Macbook Pro HDD not detected on Windows, but appears in Disk Management

[londonuser123]

Hi all

I have removed my 500GB HDD from my MacBook Pro 13", and want to use it on my windows laptop as an external hard drive. I am using Digiflex 2.5 SATA to USB and when I connect it to the laptop, the Digiflex connector displays a red light. When connecting it to the laptop, the laptop makes a sound that it is has identified something, but nothing appears in 'my computer' and the HDD is not detected automatically or manually when using HFS explorer. The drive does however appear in the Disk Management screen (screenshot https://imgur.com/a/R0udp).

I was hoping to recover data from the HDD rather than restore it. Is there anything else that I should be doing? Apologies if this has been posted before, I could not find the exact query in the forum.

Many thanks

 

[kenrivers]

You will need some third party software to be able to read the drive from the MacBook Pro. The reason it won't appear in my computer is a difference in the Mac and PC's file structure and the way the drive is formatted.

How-To Geek - Read a Mac Formatted Drive on a Windows PC

HFSExplorer 0.23.1

 

[londonuser123]

Hi Ken

Thanks for your reply. I have tried downloading HSF explorer (as you suggest) but unfortunately the HDD is not detecting using that software either.

 

[kenrivers]

Below are a couple of ways you could keep transfer your files from the MacBook to the PC. Both of the suggestions below require that you reinstall the HDD into your MacBook Pro.

If you have another external drive available then you could try the following:
1) Put the HDD back in the MacBook
2) Attach an external drive and format it as exFAT (either before on a PC or after using the Mac's Disk Manager)
3) Copy the files you wish to keep to the external drive
4) Remove the HDD from the Mac and format it using a PC

Do you have a flash drive you could use to transfer files?
If yes, put the HDD back in the MacBook Pro and then attach the flash drive and format it using exFAT.
Copy the files you want to keep. You can keep doing this until you have all the files copied.
After the files have been copied you can remove the drive and then format the drive once attached to the PC.

exFAT is recognized by both Macs and PCs (well maybe not on some older models of both).

 

[londonuser123]

Hi Ken

Sorry I should have said - the MacBook stopped working which is why I am trying to recover the data on windows. I'm assuming the hard drive is still usable and it says it's 'healthy' when found using Disk Management on Windows, I just can't access any of the files.

 

[kenrivers]

Well that clears the waters a bit. Do you have another drive you can test the SATA to USB adapter with to make sure the problem is not with the adapter. I'm doubting it since the drive is picked up by Windows, well in Disk Management, even though you can't access the drive. What exactly do you see when you open HFS Explorer? Is there an option to search for the drive?

Paragon has something called HFS+ for Windows that may be worth a look.

 

[londonuser123]

Hi Ken

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately I don't have another HDD to test the adapter with, but the adapter is new so I'm assuming it does work.

I've tried the Paragon software and that does not seem to pick up the drive either. The error message I get within HFS explorer is this one: https://imgur.com/a/n16qW

Is there any way of knowing whether the problem is with the hard drive?

 

[kenrivers]

I, like you, assume the adapter is working since you can see the drive in Drive Management. It is clear what the message you get does tell you but what isn't clear is why the drive has a form of HFS that is not recognized.

Do you suspect the drive is the reason your MacBook stopped working? Do you know anyone else with a MacBook or iMac that you could connect that drive to test it? Do you live near an Apple store? If yes, you take the drive in and see if they will test it for you but I would call first to see how much they would charge for such a service.