Mac Hdd On Pc

While you can physically connect a Mac hard drive to a Windows PC, the PC cannot read the drive unless third-party software is installed. Because the two systems use different file systems for storage: Macs use the HFS, HFS+, or HFSX file systems, and PCs use either the FAT32 or NTFS. Luckily, if the drive type (e.g., SATA, IDE, or SCSI) is compatible with your motherboard, there are a few solutions to this dilemma.

Note

Even though Mac computers are capable of reading hard drives that are formatted for Windows, if you intend on using your external HDD as a bootable disk or want to use it to backup files with your Mac’s Time Machine, you must format it to be entirely Mac compatible. Transferring Data From a Mac to PC via an External Hard Drive Mac OS X and Windows can both read and write to disks in the FAT or ExFat format. Because Mac OS X Mountain Lion does not natively. If you need to expand your storage space with an external hard drive and you use both Mac and PC, you'll likely run into a few obstacles. Hard drives advertised as being compatible with Windows.

NTFS and FAT drives open natively in macOS.

Formatting a partition

Clone A Mac Hdd On Pc

  1. 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.
  2. Transferring Data From a Mac to PC via an External Hard Drive. Mac OS X and Windows can both read and write to disks in the FAT or ExFat format. Because Mac OS X Mountain Lion does not natively support writing to an external NTFS drive, you must erase your hard disk and format it.

You can delete a Mac-based HFS, HFS+ or HFSX partition and format it to be usable with a PC. If there are any files you want to keep, copy them from your Mac hard drive to another storage device, then review the page linked below.

Third-party software

Format Mac Hdd On Pc

Through the use of third-party software, Microsoft Windows can be configured to read a Mac hard drive. Free programs are available, but they have fewer features and are not as easy to use. One of the best free programs is HFSExplorer. If you are willing to pay, MacDrive and TransMac cost about $50. They do a good job of allowing users to view the contents of a Mac hard drive on a PC due to their user-friendly interfaces. There is also a $20 solution from Paragon called HFS+ for Windows.

Hdd

Additional information