If you've switched to the Mac, welcome aboard. Your old external Windows PC drive will work great on the Mac. Apple has built OS X Yosemite and some previous OS X releases with the ability to read from those disks just fine. If you're using such a drive and you'd like to write new data to them, you'll find you can't unless you add new software. Fortunately, you don't have to spend a dime.
- Mac Software To Read Windows Hard Drive Download
- Mac Software To Read Windows Hard Drive Windows 10
- Software To Read Mac Hard Drive On Windows 10
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Nov 14, 2019 Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems. It is possible to format a hard drive so it can be read on Mac and Windows. Dec 30, 2019 For a Windows computer to be able to read a hard drive, it needs to have a file system format that is compatible with Windows. File systems compatible with Windows include FAT32 and NTFS. A hard drive formatted for use in a Mac has either an HFS or HFS+ file system. For this reason, a Mac-formatted hard drive is not directly compatible, nor readable by a Windows computer. May 14, 2015 Macs can easily read PC-formatted hard disk drives. Writing to them, however, is a different story. If you've switched to the Mac, welcome aboard. Your old external Windows PC drive will work great on the Mac. Apple has built OS X Yosemite and some previous OS X releases with the ability to read from those disks just fine. If you're using such a drive and you'd like to write new data. Take advantage of read and write access without having to reformat your external drives, both on Windows and macOS. View Support Information Download for Windows Download for Mac (10.10 and Up) Download for Mac (10.6-10.9).
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Every week our Peter Cohen brings you Switch to Mac — a column to help you move from Windows PC to the Mac and OS X!
One option is to back up your old Windows external drive (using Time Machine or another method). Reformat the drive using Apple's Disk Utility software and the company's HFS+ file system instead. Then you can restore the backed up data to the drive.
Even if the backed up and restored files originally came from a PC, they'll be stored on the drive using a file system the Mac fully understands. That way the drive will be fully Mac-compatible without any need for you to modify the operating system of the Mac to get it to work properly.
Obviously that solution doesn't work for everyone. Maybe the drive you're using has to be used with a PC occasionally. Whatever the case, the good news is that it's not a show-stopper: There are a few utilities out there that will enable Macs to write to mounted NTFS volumes.
Tuxera's NTFS for Mac is one of the best ways to do it. It uses smart caching to keep data transfer as fast as possible and works with every OS X version since 10.4 (Tiger). NTFS for Mac costs $31, and you can download a demo first to see how it does.
Paragon Software's NTFS for Mac 12 is another excellent choice. It includes several additional utilities for people who need to tinker or repair, to enable you to format drives with NTFS, check NTFS partition integrity, fix errors, and more. NTFS for Mac costs $19.95.
If you're a DIYer and you'd like to go the free route, you'll find a Sourceforge project called NativeNTFS-OSX that gets the job done. NativeNTFS isn't for rookies: It's a bash script that needs to run from the Terminal command line and requires you to have root (administrator) access to your computer.
An easier way to go is to download OS X Fuse, a third-party software tool that extends the Mac's file system capabilities. Follow the directions on the OS X Fuse website to download and configure the software. Follow the instructions to download NTFS-3G for Mac OS X, whose development seems stopped right now but still works in Yosemite. Once OS X Fuse and NTFS-3G are installed, your Mac should be able to read and write to NTFS disks just fine.
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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, as long as the drive type (e.g., SATA, IDE, or SCSI) is compatible with your motherboard, there are a few solutions to this dilemma.
NoteNTFS and FAT drives open natively in macOS.
Formatting a partition
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 you Mac hard drive to another storage device, then see the following page.
Third-party software
Mac Software To Read Windows Hard Drive Windows 10
Through the use of third-party software, Microsoft Windows can be configured to read a Mac hard drive. Free programs are available though they have fewer features and are not as east to use. One of the best free programs is HFSExplorer. If you are willing to pay, MacDrive and TransMac cost about $50. They both 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.