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.

#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. :-(

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.

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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.

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.

"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)

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!

@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...

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

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.

#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.

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".

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 !!!!!

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

#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.

@#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.

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.

@#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.

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

Love Paragon SW, definitely will try this one.

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

#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?

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.

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

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.

#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.

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.

@ #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.

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

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.

#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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

@#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.

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?

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.

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

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.

@#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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

# 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?

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.

@2 Julia

I have used the Paragon Backup giveaways and have managed to back-up and restore 2 machines without a single issue, so can only praise what I have used successfully.

I would suggest that your F1 No HDD error is due to some other issue not associated with the Paragon software itself.

@#2: Julia
Never had problems with Paragon, been using them for years!!

Thank you to Paragon who don't longer activates the default subscription to their "newsletter, special offers, discount offers."