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Luciansb's avatar
Luciansb
Iron Contributor
Mar 18, 2026

Can I access mac formatted hard drive on Windows?

I’m trying to access mac formatted hard drive on windows and not sure what the safest way is. I have an external drive that was used on a Mac, but now I need to open it on my Windows laptop to copy ...
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Harodman's avatar
Harodman
Silver Contributor
Mar 18, 2026

If you want to access mac formatted hard drive on Windows with command line, I’d use hdimount instead of HFSExplorer. hdimount can mount HFS and APFS on Windows through Dokany, and it works in read-only mode, which is safer when you just want to copy files without risking changes to the Mac drive.

Basic command:

hdimount \\.\PhysicalDrive3 M:\

 

I’d install Dokany first, then install hdimount, open Terminal or Command Prompt as administrator, and run that command. Replace \\.\PhysicalDrive3 with your actual disk number and M:\ with the drive letter you want. This is probably the simplest CLI way to access mac formatted hard drive on Windows without formatting the drive.