Advertisement Do you need to read a Mac drive on Windows? Unfortunately, it’s not a straightforward process; you can’t just connect the Mac drive and expect it to work. Here’s everything you need to know to get it working. Why Can’t Windows Read Mac Drives? Windows and macOS use different file systems.

MacDisk, a solution to read/write/format Macintosh floppy disks, CD-ROMs, Zip cartridges, USB drives and all other magnetic disks on a PC without any add-on. That is, Word for Windows opens Word Mac files. This holds true also for Excel, PageMaker, Xpress and many others.

Windows uses the NTFS file system for its internal drives, whereas Apple replaced HFS+ with its successor— Apple File System (APFS)—in early 2017. Today, APFS is used on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs.

External hard disks and USB drives are generally formatted with the Windows FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility. Most devices, including Macs, can read and write from FAT32 devices. There’s even a way to Some of the most common methods of adding NTFS support broke with the recent release of El Capitan, but you can still write to your Windows drives with a bit of tinkering. All new Macs will be formatted with APFS.

Older Mac drives may still be formatted with the HFS+ file system. Windows can’t read either file system by default.

We’ll show you how to access your Mac-formatted APFS or HFS+ drive on Windows. How to Read APFS on Windows Firstly, let’s look at how to read the newer Apple File System format on Windows. All these apps will allow you to read drives from any updated Apple device, not just Macs. The app is focussed around the freshly redesigned Disk Management Window. It acts as a hub for all the Mac drives connected to Windows. You will also be able to see your APFS or HFS+ drive directly within File Explorer, allowing easy integration with the rest of the Windows operating system.

Other useful features include the ability to create and partition Mac disks direct from your PC, a powerful disk repair feature, and robust security tools. The standard version costs $49.99. There’s also a Pro version. It adds several extra features, including automatic file defragmentation, support for RAID setups, and a way to create Mac ISO files. The app provides read and write access to APFS-formatted partitions, read and write access to compressed and cloned files, and read-only support for encrypted volumes. It supports disk auto-mounting at start-up, but doesn’t have MacDrive’s partition tools.

MacDrive has one big advantage over Paragon’s app: HFS+ support. Paragon APFS for Windows only supports APFS-formatted drives. If you have some older Mac drives lying around that are still running HFS+, you would need to separately purchase Paragon HFS+ for Windows. MacDrive, therefore, is a more economical option. One license—which costs $49.95—works on three Windows PCs.

Download: ($49.95) 3. UFS Explorer Standard Access Our third and final recommendation for reading APFS drives on Windows is UFS Explorer Standard Recovery. Once again, it’s a paid option.

The app will cost you €21.95. UFS Explorer Standard Recovery is the most versatile app on this list. It can read the two formats we care about—APFS and HFS+—as well as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, exFAT, SGI XFS, Linux JFS, Unix/BSD, UFS/UFS2, and VMware VMFS. As such, this is the app you should choose if you find yourself hopping between lots of different operating systems during your day.

UFS Explorer Standard Recovery also comes with RAID support as standard. The app has a built-in RAID builder, so you can customize it for your array. There is a free version of the app with no time limits, but it will only let you copy files smaller than 256KB in size.

Download: (€21.95) How to Read HFS+ on Windows If your Mac-formatted drive is still running HFS+, use one of these three methods instead. Install Apple HFS+ Drivers If you only need read access, you can install the Apple HFS+ drivers for Windows. Be sure to remove Paragon or MacDrive before proceeding. Download the correct, then follow these steps: • Copy the ApplsHFS.sys and AppleMNT.sys files to C: Windows System32 drivers • Merge the Add_AppleHFS.reg file with your Windows registry. • Restart your system. The video above also demonstrates the process.

After restarting, your Mac-formatted drive should show up under This PC. This method only gives you read access to the drive. If you would like to edit or delete files, try one of the alternative methods below. 2. HFSExplorer HFSExplorer is completely free. You can use it to access Mac file systems from Windows without paying a dime. The developer hasn’t updated it since October 2015 due to the arrival of APFS, but it still works on older systems. HFSExplorer requires.