it is read only, whereas some users may need to write to the Mac drive from Windows as well.
What about writing to Mac formatted drives from Windows?
If y'all're willing to pay, you lot could purchase Paragon HFS+ for $20 which lets you read HFS formatted drives, and write files to the drive too, the latter being a major feature that HFSExplorer lacks. Paragon's tool installs a file system driver that allows you to access a Mac-formatted drive just similar any other storage drive in File Explorer.
–
This is obviously aimed at reading Mac drives on a PC, but if you're simply looking to substitution files between Mac and Windows, y'all can share between Mac and PC using SMB networking as discussed here which is a great method for computers on the same network. Or y'all tin can use iCloud Drive in Windows and besides from the Mac to share files between the ii platforms seamlessly equally well.
Nosotros promise you managed to read a Mac-formatted drive on your Windows PC without having to format it. Was HFSExplorer good enough for your needs? Or are you planning to purchase paid software like Paragon HFS+ to accept write permissions as well? Did you find another solution for reading and writing to Mac hard drives on a PC? Let us know your experiences, thoughts, and opinions in the comments section down below.
Source: https://osxdaily.com/2020/09/16/how-read-mac-formatted-drive-windows-pc/
Posted by: talleygatited.blogspot.com
0 Response to "How To Read An Apple Hard Drive In Windows"
Post a Comment