The Hard Drives formatted for Mac have an HFS+ file system. This file system is specifically for Mac systems, and Windows can’t read this file system. You can have access to the HFS + file system hard drive on Windows with the help of any third-party software. There are a number of tools that can help you in this regard. But using a third party all the time for accessing a hard drive on Windows is not good. A user has to know how to convert Mac formatted hard drive to Windows format.
The Windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the Mac system. Windows-formatted hard drives have either an NTFS file system or a FAT32 file system. Thus in order to make the hard drive Windows format, you have to convert the file system to NTFS or FAT32. In the further discussion, you will learn how to make a hard drive useful for Windows by changing the formatting of the drive.
Before going ahead and formatting your hard drive for Windows, you should get a backup. Formatting of any kind can leave the hard drive totally empty by erasing all your data. There are a number of instances when users lose their important data due to formatting. It is very important to save the integrity of your data on the hard drive.
You can take the help of any third-party tool to make a backup of your hard drive. Or you may opt to make a normal backup in your external drive or another computer. Make sure you perform all the backups properly, an improper operation may leave the hard drive with an error, and the hard drive may ask for formatting before use. However, data from formatted disk errors in Windows can be generally recovered with any good tool.
However, due to unforeseen scenarios and inevitable scenarios. if you have encountered a data loss scenario, you can always make use of a professional data recovery utility like Remo Recover to recover lost or deleted files from the formatted partition effortlessly.
Connect the Mac formatted drive to the working Windows operating system
Most of the time, the Mac drives are formatted with an EFI system partition. This is more secure than the simple partition, and you can’t right-click and format the drive. To format such a partition, you have to go through a complete wipeout of your hard drive. If your Mac drive has an EFI partition, follow the steps to format it:
Note: While we format drives with our desired file systems and try to make them compatible with our preferred choice of operating system, taking backup of data shouldn't be ignored. Data loss from formatted USBs and external hard drives is some of the most common reasons behind data loss today. Make sure you always take a backup of data before formatting any drives.
In conclusion, converting a Mac-formatted drive to be compatible with Windows doesn't have to be a daunting task. By following the three easy guides outlined in this article, you can seamlessly transition your drive and access your files across both Mac and Windows systems. Remember to back up your important data before proceeding with any conversion process, and always exercise caution when working with drive formatting. With these steps at your disposal, you can effortlessly bridge the gap between Mac and Windows, enjoying the flexibility and convenience of accessing your files on any platform.
exFAT file system is compatible with all modern versions of Windows and macOS.
APFS file format is not compatible with older versions of macOS like El Capitan, Yosemite, Sierra.
To get your drive to show up, format the drive on NTFS, exFAT, or FAT32 file format