USB drives and external hard drives use the Windows FAT32 to format for compatibility. Apple now uses APFS or the Apple File System and Windows uses the NTFS file system for its internal drives. Windows Can’t read Mac Drives as they both use different file systems. Unfortunately, it’s a simple process like connecting the drive to a computer using a USB and reading the files. Can You Read a Mac Formatted Drive on a Windows Computer? Although you can find third-party software to get Mac hard drives to work with NTFS, and windows to work with HFS, these cost money, and you may have to deal with bugs or request for permission to install the software.įortunately, you don’t have to struggle anymore, here’s a detailed guide on how to convert Mac hard drive to Windows without losing data. Windows uses NFTS file format while Mac drives use HFS, this means Macs can’t write to NTFS drives while Windows can’t read or write HFS. You’ll need to convert your Mac hard drive to Windows. However, what happens when you get a mac hard drive that won’t work with Windows? You may need to reformat it to work with both computers.

If you don’t have a robust internal hard drive, investing in an external hard drive can help you quickly transfer files between computers.

How to format a windows 10 ntfs on mac