I know it is too late now but... I installed this last night. I was running version 8 on a Win7Pro 64bit machine with no issue. As soon as I installed this version I was getting blue screens all the time. I had to use system restore to go back to a state before I installed version 9. Of course I never bothered to install the Mac version on my Mac after that.

I'd love to upgrade, but after last night's experience I am VERY hesitant.

Every once in a while we have a need to transfer video files from our Windows PC to someone who brings us a drive formatted for Mac, and usually have to jump through some serious hoops (or have them bring us a Windows formatted drive) for us to transfer their video files. HOPING that this will solve that problem.

Alas, won't know until the next time someone brings us a Mac drive that this works. LOL. But installed it before the deadline last night so we'd have it available to try at that time.

Was pleased to see that it was Paragon software, have very high hopes for it. Thanks, GOTD and Paragon.

installed on xp sp3 and caused my pc to go into endless reboot sequence when I was told to reboot. Local drive is I: not C: wonder if thats what caused it? Removed it.

>> I have an older version of MacDrive installed on my Windows machine. Is this software (Paragon HFS+) compatible with that?
HFS+ for Windows won't install into the system where MacDrive is installed, cause the tools work similar and their modules may conflict with each other.

>> Installed on Win 7. Did not get ‘Get free serial’ button. How do I get my key?
You can't install if you don't register and get serial number. Please check that you downloaded correct file.

>> Also after installing I can’t fond this program anywhere on my system.
It installs as system drivers, so it's not a program with user interface that you can launch. But if you connect Mac formatted drive to your PC, it will be automatically mounted and you can read and write data to it.

Thanks very much for this Paragon and GOTD. It installed and works fine, and doesn't crash and have all the horrible errors I get with MacDrive. Nor does it infest the system making it impossible to uninstall like MacDrive does. So this is great. The one dropback is one of my Mac volumes is not recongized by it, as it thinks it is an unreadable drive and asks to format it. Nooo, don't want to format 230gigs of data thank you. My other three mac volumes work fine with this.

Successfully installed the software on XP 32-bit, Vista 32-bit, Windows 7 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit.

Had a minor issue with the installation on the 64-bit version of Windows 7 which the compatibility wizard resolved and allowed the software to install correctly.

All in all it is an exceptional product which I have come to expect from Paragon Software.

Also after installing I can't fond this program anywhere on my system.

Installed on Win 7. Did not get 'Get free serial' button. How do I get my key?

I retract my last comment. The keys took a while for my impatient self, but, after I received them the installation was smooth. Win7 32 bit.

Jeez, you couldn't have offered this like, 3 weeks aggo when my mac croaked and I couldn't get accss to my external HD? LOL

Glad to have it now, for sure!!

My next question, for the Paragon technical rep reviewing comments:

I have an older version of MacDrive installed on my Windows machine. Is this software (Paragon HFS+) compatible with that?

Or in order to install the Paragon HFS+, would I have to either (a) disable/deactivate the MacDrive (but not uninstall), or (b) would MacDrive have to be both disabled, uninstalled and removed from the Windows system first?

Thank you for your assist.

re comment #42, and the text extracted from CHM help file stating "No support for resource forks ".

Can this be correct? (I hope not)

Resource forks are a key piece of the Mac OS file system --HFS Plus-- wherein (most) every logical file is comprised of a data fork (fle) and a resource fork (file).
The Mac OS puts them together so people only see just one 'file' and don't know that behind the scene there is usually two physical files on the hard drive.

If Paragon HFS+ for Windows only treats the data fork, then it is not a solution for any real use of Mac data use, as the resource fork will be getting lost. (As happens now sometimes if one copies Mac data to a Fat32 flash drive.)

Arg! I had an old version of HFS+ v8 installed, and v9 won't install without manually uninstalling v8 first. Do you know where this is going? So I manually uninstalled v8, and now the v9 installer thinks that there's still an old version of HFS+ out there, and it won't install v9! I manually deleted old directories, and clean the registry of anything remotely related to HFS+ v8, and v9 still won't install! Help!

The program installed itself into my "C" drive, which I HATE! Only my O/S goes there. How do I move it to my E (Programs) drive?

Tries to install, and this popped up:

"..has not passed Windows Logo testing to verify its compatability with Windows XP

"Continuing your installation may impair or destablize the correct operation either immediately or in the future. Microsoft strongly
recommends that you stop this installation now and contact the hardware vendor for software that has passed Windows logo testing."

????

Thank you Paragon for thinking of our needs. I am happy to see a company that is finally tearing down the artificial barriers between us. While I currently have no need for this program, I have experienced it in the past. It is horrible trying to merge different systems so that they can share information. Even something as simple as a text document can be an exercise in frustration. Please keep up the good work and keep listening to our cries for help. Thanks!

Easy-ish to install - had to go find the installer on the C drive to complete installation and then go to Disk Management to mount the drive. But once running - fast and excellent.
Thanks very much indeed to Paragon & GAOTD,
MO

AS a first timer trying to help w/my .02 I forgot

A HUGE thanks to GAOTD! You guys rock (anyone that knocks them is looking a gift horse in the mouth) many great discoveries from your wonderful site!

Also, a big thanks to Paragon for participating and being one of many companies to make GAOTD work. Great way to market your software as word of mouth from a trusted friend is the best/easiest sale :-)

Much Love and keep up the Great Work!!

"can i use it to copy and paste music into my ipod 40g directly from windows without using the piece of crap sofware called itunes?"

Maybe my comment above helps. I have never felt itunes was very user friendly, it has a bit of a learning curve, is very restricting, etc. and don't appreciate "5 computer limit for their store". If you reinstall Windows on the same computer (even a system restore) you can use your up your 5 computer limit on a single computer - I paid for that music how can they. Enough of Itunes gripes & know some people like it (or don't know any better)..pretty sure it is the latter;-)


I swear by Media Monkey as IMHO it is ridiculously easy to use, fix tags, etc. it can use Winamp add-ons/options, is nearly open source (check MM's wiki if you want to create your own scripts, or use others peeps have created;-). It is relatively easy to get a lifetime Gold user status by choosing a sign-up & cancel program however, the standard is more than sufficient. The thing is you have to go into itunes and take your ipod off of automatic recognize, sync, etc. Depending on the situation of the ipod will depend on how to get around itunes. I.E. your ipod was 'setup' on a Mac you can still use this program without having to use Itunes. Whatever music management program you use (JetAudio, MM, Winamp or gasp Windows Media) you will need to add file folder once you've obtained the Mac files with this program. (I'm not familiar with this program but I believe I grasp it's basic premise - please correct me if I am wrong). Hope this, in layman's terms helps!

Warning for Acronis users

The boards have a sprinkling of users complaining of BSODs with Paragon HFS+ 9.0

Its not definitive, but there's an indication of incompatibility with Acronis drivers. Enough to make me want to have a good backup just in case before installing this with Acronis, or indeed with any other third party hard drive drivers.

#22: "During the installation computer hung -up and after reboot there was a major problem, computer won’t boot... I needed to restore the partition and finally I was back!...Strangely enough I have the Paragon HSF for windows 9 in menu programs but there is none within the control panel —> Programs!"

You won't have a separate Control Panel applet -- where it says "Automounting and management via “Disk Management” console." up top, that means Windows own Disk Mgmt that you get to via Administrative Tools -> Computer Management in win7 for example. In fact it's a bit hard to tell Paragon HFS+ for Windows is there at all -- the only indication I saw that the service was running was when I went to uninstall version 8 to upgrade.

Once you run the GOTD Setup.exe, you get the WinRAR self-extractor that puts HFS4WIN_GAOTD_ea_xU.msi wherever you choose. That .msi file, like the program's folder includes 5 drivers [apmwin.sys, gpt_loader.sys, hfsplus.sys, hfsplusrec.sys, mounthlp.sys] & both apmwinsrv.exe & hfsactivator.exe are started from the Run key in the HKLM section of Windows' registry. While I haven't seen any problems myself, one of those 2 apps or 5 drivers could conflict with something else so Windows won't start. While it is best to have a backup image stored before installing any driver [just in case you have that sort of conflict], you can often boot into Safe Mode to turn drivers off &/or prevent apps from starting -- Autoruns from SysInternals [microsoft.com] makes it pretty easy... just uncheck the boxes in the listing. ERUNT lets you restore a registry backup outside of Windows, e.g. from a WinPE type boot disc/device, & in win7 you could also try to use a Restore Point.

* * *

#24: "I have to worry about those who think there’s nothing on a Mac but jpg files. The users who want to download it just because it’s free are alarming, too."

If you're a Mac person I'd think you might be enthusiastic that PC people actually care or at the least are interested, especially if you worry 'bout the rest of the world misunderstanding the Mac universe. :-)

I'm not going to say everyone should install Paragon HFS+ for Windows, but it is a good & in my experience troublefree driver-set or app. And I think many, many of the GOTD visitors/users are great, by nature very helpful folks -- maybe this will help them help or work with someone with a Mac where they wouldn't be able to otherwise? They might not even know how many people they know have/use Macs. Comment #26, evelinelm, talks about a Mac-only college class, with apparently no provision for Windows users, which are after all in the vast majority. I'd rather think we've progressed far beyond the Mac vs. PC wars, the Microsoft & Apple adverts notwithstanding, & instead of dismissing everyone not like us, build/use bridges when we can.

* * *

#31: "... I have fat32 partition with all files which are accessible with all three OSs so I am not sure if installing these drivers help anymore."

It should allow you to move up to NTFS, which has many, many advantages vs. FAT -- according to ubuntu.com [ http://goo.gl/vsBEP ] your *nix install should be ready to read NTFS out of the box.

* * *

#37: "...Macs have been selling better than Windows based PCs over the last year or so (in terms of total percentage of computers being sold). "

FWIW I believe the data is more Macs than any *Single* brand of PC... Windows & *nix machines are also open when it comes to hard & software, unlike proprietary Apple products. Make up your own mind if that's good or bad, but realize that does mean that there's little way to quantify how many of those non-Mac devices are out there, how many are built every hour of every day.

"... As for there being less Mac Software, the only reason I have Windows installed on my Mac is to support people at work (I am the IT Manager, so it is convenient to be able to pull up Windows when at home and someone calls asking a question), but honestly, short of support work I can count on one hand the number of times that I have had to boot into Windows, for the most part there is always a Mac counterpart to any Windows software..."

With all due respect, & I have nothing against any Apple product, while I'm glad you find whatever apps to meet your needs, I think there's absolutely no question that there's a LOT more Windows & *nix software available. There's simply more demand for those platforms than the Mac... I just read there were 1 mill. downloads of the new Mac OS the 1st day it was available... :-) I think anyone who tried to get the win7 beta on the 1st day would have been overjoyed if that was all the competition they faced :-)

* * *

#41: "This may have some potential as a Bart PE plugin to create a windows based Mac rescue disk. There is already an HFS plugin based on Macdrive 6 but the Paragon drivers may offer advantages in better support for SATA, USB drives, etc. "

I wouldn't think there's any reason it wouldn't work on WinPE-type discs/devices, but I'm not sure why you'd want to try with BartPE rather than the normal WinPE stuff? You might find relevant info, tools etc. in the Paragon forums &/or at places like 911CD.net & reboot.pro. If space & RAM aren't problems, you can certainly add it to a V/Box VM -- there's a portable V/Box starter that works with these bootable mini-Windows setups like LiveXP & WinPE. And there are projects to boot from win7 or .vhd [Microsoft's Virtual Disk files] on external drives/devices -- just have to add support for the driver packs etc. so it'll run on the max variety of hardware.

"what is this program supposed to do?"

Have you ever tried to plug in an ipod that was set up on a mac only to find it impossible to pull off any pictures contacts, music or other files. It does not have to be an ipod...i.e. it could be a backup hard-drive, etc. formatted (or set up) on a mac & you want to get files off your mac laptop to your home PC (or similar).
This program is intended to facilitate this process, from my understanding (please correct me if I am wrong).

#39 Jonathan and others with registration issues:

There is another button in the same installer window that has the “Get Free Serial” button. It allows copies the serial request URL to your clipboard so you can just open your favorite browser and paste it into the location bar.

If you are able to get to the Paragon page and enter your email, but the information does not arrive and its not in your spam filter folder try creating a temporary address at trashmail.net and use that in the Paragon registration request window. Trashmail addresses work for me.

The (CHM) help file contradicts information on their website regarding read/write?

Restrictions and Known Issues
Paragon HFS+ for Windows has got a number of limitations, which however are going to be fixed in the nearest future:

Read only access to HFS+/HFSX (or Mac OS Extended) is an updated version of HFS (Hierarchical File System) and is applied nowadays as the primary file system for Macintosh computers. Compared to HFS it supports much larger disks and files. It also uses Unicode instead of Mac OS Roman and similar text encodings for file and folder names. Besides it permits filenames up to 255 UTF-16 characters in length, and file forks similar to that of NTFS. One of the crucial improvements to this file system is the possibility to use a full 32-bit allocation mapping that resulted in less wasted space and other enhancements. HFSX is an extension to HFS Plus having the option to hold case-sensitive filenames. ;

No support for resource forks are constructs of the Mac OS operating system used to store structured data in a file, alongside unstructured data stored within the data fork. A resource fork stores information in a specific form, such as icons, the shapes of windows, definitions of menus and their contents, and application code (machine code). ;

No support for symbolic links (symlinks or soft links) consist of special types of files that serve as references to another files or directories. Unlike a hard link, which points directly to data and represents another name for the same file, a symbolic link contains a path which identifies the target of the symbolic link. Thus, when the user removes a symbolic link, the file to which it pointed remains unaffected. Symbolic links may refer to files even on other mounted file systems. and hard links are references, or pointers, to physical data on a storage volume. On most file systems, all named files are hard links. The name associated with the file is simply a label that refers the operating system to the actual data. As such, more than one name can be associated with the same data. Though called by different names, any changes made will affect the actual data, regardless of how the file is called at a later time. Hard links can only refer to data that exists on the same file system.;

No support for ACL (Access Control List).

This may have some potential as a Bart PE plugin to create a windows based Mac rescue disk. There is already an HFS plugin based on Macdrive 6 but the Paragon drivers may offer advantages in better support for SATA, USB drives, etc.

Has anyone had experience with this?

can i use it to copy and paste music into my ipod 40g directly from windows without using the piece of crap sofware called itunes?

I found the cause of the problem for #14, #16 and me above. I did not have a default web browser set in my system for some reason (I think I uninstalled one and it didn't reset it to IE or something else). So if the installer exits when you click "Get Free Serial" just launch a browser, go into options and make it the default system browser for your machine.

DaveM... With which Paragon program did you have trouble? Thanks

Ok, I have to say that the stereotype that Macs are for graphics designers no longer hold true. Macs have been selling better than Windows based PCs over the last year or so (in terms of total percentage of computers being sold). Much of this has to do with the fact that Macs can now run Windows and the popularity of the iPhone and iPad have also driven people towards Macs. Another big reason that many people are switching to Macs is that if you purchase software from the App Store, you can legally download and install it on any computer associated with your iTunes account (I believe the current limit is 5 or 7 machines, although for the App Store there may be no limit, I am not sure), this greatly decreases the cost of software purchases for households that have more than one machine.

As for there being less Mac Software, the only reason I have Windows installed on my Mac is to support people at work (I am the IT Manager, so it is convenient to be able to pull up Windows when at home and someone calls asking a question), but honestly, short of support work I can count on one hand the number of times that I have had to boot into Windows, for the most part there is always a Mac counterpart to any Windows software and it generally is easier to use and runs better, as well as being free in many cases (when it isn't, see my comment about the App Store above).

Please note that #33 is right that you do not need to install this if you do not have a HFS+ (Mac's format) formatted hard drive that you wish to read with Windows, but it should not mess up your system as long as you follow instructions.

#22 - No surprise as a Paragon program destroyed 2 of my hard drives in one fell swoop. I have been a computer tech for decades so I knew what I was doing. It was a blatant bug in their program. I no longer trust anything by Paragon. Only thanks to another excellent companies hard drive recovery tools was I able to recover most everything.

Info to the public:
The lastest version of Windows is - "Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601.17514" (known as "Windows 7 Service Pack 1") - but they don´t write the decimal numbers in the title anymore !

Wow. Hard to believe some of the posts, and even harder to believe some of the ratings.

Without this, or some similar utility, you can NOT read Mac formatted disks on a machine running Windows. This product allows you to read and write Mac formatted disks on a machine running Windows. Nothing more, nothing less. Why is this so difficult to understand? No, it's not for Macs, or an iPad, or a Linux machine, or a toaster.

If you're running the current version of Bootcamp, you should already be able to look at your Mac partition from a Windows boot without this software - there's a built-in driver in Bootcamp for that.

To those who insist on commenting "Make it portable" to every offering made here, get a life. You want to make a system level driver portable? Seriously? Get out of your Mom's basement, be in the sunshine, get a girlfriend or boyfriend. SOMETHING.

Paragon makes wonderful products, and this one is no exception. I just wish they'd offer their CampTune product (for modifying partitions on a Bootcamp volume) here again.

This is not for everyone, only for people with MAC and Windows OSs.
Do not install if you don't need it, it will mess up your windows OS and your system may not boot. It happen to me and I have to restore my system. I'm reporting this from my Netbook computer.

#13: "My take on this is that this version appears to allow your Windows PC to recognise and view / transfer files from a Mac. The other offering today is vice versa for a Mac... My only question is why? Most Mac users are graphic design artists... Perhaps I am missing something, I would have said this was a niche market."

I can't remember where I saw the latest demographics -- checking neowin.net the only thing I found this morning was that there's a new version of ccleaner out -- but I don't believe the old stereotype of Macs just for graphics holds true anymore. If I remember correctly they sell more Macs than any other *single* brand of PC, though when you combine sales of all the Windows & *nix machines Macs are the minority. At any rate there's a LOT of Macs out there, & with a few exceptions like hard care gaming & watching Blu-Ray, they're doing pretty much the same things as Windows PCs.

There's less software available for Macs, so a lot of people also run Windows, often using Bootcamp [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Camp_(software) ], & there is a Mac version of VirtualBox. Since Apple started using Intel CPUs, Windows runs on a Mac just fine [though not the reverse since Apple uses hardware-based DRM]. People have been transferring files between PCs & Macs since the beginning, but when you need to access the actual disks/partitions, i.e. internal/external drives formatted for a Mac or PC, that's where today's pair of Paragon apps fits in. It would be great for consumers if Windows could read Mac formatted drives out of the box, & the same goes for Mac users when it comes to NTFS, but they can't.

Paragon's HFS+ in a nutshell amounts to a small, efficient set of drivers that sit out of the way in Windows until you need to access a Mac formatted drive/partition or other type of storage device. It works like your printer drivers in the sense that when your printer's off, you never know they're there, but turn it on & they spring into action.

Well, I have an s10 with Win7, Mac 0S 10.6.6 and ubuntu 10.10. Last time these were offered I was able to install the Win driver but not the mac. With win, I was able to see mac directory. I plan to install mac driver to try. I have fat32 partition with all files which are accessible with all three OSs so I am not sure if installing these drivers help anymore.

Thanks.

I have not received the registration information from Paragon. I own several of your products but this is the SECOND product I have downloaded from GAOTD and not received the registration information. Can I have the product key and serial number, please ???????

I suppose this is a good product but since I don't have a MAC computer and don't know anyone that does I can't think of a reason to download this.

>> If I install this software on my Windows XP machine, can I then read Mac files from an old zip drive disk, and then convert those files to Windows text files, thus making them usable on my PC?

Can I install old MAC software on my PC to read MAC files using the partition this software sets up?


You can only copy files from Mac partition. HFS for Windows is not the tool to open random Mac files or convert them into something. You will need to look for special applications that can open those files.

This software works fantastic when using a macbook with a "bootcamped" windows install. The disk is partitioned with both HFS (mac side) and NTFS (windows side.)This allows you to reach over into the mac side when logged on in windows and grab necessary files, etc. This is a must for anyone that dual boots thier macbook with windows.

Recently I took a class at a college which only has Macs in their labs. In order to finish my projects, I needed to bring files home, very large files. While Macs will read windows drives, they will not write to them, so I finally bought MacDrive which is a windows program for communication with HFS drive format. Unfortunately, I can only install MacDrive on one system. Thanks Paragon and GOATD for this offering with which I can read my Mac files on my other system.

Works like a charm. A friend gave me footage to edit that he had saved to his external drive. Because his drive was formatted on a mac, I couldn't see his footage on my pc, but after installing this program I can. Respect to Paragon. Also big ups for their comments and corrections on this page. Thank You.

Great app!
Thanks!

I have to worry about those who think there's nothing on a Mac but jpg files. The users who want to download it just because it's free are alarming, too.

Tip #1: If you can't understand the description of what the application does you probably don't need it.
Maybe your techie friend (who keeps telling you to stop installing every free thing you run across on the internet) would have a use for it.

Tip #2: If you think the only valuable data on a Mac are some generic graphic files you probably don't have any use for this application.

We have both Mac and PC at home and will find this useful. Thank you Paragon and GOTD.

Be careful with the installation of this software!

During the installation computer hung -up and after reboot there was a major problem, computer won't boot.

I have lost over 2 hours trying to start compute.

Be sure you have backup of your partition.

I needed to restore the partition and finally I was back!

Strangely enough I have the Paragon HSF for windows 9 in menu programs but there is none within the control panel ---> Programs!

I got under Linux and my C:/ with operating system was showing some strange files and all OS and software was gone.

So I recalled the image and restored it from backup image file.

Although I am very strong with computers it took me by surprise and I still do not exactly know what happened.

So before you install that software be sure you backed-up your partition!

I am not a techy and in plain English I am looking for the answer to these questions:

If I install this software on my Windows XP machine, can I then read Mac files from an old zip drive disk, and then convert those files to Windows text files, thus making them usable on my PC?

Can I install old MAC software on my PC to read MAC files using the partition this software sets up?

Thank to anyone who can provide answers.

>> Can’t get to where I would enter email to get serial number. If I click on “Get Free Serial” it just ends the install routine.

This happens when installer can't launch default browser.

There's a button there "Copy URL to clipboard". Please click it. Then please open your web browser and insert URL into address field. Go to the web form and fill it to get serial number. The address is:
http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/hfs-windows9se
As you get serial number simply insert it into Install Wizard.

>> Will it work with the iPad? Sorry I don’t know all the technical terms to figure this out for myself.

It can only be installed to Windows :-)

>> If the file is saved as a photoshop file, jpeg what ever then you can email it to the person with the PC .

There are also situations when you have both PC and Mac, and for example you want to watch a movie. E-mailing such big file won't be an option :-) Or when you have an external drive with some docs you work on, and you have PC at work and Mac at home.

Same problem as #14 and #16 here

#14 & #16
to register
http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/hfs-windows9se

I too am curious to know if this will work with the Ipad 2. Will one of the moderators or whoever from Paragon please address this? THANKS!

Have the same problem as #14. Am I too dumb for this?