You could use FAT32 file system too, but the maximum file size is limited to just 4 GB which is not as usable in many cases if you work with larger file sizes.įor what it’s worth, HFSExplorer isn’t the only software that can read Mac-formatted drives. If you wish for Mac and PC compatibility, you’ll need to choose exFAT to access the drive on both operating systems. It’s important to note that if you format your drive using NTFS file system, you won’t be able to write files to the drive on a Mac unless you fiddle with drive UUID to enable NTFS support which is not generally recommended. That’s all there is to it, now the drive that was once formatted for Mac is now formatted for Windows PC instead (again, this erases the data on the disk to format the drive). Here, under “File System”, select either “NTFS” or “exFAT” using the dropdown and click “Start” to format the drive.Open the File Explorer, right-click on the drive and then choose “Format”.Connect your drive to the PC and follow the steps below. This will permanently erase all the files stored on the drive, so don’t do this unless you don’t mind losing everything on it.

If you’re not concerned about losing the data or contents of the drive and just want to use it with Windows, you can easily format the drive to a Windows-supported format. How to Format a Mac Formatted Drive from Windows That’s pretty much all you need to do, you should now be able to read Mac HFS formatted storage drives on a Windows PC. Click on “Load” to load and view the contents of the drive within HFSExplorer. Next, you can select your drive from the list of “Detected devices” as shown in the screenshot below.Open HFSExplorer on your PC and click on File -> Load file system from device from the menu bar.Once you’ve installed the software on your Windows PC, connect your storage drive to the computer and simply follow the steps below. How to Read Mac Formatted Drives on Windows PCįor this procedure, we’ll be taking advantage of a third-party software called HFS Explorer, which is simple to use and completely free.

If you’d like a solution to this issue, this article will cover how to use a Mac formatted drive on a Windows PC. But what if you can’t format the Mac drive, or what if you don’t want to? This is where the third party options come in. This is why it’s recommended to use the FAT file system if you’re going to be using the drive on both Windows and macOS. By default, Mac-formatted drives using Apple’s APFS or HFS Plus file systems are not recognized by Windows, and as a result, you’re only provided with the option to erase the contents of the drive when it’s connected to the PC.

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