Menu
How to Read a Mac-Formatted Drive on a Windows PC. Chris Hoffman @chrisbhoffman Updated March 15, 2018. Read a Mac-formatted drive, and copy the files to your Windows PC without paying a dime. It can also mount Mac.dmg disk images to get at the files inside them. To format the drive in Windows, right-click it in the File Explorer.
You need an external USB drive to install Windows on older Mac computers. To find out whether you have a Mac that requires an external USB drive, see the “Learn more” section in the Apple Support article Install Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp Assistant. If your Mac is a newer model that doesn’t require a USB drive, follow the instructions in Install Windows on your newer Mac using Boot Camp instead.
What you need
- The keyboard and mouse or trackpad that came with your Mac. (If they aren’t available, use a USB keyboard and mouse.)
- A blank 16 GB or larger external USB 2 flash drive, formatted as MS-DOS (FAT).To format an external USB drive as MS-DOS (FAT), use Disk Utility, located in /Applications/Utilities. In Disk Utility, choose View > All Devices, select the USB drive in the sidebar, then click Erase in the toolbar. In the dialog, enter a name for the drive, choose MS-DOS (FAT) from the Format pop-up menu, choose Master Boot Record from the Scheme pop-up menu, then click Erase.
- A full-installation, 64-bit version of Windows 10 on a disk image (ISO file) or other installation media.You can download a Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File) from Microsoft.
- Sufficient free storage space on your startup drive. For information about the amount of free space needed, see the Apple Support Article Install Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp Assistant.
Before you begin
Before you install Windows, make sure you back up important files.
You can use Time Machine or any other method to back up your files. For information about backing up files, see Back up your files with Time Machine and Ways to back up or protect your files.
Perform the installation
Do the following steps in order.
Step 1: Check for software updates
Before you install Windows, install all macOS updates.
- On your Mac, log in as an administrator, quit all open apps, then log out any other users.
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Software Update, then install all available updates.If your Mac restarts after installing an update, open Software Update again to install any additional updates.
Step 2: Prepare your Mac for Windows
Boot Camp Assistant prepares your Mac by creating a new partition for Windows named BOOTCAMP and downloading the Boot Camp support software.
Important: If you’re using a portable Mac, connect it to a power source before continuing.
- Connect an external USB drive or insert a flash drive into the USB port on your Mac; keep it connected or inserted while you install Windows and the Windows support software.
- On your Mac, open Boot Camp Assistant , located in /Applications/Utilities.
- At the introduction screen, click Continue.The system is checked for total available disk space. Older Time Machine snapshots and cached iCloud files are removed to make space for Boot Camp. This process may take a long time to complete (you can click the Stop button to skip this process).
- At the Select Tasks step, select all the tasks, then click Continue.
- At the Create Bootable USB Drive for Windows Installation step, choose the Windows ISO image and the USB drive, then click Continue.The Windows files are copied to the USB drive. This process may take a long time to complete (you can click the Stop button to interrupt this process).
- At the Create a Partition for Windows step, specify a partition size by dragging the divider between the macOS and Windows partitions. If you have multiple internal hard drives, you can select a different hard drive from the one running macOS and create a single partition on that drive to use solely for Windows.
- Click Install.
When this step is complete, the Windows installer starts.
Step 3: Install Windows
- In the Windows installer, follow the onscreen instructions.
- When you’re asked where to install Windows, select the BOOTCAMP partition (you may need to scroll through the list of partitions to see it), then click Next.WARNING: Do not create or delete a partition, or select any other partition. Doing so may delete the entire contents of your macOS partition.
- Continue following the onscreen instructions to finish installing Windows.After you install the Windows software, your Mac automatically restarts using Windows.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to set up Windows.
Step 4: Install Boot Camp on Windows
After installing Windows, Boot Camp drivers that support your Mac hardware start installing.
Note: If the support software doesn’t install automatically, you need to install it manually. For instructions, see the Apple Support article If the Boot Camp installer doesn't open after using Boot Camp Assistant.
- In the Boot Camp installer in Windows, follow the onscreen instructions.Important: Do not click the Cancel button in any of the installer dialogs.If a message appears that says the software you’re installing has not passed Windows Logo testing, click Continue Anyway.You don’t need to respond to installer dialogs that appear only briefly during installation, but if a dialog asks you to install device software, click Install.If nothing appears to be happening, there may be a hidden window that you must respond to. Look behind open windows.
- When the installation is complete, click Finish, then click Yes to restart your Mac.
- After your Mac restarts, follow the instructions for any other installers that appear.
See alsoGet started with Boot Camp on MacTroubleshoot Boot Camp Assistant problems on MacApple Support website: Boot Camp Support
One of the most useful devices of the computer age is the pen, or flash, drive. With the ability to hold a surprisingly large amount of data for its size, flash drives save time by allowing users to quickly transfer data between computers. Previously, the two computers had to be networked, or users had to revert to clunky methods, such as attaching a hard drive to the computer or burning the files onto a CD. While flash drives are universal, some Mac computers are unable to read flash drives that have been formatted in a particular way, so learning how to properly format your pen drive is paramount.
Plug the USB drive into the Mac. Avoid plugging it into a USB hub or the USB port on a Mac keyboard.
Click the 'Finder,' choose 'Applications,' choose 'Utilities and launch the Drive Utility. This software is part of the Mac operating system.
Select the drive in the left pane. In the Name field, type a name for the pen drive.
Select the 'Erase' tab in Disk Utility, making sure the flash drive is selected.
Choose the desired format that you want the pen drive to have. If you’re planning to use it with both a Mac and a PC, select 'MS-DOS (Fat),' which will allow it to be read by both Windows and Macintosh computers. If you’re planning only to use it for Macs, select 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled).'
Click on the 'Erase…' button. This will erase all the data on the pen drive, so back up any data you want to save before getting to this point.
Eject the pen drive, either by dragging it into the trash or by using the eject button -- the triangle icon -- in the Finder window.
Tips
Formatting for MS-DOS will allow your drive to work with both Windows and Macintosh computers.
Warnings
Formatting a drive deletes all data on the drive. Back up your data before you format a drive.
Video of the Day
Brought to you by Techwalla