A hard drive is a hardware component which stores all digital content such as documents, pictures, music, videos, programs, application preferences, and operating system. A hard drive determines the size of digital files in terms of megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), and terabytes (TB). The first hard disk developed by Apple company was Macintosh ProFile in September 1981. It contains 5MB Seagate released for Apple III but also supports Apple II. For now, users can get 256 or 512 GB drives in macOS and if users need more space, an external drive or even cloud storage are the best options.
Features of Hard Drive
Some of the key features of macOS hard disk are mentioned below:
- Storage capabilities and speed
- Reliability and durability
Compatibility and easy installation - Security and privacy
Quitter and consume less energy - Affordable and easier to recover data if damaged
Check Mac drive storage
The simplest way to check the storage of the hard drive is by accessing About this mac. The storage tab will show you how much space has been used and how much is available.
- Click the Apple icon and choose About This Mac.
- Click More Info > Storage Settings.
Accessing a mac hard drive in windows
Regardless of the platform, users can read and write to the drive and then share the files and folders. Apple company provides fully compatible and reliable data sharing convenience. If you connect a drive formatted in Mac to a Windows PC, you’ll be prompted to format it before use which means users are not allowed to view anything saved on it before formatting.
There is a better way to read the mac Drive in windows pc without formatting the disk in both free and paid software. Here are some useful software that can be run in windows to read from mac-formatted drive.
1. HFSExplorer
It is free software which is designed to help users read mac formatted hard disks. It supports various systems such as HFS (the Standard file system on Mac), HFS+ (the Extended file system on Mac OS), HFSX (the Extended Mac OS file system with case sensitive file names), etc.
What does HFS Explorer do ?
It read files stored on Mac HFS+ formatted disks and disk images.
- It browses image content, including file systems, partitions and disk images.
- It browses the volume on mac using graphical file system browser.
- It extracts files you need (copy files to Windows hard disk free).
- It allows file permission and ownership.
Attentions:
Need to install Java first if you don’t have it on your PC since it’s required (Sun’s Java SE runtime environment version 5.0 or greater in which OpenJDK works fine).
HFS Explorer: Launch error
No Java runtime environment found. HFS Explorer cannot function without Java.
Steps to use HFSExplorer to read mac drive in windows
Following are the steps to use HFSExplorer to read and write mac drive in windows:
- Connect the Mac-formatted drive to Windows 10 PC using USB portal.
- Run HFS Explorer as administrator.
- Select File from the menu bar.
- Click Load file system from device
- Click Autodetect to load the connected hard drive.
- Choose the files & folders you want to view in the HFS+ drive.
- Click Extract in the graphical window.
- Select a folder as the destination.
- Expand the folder to read Mac drive files on a Windows 10 PC.
2. Paragon HFS+ for windows
Paragon HFS+ for windows allows us to use the Seagate drive in both windows and macOS without formatting the drive. It allows the users to read or write files from HDD, SSD or flash drives formatted under macOS. Though it is a paid reader, users still love it.
The paragon HFS+ for windows will cost $19.95 on the official website for a single user.
Steps to use paragon HFS+ for windows
This tool is not free but it has more features than HFSExplorer. You can transfer the data to HFS+ formatted external drive from Windows 11, 10, and earlier.
- First go to https://www.paragon-software.com/us/home/hfs-windows and download
- Double-click the downloaded file (it ends with .msi) and follow the on-screen instructions to install it on your Windows PC or in Boot Camp.
- Select the premium as per required or go for free trail
- One its installed, restart your pc and connect the drive
- Now, open the app from the start menu. If prompted, launch the app. It will instantly recognize all HFS+ drives and partitions and display them in the left panel.
- Select an HFS+ volume and click mount
- When the file is mounted, users can access files like any other drive in File Explorer or from within any Windows app.
- Finally unmount the volume after accessing the file.
Reference
Sarah (2024) 6 ways to read mac-formatted drive on windows: Free & paid, MiniTool. Available at: https://www.minitool.com/data-recovery/read-mac-formatted-drive-windows.html (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
Thompson-Brown, M. (2023) How to read HFS+ formatted Mac drives on a windows PC, wikiHow. Available at: https://www.wikihow.com/See-Hfs–on-Windows (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
Wiki, C. to A. Hard disk drive, Apple Wiki. Available at: https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Hard_disk_drive (Accessed: 20 June 2024).
