Will a Mac hard drive work with a PC?

Updated: 09/12/2023 by Computer Hope
Computer hard drive

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 (Hierarchical File System), HFS+, or HFSX file systems, and PCs use either the FAT32 or NTFS (NTFS File System). Luckily, if the drive type (e.g., SATA (Serial AT Attachment), IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), or SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)) is compatible with your motherboard, there are a few solutions to this dilemma.

Note

NTFS and FAT (File Allocation Table) 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 your Mac hard drive to another storage device, then review the following page.

Third-party software

Through third-party software, Microsoft Windows can read a Mac hard drive. Free programs are available, but they have limited features and are not as easy to use. One of the best free programs is HFSExplorer. If you are willing to pay, MacDrive and TransMac cost about $50. They 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.