Is it possible to get ReadWrite Mac HFS+ drivers for windows 7 so I can manage my Mac formatted Backups through windows bootcamp?

Hello Alberto and Woodmeister50,

thank you for both your answers.

I have to try and remember to state things I have tried previously or am aware of; my bad!

Alberto:

Thanks for your ideas. 🙂

I'm aware of ex-fat format.

Unfortunately, my external drives are quite full and a reformat or EXFAT partition is out of the question.

I'm formatted them OSX extended journaled a couple of years back before I was aware of exfat.

I could buy yet another drive, but I don't really want to do that until SSD's come down in price and expand in size.

[also, while not a big issue, I hear EXFAT can't handle files bigger than 4gb. Not that I have many such files, so that's not really a big concern].

So doing my file organization through windows explorer is, to my knowledge, the best option,

if it is possible. [I hope!]

This would be a perfectly satisfactory solution for me if I can use Windows Explorer through VMware to manage and organize the files and folder on my HFS+ external drives.

I'm not sure if paragon HFS+ or Macdrive allow you to use windows explorer to manage files?

Or only through their own file manager and dialogs?

A costly gamble if they do not, and if their file/folder transfer dialog also happens to be inadequate.

Woodmeister :

Thanks. 🙂

Actually, my problem is both HFS+ / windows compatibility AND that I hate finder

[the HFS problem being a result of the fact I hate finder]

I have tried Pathfinder [the demo version though, maybe it has limited functionality],

and I have found it's file transfer dialog / options / functionality to be very totally lacking as well.

Others I have tried.

Mac Explorer.

MoveAddict doesn't seem to work for me presently, although I hear it might be good.

Total finder is fantastic for other reasons but does nothing for the copy dialog.

Um.... there were a bunch of others I tried, but all no good.

So I guess my question is still the same, with a bit more specific information now 🙂

..........

For a very in-depth review/analysis of the hatred of finder's lack of features in this area, 😠

there are many threads on many forums, such as can be found if you google for the thread on this forum

GOOGLE : MacRumors OS X: how to merge folder contents, not replace

Please ignore the fact that some ex-windows people are just not used to the fact that "replace" in finder means to replace a whole folder, as this is not the issue.

The lack of functionality is, and there are many pages of mac-loving people complaining about it.

I have to reevaluate my comments above and say I think you have solved this problem satisfactorily!

THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH! You have saved me MANY days and days of work and painful eyestrain and frustration! 🙂 😀

I have just tried Paragon HFS+

and it does indeed allow me to manage the files on my mac-formatted external hard drive through windows explorer!

It is clearly just an excellent driver that bridges the gap and allows windoze to handle mac files,

which allows me to use windows for one of the only things it is good for, and WAY WAY better than macs at doing!!

Managing files manually [as a lot of admin people would need to do, or people who have to do some file-admin-style organizational work. Can't rely on this automatic time-machine fluff].

It is even possible that maybe MacDrive does the same thing now,

but when I tried it about a year ago, I didn't get the feeling it was a driver that allowed me to manage my mac-formatted external drives through windoze.

It had it's own file manager then as I remember.

They might have updated it since, so this might also be a solution that is as good as paragon,

and their website looks quite slick now.

RANT:

The real ultimate solution is for apple / finder development team to fix the finder!

There is even an acronym that has become a meme for this problem, they may have heard of :

FFTF

They should google it and check the first definition in urban dictionary.

It is ridiculous I have to go these lengths and shell out all these extra dollars just to do something so basic. It makes me a little bit angry, apple gets nearly everything else right, but miss this foundational UI stuff, and it just kills my life when I need to do file organization.

I can't blame many admin-heavy type businesses for not getting on the apple boat for this reason.

Thanks again guys!
I'm really Super happy you helped me arrive at a satisfactory solution! 🙂 😀

I'd be happy to keep the topic open for a few more days though, just in case any new info crops up.

Thanks Alberto! I didn't know that. I thought I knew more than I actually did 🙂

Cheers mate, I appreciate that, it will be very useful for my future SSDs.

Although hopefully by then Microcrap will learn to just play nice, without any faffing about.

Either that, or the finder development team will pull their finger out and FTFF [fix the f****g finder!]

Fingers crossed! It's all they need to do to totally displace MS out of the picture as far as I'm concerned.