APFS and HFS+ for Windows opens Mac-formatted drives on a Windows PC, with no Mac required. Connect a drive formatted APFS or HFS+ and it appears as a Windows drive letter that you can browse in File Explorer and copy files from. HFS+ drives can be mounted read-write, and files and folders can be added to APFS drives. It is built on a from-scratch implementation of the Apple filesystems, checked byte for byte against macOS.
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What it does
- Mounts APFS and HFS+ (HFSX) drives as a Windows drive letter, so their files open in File Explorer and any Windows program.
- Copies an entire Mac drive to a Windows folder in one step, with a report of every file that was copied or could not be copied.
- Mounts HFS+ drives read-write, including journaled HFS+, so you can work on them as you would any Windows drive.
- Adds files and creates folders on APFS drives, including very large disk image files.
- Handles very large volumes, including multi-terabyte APFS containers and RAID arrays.
- Inspects and verifies a volume from the command line, byte for byte, for forensic and recovery work.
Why Windows cannot open a Mac drive
macOS formats drives with APFS (the default since macOS High Sierra) or with the older HFS+, also called Mac OS Extended. Windows includes no driver for either one. When a Mac drive is connected, Windows does not give it a drive letter, and Disk Management shows it as an unknown or unallocated partition. Windows may offer to format the drive. Do not format it: formatting erases the files you are trying to reach.
APFS and HFS+ for Windows reads the Apple filesystem structures directly from the disk, so the drive and its files are available in Windows without being converted or reformatted.
APFS and HFS+ support
| HFS+ / HFSX | APFS | |
|---|---|---|
| Browse in File Explorer | Yes | Yes |
| Copy files to Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Write to the drive | Read-write drive letter | Add files and new folders |
| Journaled volumes | Yes | Not applicable |
| Multi-terabyte volumes | Yes | Yes |
What you need
- A drive formatted APFS or HFS+ (HFSX), the formats used by macOS.
- Windows, with administrator rights to open a disk directly.
- To mount a drive as a Windows drive letter, the Dokan runtime must be installed.
How to use it
- Install the Dokan runtime from dokan-dev.github.io if it is not already installed.
- Download APFS and HFS+ for Windows and run it. Windows asks for administrator permission, which is needed to read a disk directly.
- Connect the Mac drive. The program lists every disk, with its type, volume name, size, and free space, and marks the Apple-formatted ones.
- Select the drive and click Mount R/O to mount it read-only, or Mount R/W to mount an HFS+ drive read-write.
- Click Open to browse the drive in File Explorer, or Copy All to copy the whole drive to a folder on your computer.
- Click Unmount before you disconnect the drive.
After mounting, check that the volume name shown in File Explorer is the drive you expect before you copy from it.
Copying an entire Mac drive
Copy All copies every file and folder on a mounted drive to a destination you choose, keeping folder structure and file dates. It skips the hidden system folders that macOS keeps for its own use, such as Spotlight indexes and the Trash, and files already present in the destination are not copied again, so an interrupted copy can be restarted where it left off. Progress is shown while the copy runs. When it finishes, a report in the destination folder lists how many files were copied and lists by name any file that could not be copied.
Writing to APFS drives
An APFS drive always mounts read-only. To write to it, use New Folder and Add File, which work directly on the disk; the program unmounts the drive while it writes and mounts it again afterward. Add File copies one file onto the drive with live progress, and it is built for very large files such as multi-terabyte disk images.
- New files and folders are created at the top level of the volume.
- Existing files are not deleted, renamed, or overwritten.
- Do not write to a drive that holds Mac snapshots, including Time Machine local snapshots. On a Mac,
diskutil apfs listSnapshotsshows whether a volume has any. - Do not disconnect the drive or shut down the computer while a write is running.
Frequently asked questions
Can I read a Mac drive on Windows without a Mac?
Yes. APFS and HFS+ for Windows reads the drive directly on a Windows PC. No Mac is needed at any step.
Will it change anything on my drive?
Not when the drive is mounted read-only. Mount R/O and Copy All only read from the drive. The drive is written to only when you mount an HFS+ drive read-write or use New Folder or Add File on an APFS drive.
Why does an APFS drive show as write-protected in File Explorer?
APFS drives mount read-only by design. That is expected. To add files to an APFS drive, use Add File and New Folder in the program.
Can it open an external drive, an SSD, or a RAID array?
Yes, as long as Windows can see the disk and it is formatted APFS or HFS+. That includes USB and Thunderbolt external drives, internal SSDs and hard drives removed from a Mac, and large multi-disk arrays.
What if the drive is failing or Windows cannot see it?
Stop using the drive. A drive that clicks, disconnects, or reads very slowly can be damaged further by repeated attempts to read it. Our engineers recover data from failing Mac hard drives, SSDs, and RAID arrays every day.
If you are recovering data from a failing Mac drive rather than reading a healthy one, our engineers can help. Call 800.237.4200 or start a recovery case.
Mounting is provided by the Dokan / Dokany project, licensed under the LGPL. See dokan-dev.github.io.