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. 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.

INMR is the software of your dreams: elegant yet affordable, straightforward yet. With a single standard license you are free to switch between the two. Download iNMR reader for new Macs (OS 10.11), old Macs (from OS 10.6 up to 10.10). Free PDF Viewer for Windows, Mac, Linux. PDF Studio Viewer ™ is a cross-platform PDF reader that is reliable and easy to use. PDF Studio Viewer can annotate PDF documents and fill interactive forms. For more editing features, Qoppa Software publishes PDF Studio Standard and Pro editions.

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. MacDrive MacDrive has been one of the go-to apps for a long time.

The first version was released way back in 1996. If you’re prepared to spend some money, you don’t need to look elsewhere. The app works with APFS drives and HFS+ drives.

Unlike some of the options we’ll discuss later, MacDrive lets you read and write data to your Mac-formatted drive directly from Windows. 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.

Note: The links generated will be valid for 24 hours from the time of creation. Now, you need to select the edition (currently – Windows 10 April 2018 Update) and click “ Confirm.” Once you’re done with it, you will be asked to select the product language (here it’s English / English International.) So, accordingly proceed further to get the download links to Windows 10 32-bit/64-bit. Make a dos bootable usb. Follow the steps below to make a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive using Rufus: • After downloading the setup file from Rufus’ official site, run the EXE file to launch the tool. Considering you have the image file now, you should proceed to download from its official site. So, you need to download the ISO file before the link expires.

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.

A five-day free trial is available. Download: ($49.99) 2. Paragon APFS for Windows Paragon APFS for Windows is another paid app.

It is the main competitor of MacDrive. 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.