How to access mac files from the windows?

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How to access mac files from the windows?

I finally decided to get a Mac, but I'll be spending half of my time in Windows enviroment. I was under impression that I'll be able to access all the files on the Mac partition from Windows once it's set up thought bootcamp? I'm not finding that to be true which means that I'll have to duplicate all the files in order to use both OS's. Is there any way to access files on the mac partion from Windows? Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 3TB Fusion Drive

Posted on Mar 30, 2013 12:44 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 30, 2013 1:12 PM in response to omakad

Windows and OS X use different file systems natively. NTFS for Windows and HFS+ for OS X on the Mac. If you have a disk or partition set up with a file system that both operting systems can read and write to such as FAT32 then that can be used as a transfer point between the two operating system.

Another possible solution is that there is third party software that will allow Windows to read and write on HFS+, the Mac file system or OS X to read and write NTFS, the Windows file system.

Allan

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Answer 2

Mar 30, 2013 5:29 PM in response to Allan Eckert

I would not recommend FAT32 for inter-OS operability. Strange things happen when you have partition sizes of greater than 32 GB, and you cannot move files greater than 4 GB at all. The exFAT file system is a much better choice. It supports both large partitions and files for reads and writes in both OS X and Windows.

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