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Paragon HFS+ for Windows 10 Special Edition (English Version) Giveaway
$19.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Paragon HFS+ for Windows 10 Special Edition (English Version)

Full access to Mac OS Х File System under Windows with Paragon HFS+ for Windows 10.
$19.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 363 62 comments

Paragon HFS+ for Windows 10 Special Edition (English Version) was available as a giveaway on November 20, 2013!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$49.95
free today
Helps you get back all kinds of lost or deleted data on Android devices.

Paragon HFS for Windows is the perfect solution that provides full read-write access to HFS/HFSX partitions on any type of disks (GPT, MBR) under most of Windows versions! Access Mac-formatted partitions in Windows systems with the fastest and most stable HFS driver on the market.

Key Features:

  • Full access to HFS+/HFSX partitions (read and write);
  • Unprecedented high HFS performance and stability;
  • Automounting and management via "Disk Management" console;
  • Full compatibility with Boot Camp drivers;
  • Support for journaling;
  • Files and folder with “.” as the first symbol of file name are shown as hidden;
  • USB 3.0 support.

Note: This version, called “Special Edition” is the full clone of Paragon HFS+ for Windows 10, which normally costs $19.95. The difference is only in built-in registration, which is necessary for Product Key and Serial Number delivery.

Technical Support: During the Giveaway period Paragon Software provides technical support at www.giveawayoftheday.com. Please, post your questions if you have any troubles while downloading, registering and using the software. Paragon Software’s support team will reply you as soon as possible.

System Requirements:

Windows 2003, 2008, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 (x32/x64); RAM: 128 MB of RAM required (256 MB or greater recommended); CPU: Intel Pentium or compatible, 233MHz or higher processor; Disk space: 10 Mb for the program installation

Publisher:

Paragon Software

Homepage:

http://www.paragon-drivers.com/hfs-windows/

File Size:

13.2 MB

Price:

$19.95

Comments on Paragon HFS+ for Windows 10 Special Edition (English Version)

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#61

Paragon HFS+ NOT recommended.

Two HFS+ devices corrupted. In Windows the volumes are still available read and write, but none of the devices' volumes are available in Mac. Disk Utility sees the devices, the volumes are grayed out, and Disk Utility cannot repait them.

Reply   |   Comment by Lee Zouave  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#60

#39 Paul
You shouldn't be making a back up to the drive that might fail. If that drive fails how do you restore it (as you found out, you usually can't).

Make your B/U to ANOTHER drive or DVD.

I never make a backup ............ I make a -copy- of the HD I'm using. Then if the main HD gets scrambled or refuses to boot I just switch the B/U HD on and boot from that and copy it to the main HD.

I make a copy each weekend and a monthly copy to another drive.

I've used Paragon backup software for many years and yes -one- time something happened and it wiped out my main drive AND the monthly copy. I just switched on the weekly copy HD (that I had just updated with no problem) and was up and running immediately. I then copied the weekly copy to the other two drives and in less than an hour I was back in business.

It also pays to have a UPS because a glitch on the power line can cause all sorts of problems when the HD is writing data.

Today's program is just what I need to use an external MAC HD as another drive. Only problem is the MAC I/O connector doesn't plug into the USB port of my Windows machine. :-(

Reply   |   Comment by olrowdy01  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#59

I think someone already commented on this page, that Linux LiveUSB or LiveCD can read many hard drive formats.
So to copy Mac files to elsewhere, another procedure is:
- physically install the Mac drive in an x86 PC
- boot PC to Linux
- drag files from old Mac drive to another PC or other device with storage (tablet, phone or external usb drive?) or upload (encrypted) to service on the internet.
I have not done exactly this, but it seems doable.

Friend to Friend (f2f) software might be able to transfer files "directly" (through the internet) to another PC connected to the internet.
I have not done anything like this.

------
Handy when you have mac’s and pc’s work side by side.
A working running Mac can access a local network (your home network). And with Windows PC or anything else that can connect to the network... all PCs, tablets, etc. will see each other's shares through a network.

Reply   |   Comment by 123  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#58

If you can find an identical Mac, then that would be feasible as you could boot from the hard disc itself by replacing the one in it but to fit it as a secondary drive is just not possible in most macs
I fiddled with a used early G4. It had one regular IDE hard drive. the case had space to install a 2nd hard drive, and possibly board connectors for 3rd and 4th hard drives.
If you try installing older IDE drive into newer SATA Mac, you'll have a backwards compatibility problem.
Web search hints that very early G5 used IDE, and later G5 used SATA.
In the mid-2000s, some Windows (x86) boards accepted both IDE and SATA hard drives.

Also some older computer can't properly read years newer drives, because newer are larger.

Reply   |   Comment by 123  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#57

"I hand them a PC formatted USB and they transfer the file to the usb."
You could setup wireless or Ethernet wherein drive format is irrelevant to file transfers, but your solution looks safest, according to what I've read, if
- you wipe the usb flashdrive after every student returns it to you, and
- you disable autoruns on your lab PCs.
You could also encrypt and transfer the Macs' files through an internet file upload service (dropbox, etc)

Reply   |   Comment by 123  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#56

I have been using the free version of this for awhile. Handy when you have mac's and pc's work side by side. I can surly enjoy this download. since I just saved some money (who doesn't like saving some money in this time of year?)

Thanks GOTD!

Reply   |   Comment by Dom  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#55

@Mikko, et.al.

Not that I am a particular fan of Paragon's software applications, I'm not. However, to be fair here, performing an "align partitions" operation (and other operations which work on one's hard drive at a low-level) with ANY software is an process wrought with INHERENTLY dangerous potential! Any operation that manipulates partitions should ALWAYS be preceded by a complete backup in case something goes wrong, which given the nature of the operation, is well within the realm of possibility and is not even uncommon!

Just some food for thought...

Reply   |   Comment by Joe  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#54

#25 This works on the hard drive file system not the OS (which resides on the file system).

Reply   |   Comment by Danny McCormick  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#53

long time GOD user. Never seen so many users come to the defence of a product after someone condemned it. I'm happen to be the one who appreciate Paragon products. It's the best backup software I have. Use it to backup my system every month. Saved my butt many times when I need a restore. I also use it to create multiple bootable partitions, on same HD or different HD on my PC (although need to use a boot manager to get it done). For example when I migrated from Vista to Windows 7, I'd backup my Vista from a SSD, restore it to a HD before I install Windows 7 on my SSD. This way I can reboot Vista from HD in case I want to go back.
I don't need this particular offering because I don't have HFS files. But people who has problem with this product is likely to have other problems on their system because this product is only a driver for reading HFS file from a hard disk. Un-install the driver and remove the foreign hard drive you should be back to normal. Sorry you had bad experience but chance are it's not Paragon.

Reply   |   Comment by Alan  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#52

#2 Julia, I too have been using Paragon software for years without any problems. You state people's logic is flawed because they state they have had no problems with Paragon, well sweetheart, your logic is flawed when you state Paragon hes never replied to any GOTD user re problems...and you know this how? Do you see all user's enquiries?
I would suggest you check your hardware and look for any conflicting software. I am just a user like you and in no way am I connected with Paragon except as a satisfied customer.

Reply   |   Comment by Peebee  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#51

To all these posters saying "I have been using their software for years and never had any problems" (unless, of course, it's just Paragon posting as multiple aliases).

You use A version of their PREVIOUS software version, occasionally, on a limited basis. The fact that you haven't had an issue will never satisfy any proof that it does not. It is software. It has bugs. This is an iron-clad guarantee.

It is not conceivable that the developer adequately tested ALL the use cases - machine types, operating systems, and who-knows-what else which might cause fatal exceptions in their code...there is basically no way to provide a statement that this software is "safe". No software is. Results vary, but those who have not had any issue - keep it to yourself,
your comments are of no consequence to those that have.

It's like saying, "I drive to work every day, but I'VE never been hit side-on by a drunk driver".

Reply   |   Comment by DelphiProk  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#50

thanks again paragon software for an amazing product!!!! Been waiting a long time for this software for use with my new OS. Installed absolutely flawlessly on my new windows 10 system. Love it !!!!!

Reply   |   Comment by windows fanatic  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-12)
#49

Bugger, Just should have taken in what I read, Installed, Froze, Blue screen of Death. now to fix it up. !!! Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Reply   |   Comment by Greg  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#48

#39"you seem to have the idea that we are all totally stupid and don’t know what we are doing!"
Frankly, yes. But here and MS, and a followed at them on occasion manufacturers overdone, with its Secure Boot, etc. And technicians also didn't miss their profit.

Reply   |   Comment by fireworker  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#47

@#40: Chris Lewis

Then it is installed as it should be by the sounds of it. The "program" is a system driver which allows you to access attached mac-formatted drives natively.

There is no program as such in the same way there is no program to read NTFS or FAT based drives.

To test it you should turn off your PC, fit a mac-formatted drive, turn your PC back on and look for the mac drive in My Computer. If it's there then you are good to go.

Hope this helps.

Reply   |   Comment by Mark Hinds  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+12)
#46

Add me too to Julia’s list.
I just wonder why it is that none of other, similar programs, offered by other developers, do not cause these serious issues in my computer, or in the computers of some other GOTD users who are having identical, rather disastrous experience with Paragon’s program.

Reply   |   Comment by im  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#45

@#43:Andrea

If you can find an identical Mac, then that would be feasible as you could boot from the hard disc itself by replacing the one in it but to fit it as a secondary drive is just not possible in most macs so, in essence, not really easier at all.

Reply   |   Comment by Mark Hinds  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+10)
#44

Can't register for a free serial, nothing happens when I press the 'Submit' button?

Reply   |   Comment by gl  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#43

Love Paragon SW, definitely will try this one.

Reply   |   Comment by John L  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-7)
#42

#2 Ditto exactly what you said. Same experience. As a long time computer tech I know what I'm doing and Paragon is dangerous.

Reply   |   Comment by Dan  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#41

#3. Let’s say you, or a friend, have an Apple Mac which will no longer power on and you require important data from the drive (family photos, work presentation etc). With this software installed, you would be able to connect the hard drive (once removed from the Mac) to your PC and copy the data from it.

------------------------------------------------

Thanks Mark but wouldn't it be easier to connect the HFS formatted partition to another Apple Mac machine rather than a PC running Windows?

Reply   |   Comment by Andrea  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#40

I had a terrible time trying to get this program to install. It finally installed on one machine after multiple attempts. On another, it just hangs and makes the second drive disappear.

Reply   |   Comment by M.I. Summerset  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#39

Successfully installed, activated, running and tested on three PC's (two running Windows 7, one on Windows 8) without issue.

Reply   |   Comment by Mark Hinds  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#38

All I got after putting in the codes to install was just the HELP files?????? No Program installed????
Windows XP SP3 Pentiun 4 Dual core with 2 Gig's ram.

Reply   |   Comment by Chris Lewis  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#37

#2. Mike. you seem to have the idea that we are all totally stupid and don't know what we are doing! If you would have read the rest of my comment above, you might not have noticed that the hidden partition which is usually labelled Q: Can be seen when using a partition manager but will not be shown by windows explorer. As I said, Paragon Partition Manager which was given away here recently, I used to format a partition I created for backup. This wasn't the first time I formatted the partition to redo a full backup. The entire HD was erased! Including the hidden OS partition. How do I know this? I took the hd to another computer and checked it there. I didn't have a 2nd backup for my drivers and the rest of my data, so I lost it all.
ie. PARAGON PARTITION MANAGER COST ME 35 EURO FOR NOTHING!!!
I was without my computer for 8 days because of that. I sympathize with Julia because she probably went through the same nail biting ordeal as I did.
Just to let you know. Easeus Partition Master is free and it does the same job as Paragon's Partiton manager, infact it's easier to use, which means, one is less likely to make mistakes.

It's also a little ironic that this problem has been mentioned a couple of times here since that software was given away here.

Reply   |   Comment by Paul  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#36

When people say that certain software destroyed their computer they should remember that it is tested on the developers computers and obviously it didn't destroy theirs.
As #31 mike pointed out it is a combination of factors that lead to this problem, my only complaint about Paragon software is it generally it is rather bloated.
Developers don't send out bad software in general but they can never guarantee that it will not clash with other software.

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#35

@ #2 Julia --

I have used various Paragon software packages and never had any issue with them. I have the paid versions in most cases but I doubt that would make a difference.

For a backup solution I like EaseUS Todo Backup. I have the full version but the free version has the most-used features. The full version allows you to make a Windows PE disk to boot from that has pretty much the same features as the one in Windows, including the ability to restore using incremental backups. That last point is very important to me because what good is it to make incremental backups if your bootable Linux disk (the only one the free version allows you to make) doesn't support that feature?

However, if all you do is make full backups each time, it wouldn't matter and the free version would be your best bet.

I don't really have any need for today's Giveaway but I would certainly trust it if I did.

I do prefer to buy full/licensed versions most of the time since you can reinstall them at a later time and you do get tech support (which I rarely need, but it's there if I need a reset for a product activation. The free ones offered here are a good way to test a product before buying the licensed version.

Reply   |   Comment by Miki Erikson  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#34

#23: "This simply gives a windows computer the ability to understand an Apple formatted drive and transfer data from it to a Windows computer. Is that correct?"

Yes

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+18)
#33

external apple drives that have not been used in more than ten years
Mac OS 8.1 introduced a new, more efficient file system known as HFS Plus
Released on January 19, 1998, Mac OS 8.1 was the last version of the Mac OS to run on 68k processors...
Will the application permit Windows to read and understand MS Office and Acrobat files that were created on old Apple computers?
very likely, but you may need older version of office or find a converter on microsoft.com
or, optional converters may be on office install disc

Reply   |   Comment by 123  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+10)
#32

#2: "After making a systems snapshot it said it needed to restart the system to complete the process. I clicked ok, and that was the end of my operating system. I couldn’t even boot into safe mode..."

#6: "It cost me €35 to purchase a complete restore to Factory state disk set, from Toshiba, because it even deleted the entire C: drive and the Q: no access recovery hidden partition buit into my Toshiba Laptop."

In case it helps anyone...

Lots of PCs & laptops come out of the box with OEM installation software &/or an image of the system partition stored on a hidden partition. It can be a convenience if you need to restore one of these machines to their out-of-box state, &/or if tech support wants to prove whether or not it's something you've done that's causing problems, they can require you to put everything back to its original state. Manufacturers might also add something to the bios [simplified, the bios = instructions to your hardware on how to start your PC/laptop], or to the 1st, hidden track of your boot hard drive, letting you restore the machine using this hidden data when you turn the PC/laptop on.

That hidden 1st disk track stores info on how big the partition is, what files/folders are where etc. -- there's hidden info or data on where the PC/laptop will find the files needed to boot the system, there are NTFS tables if that's how the partition's formatted, & so on. Needless to say when so much critical information's concentrated in one place, it doesn't take much to *effectively* lose everything. And it makes sense that that's what happened, that hidden data was changed or damaged, causing the problems those 2 comments refer to -- it would take a bit of time to actually delete all the data on a system drive, & the process of deleting everything couldn't escape your notice.

Now the reason I started out talking about hidden partitions storing setup &/or OEM partition images, is that the hot key or menu used during boot to restore the system from this hidden partition is often not standard stuff, but something proprietary that the manufacturer added. 3rd party software can add the same sort of thing to the 1st disk track. While best case you should be pretty careful adding anything like that, adding it when you already have something similar from the manufacturer can have bad results. Paragon's System Backup, and similar options in some of their other backup apps, adds a hot key &/or menu setup to that 1st, hidden disk track so you can restore a backup if Windows won't start, and if there's something already there for the same purpose more-or-less, e.g. restoring an OEM image, they can conflict, which is what I think happened to the people posting those 2 comments.

I don't believe Paragon's System Backup let you not install the restore option on booting, but I'm going by memory so I could be wrong, & didn't see System Backup on their web site to verify one way or the other. It is an option with some versions of their regular backup software. Some software from other companies does the same sort of thing, often for the same purpose [restoring a backup], & they may or may not give you any choice in the matter. So what should you do?...

You can Google to hopefully find out what's on your PC or laptop, or use a partition app to find out if there's a hidden partition, & then try to un-hide it if you want so you can access it normally. In any case, whether there's a hidden partition or not, you can use your choice of disk image backup software on a bootable disc/USB stick to backup the hard drive to DVD or BD or external drive. Assuming your software works properly, that protects you in case there's a problem with that system drive, whether it's some sort of drive failure or in case the data that's hidden at the start of the disk gets damaged.

In the 2 examples above, restoring a disk image backup would have put things back, & that's why I'd recommend one for any system before installing too much software, as well as periodically afterward. Use a boot disc/USB stick initially, before you add backup software -- once you have backup software installed & working, then performing your backups within Windows is more convenient & probably faster, though you can always continue to backup from a boot disc if that's what you prefer. Do Make Sure though that your backups include that hidden partition at the front of your disk(s) -- if you use the wizard in Paragon's Backup & Recovery you can back up [& later restore] just that hidden track all by itself.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+40)
#31

Before you get all high N mighty complaining about a product to such an evil angry way, please consider that this is offered free and that your comments could in fact deter them from ever offering another free to ungrateful people.
There's tons of well documented cases of Paragon being an awesome company that puts out a quality product if you google.
There is a risk reward factor with any product that does some manipulation to your hard drive. I've seen defragmenting programs wreck a computer's HD and wouldn't have guessed that possible.
Take in what you're allowing a program to do and the risk and reward of it working or failing before you try anything here.
I think Paragon is great, enjoy this product and they have my trust or faith when I install. You may be different, but please think it through before you call them the devil.

Reply   |   Comment by Brian  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#30

#3, spot on. I work in a computer lab at college. I've had students who got suckered into buying mac's and they show up at the lab unable to print or get their homework from the MAC to the labs PC's. In a work around, I hand them a PC formatted USB and they transfer the file to the usb. Problem solved. HOWEVER, this would be a good tool just to have on my own laptop so if the situation presented itself, I have the ability to, if anything, access the files on the external disk or usb and help get the files from one place to another. believe it or not, people who buy mac's are not always the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Thanks Paragon and Goto for this offer.

Reply   |   Comment by tc1uscg  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#29

Not associated with Paragon Software in any way, but I will say that every piece of software I have used of theirs has been very well written, intuitive to use, and quite polished. In all fairness, I'm a systems administrator in a fairly large environment, so anything we do is thoroughly tested prior to implementing to mitigate any chance of failure. That said, I have absolutely no need for this application (that I see in the foreseeable future), but given that its a Paragon application that I don't have on my system, I am going to grab it because I know that when the day comes that I do need it, it will just work.

Reply   |   Comment by BlkCrowe  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#28

I like Paragon Backup a lot, and will continue to use it.
However, I installed this HFS+ GOTD on a windows 8.1 machine that was booted up less than an hour before and had run nothing but Chrome, was prompted to reboot, and the machine is now running a system restore since it wouldn't boot back up.
It sounds like I might count myself as lucky since the drive is still accessible...

Reply   |   Comment by Mark  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#27

Ive also had problems with Paragon, specifically Paragon Drive Copy. When installing it scatters bits and pieces all the h--- over the hard drive. When ran a back up, it changed the extensions of some files — how it decided which ones to change, I've no idea — and also renamed an account. Lovely.

I uninstalled it and went back to Macrium.

Reply   |   Comment by kalmly  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#26

I've never had any problems with Paragon. I especially like their partition managers. In fact I did a Full backup yesterday using Paragon System Backup 2010 and it worked flawlessly.

Reply   |   Comment by Mark  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#25

@#2: Julia
I had some issues with Paragon Backup & Recovery - due to incompatibility with Rollback RX and afterwards with Comodo Time Machine - now I'm using Macrium Reflect + Comodo Time Machine without any troubles.

Reply   |   Comment by El Flippo  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+13)
#24

I have some apple computers and external apple drives that have not been used in more than ten years.

1. How far back in the Apple OS will this application permit reading of data on Apple drives by a windows computer?

2. Will the application permit Windows to read and understand MS Office and Acrobat files that were created on old Apple computers?

3. Some people here are complaining about Paragon products that format or re-compartnmentalize Windows computers. My understanding is that those types of functionality are not involved with this giveaway. This simply gives a windows computer the ability to understand an Apple formatted drive and transfer data from it to a Windows computer. Is that correct?

Reply   |   Comment by HJ B  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)
#23

I also think it is unfair to berate Paragon software when one lacks the degree of skill necessary to use it. I am also a longtime user of their products, and aside from some issues with some of their formatting software I have found it really good. However those who use this type of software regardless of the brand without the necessary knowledge to do so safely are playing with fire, worse than screwing with the registry! You really need to read and understand the manual. If you wait until you have an emergency on your hands, then try using the software in that situation without knowing fully what you are doing, in all likelihood you will make a mistake, and that can cost you disk access or data loss - but it is the result of user error in most cases. No software is completely user proof or idiot proof. All it takes is passing on a prompt that you failed to understand, or pressing the wrong button and you can lose data or be locked out of your OS - it all happens very fast. Perhaps both Paragon and other software companies who make the same type of software should make it clearer to end users that they really need to fully understand what they are doing before simply diving in and hoping for the best. That is my 2 cents worth.

Reply   |   Comment by David  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#22

Since when *did* Windows 10 come out? Last I looked, the most recent version of Windows is 8.1.

Reply   |   Comment by JonathanGB  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-35)

@JonathanGB,

it's not the version of Windows, it's the version of the program.

--
GOTD team

Reply   |   Comment by Giveaway of the Day project team  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+19)
#21

Has i have no reason at this time to download this software, i may well
do in the future if i need it.

At the price of only $19.95, if i do need this in the future then i
would certainly buy it at that sort of price.

Reply   |   Comment by Vince Andrews  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-19)
#20

@#2 Julia, I have been using paragon software for many years and glad to had their software on many occasions. The problem you are experiencing sounds more hardware related then software. Not saying it can not be caused by software but unlikely. I have had a number of drives fail on me over the years but there are always signs of pending problems. Intermittent pauses, hangs for freezes, slow read/write operations, videos / music become a bit jerky. These are all symptoms of a failing HDD. Hard drives rarely "just" fail, they always show symptoms of pending failures for a while before just failing.

Do you remember any of these things happening with your system before you installed the paragon software? If yes, then paragon software was not the cause of your problems.

No I am not affiliated with paragon software in any way shape or form. Just a fan of their software.

Reply   |   Comment by Sparky  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#19

Mark Hinds & Prof Quatermas, #3 & #5, already do a great job describing what Paragon HFS is for. It installs a driver and stays quietly out of the way until you need it.

Paragon also offers the same sort of thing for *nix ExtFS, http://www.paragon-drivers.com/extfs-windows , NTFS & HFS for Linux, http://www.paragon-drivers.com/ntfs-hfs-linux-ex/ , along with NTFS & HFS+ for Android [requires root], http://www.paragon-drivers.com/ntfs-hfs-android/ , all for free. *If* you don't have a problem with rooting your Android device, or if you already have root access, that last one might come in handy if you like to watch video from files -- rather than going to the bother of converting whatever video, format your flash card as NTFS & it can store those larger [>4 GB] files. And if you want or need, VLC mobile will play them http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-android.html .

Note also the new versions of the other Paragon software towards the top of the GOTD page -- I'd particularly recommend them if you have win8.1.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+25)
#18

MS Windows 7 HP 64 bit
Installs fine after typing in the activation & serial numbers, for some reason it wouldn't let me paste it in.

Personally I don't like software that requires a restart so that it can enable its own autostart, so before restarting, I edited MSCONFIG to disable the "HFS Activator" in the Startup section.
Restarted with their autostart disabled.

Went to the folder where the program was installed and clicked on the "hfsactivator.exe", something was happening but have no idea what, so since it didn't show me what it was doing, I opened the Task Manager, highlighted the hfsactivator.exe and told it to "End Task".

At first it looked like maybe a good tool to have in the toolbox, but since it doesn't tell me what it is doing, I'm glad I stopped it before it had a chance to do anything.
Whether it would damage my installation or not as others have mentioned, I don't know.

The auto start requirement of any software is a turn-off for me. The fact that it was doing something, lighting up the hdd light the whole time before I stopped it, but didn't tell me what it was doing, makes me suspicious.

Reply   |   Comment by Sol  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#17

Thank you to those who have responded to me. My sympathy to Paul and Mikko who had the same outcome as me, using other Paragon products.

My congratulations to those who have had had much happier experiences with Paragon - as most people must obviously do, given that they're still in business. Good for you. Thanks for giving us a balanced picture.

However, to those who say the fault must not have been with Paragon's software, simply because you've never had a problem with their software yourself, your logic is flawed. You have no reason to make that assumption. While it's helpful to report your own good experiences, it's not helpful to try to dismiss ours.

In the case of my own machine (well maintained and stable, before and since), there is absolutely no reason for me to believe the catastrophic failure was due to any other cause.

It's also worth mentioning that Paragon themselves have never once responded to a single GOTD user who has reported OS failure.

Good luck to all.

Reply   |   Comment by Julia  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+45)
#16

I run a "Q NAP" NAS in my home. Running a 0/1 RAID. It crashed. I run a Windows network and wanted to recover the raid data on the drives.

The Q-NAP runs Linux OS though it converts the access to a windows file structure for access. It must run something similar to this software in a native OS.

Anyway by using this software and plugging my drives in an eSATA docking station - almost all the data was recovered.

There are times where you only need software once to make it worth while. Although relatively simple it is nonetheless valuable for folks who use computers for more than entertainment.

Its going on ALL my computers!

Great tool! and $20 is nothing if you really need it.

Reply   |   Comment by spam sorenson  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)
#15

The button for get free key does nothing! Oh-well

Reply   |   Comment by DRDNA  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-17)
#14

I've used Paragon software happily for years. This particular giveaway is a very reliable piece of software that is handy for home users and technicians who need to connect a Mac formatted drive to their PC. Mac formatted drives could be the internal drive, an external drive, or a DVD. Moving data between a Mac formatted disk and a Mac is easy, but then you don't have any way to bring it to the PC. Normally people partition their external drive - half Mac, half PC, just in order to use the drive on both Macs and PCs, but they cannot transfer files easily between the two. This software allows for both read and write capability. I personally like it a lot and say THANKS for the great giveaway!

Reply   |   Comment by Ezra  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+18)
#13

# Mark Hinds

Thanks for your explanation about the "usefulness" of this software, but wouldn't it be easier to remove the HFS formatted partitions on another Apple based systems device instead of on a PC running Windows?

Many people use MAC because they hate Windows as OS: did you know that?

Reply   |   Comment by Andrea  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-24)
#12

I have no way of testing this software at the moment, but I'm definitely installing it. It just might come in handy one day. I'm giving it a thumbs up as I've always had good results with Paragon software. They are one of the best disk management software companies around.I have a lot of their GOTD and paid software installed on my computers.

Reply   |   Comment by Mark  –  10 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
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