Read Mac Drives in Windows 8?

[evangw]

Is there any software that currently works for reading CoreStorage-formatted harddrives while booted into Windows, specifically 8.1?

I've tried Paragon HFS and MacDrive, but even the latest versions, they only seem to support HFS+, which, if I understand correctly, is not just some new Apple buzzword for "HFS+" but actually some sort of new system altogether.

I've done some Googling for this already and nothing has turned up, so I'm guessing there's no solution right now (except to reformat the Mac partition as HFS+, which I'm not going to do). I'm surprised that even so long after CoreStorage's introduction there still aren't any Windows-compatible drivers though. It's odd because MacDrive claims to support CoreStorage in a recent (February) update, http://www.mediafour.com/macdrive-9-3-2-6-standard-and-pro-are-now-available/ but I don't see anything to show up at all. My drive is not encrypted.

Anyway, in case anyone knows more, let me and whoever finds this thread by Googling "CoreStorage Paragon Windows 8.1 Yosemite" in the future know.


Edit: For anyone who really needs this feature in Yosemite, you can revert your drive back from CoreStorage to HFS+, following these instructions here: http://awesometoast.com/yosemite-core-storage-and-partition-woes/. I don't need it badly enough to revert to a deprecated file system, so I guess I'll wait another 6 months and see if anything has changed.

 

[jeffjorgy]

MacDrive and CoreStorage

MacDrive does support Core Storage drives so long as it is unencrypted and labeled as an HFS+ drive within Core Storage.

You said the drive is not encrypted, correct? A lot of times when we diagnosis a drive it is listed as Core Storage and does have FileVault encryption.

We have seen some drives that are labeled Core Storage but are not labeled HFS+. We are unable to read those drives.

If you would like to drop a note to our support team support at mediafour.com, we'd be happy to take a look at the drive and see why we are unable to access it.

 

[evangw]

MacDrive does support Core Storage drives so long as it is unencrypted and labeled as an HFS+ drive within Core Storage.

You said the drive is not encrypted, correct? A lot of times when we diagnosis a drive it is listed as Core Storage and does have FileVault encryption.

We have seen some drives that are labeled Core Storage but are not labeled HFS+. We are unable to read those drives.

If you would like to drop a note to our support team support at mediafour.com, we'd be happy to take a look at the drive and see why we are unable to access it.

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into this a little closer and drop a line to the support team. I made a post on the forum there too at the same time as this one, but no one replied there .

My drive isn't encrypted, no FileVault or any other security on. It's a brand new rMB with nothing except the Windows partition which was set up through BootCamp. No connection through Parallels/VMWare/etc either, and running the latest patched version of Win 8.1 64bit.

Edit: I had previously installed Paragon's latest HFS drivers (the trial version) -- and since uninstalled -- which could be a issue, though I kind of doubt it... I haven't looked through the registry for anything that could be remaining from that.

tsf-460-wpa-7-114:~ [user]$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 224.4 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 25.7 GB disk0s4
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS [hd_given_name] *224.0 GB disk1
Logical Volume on disk0s2
44362DFF-E45C-439C-813A-5494BDEA98BE
Unencrypted

tsf-460-wpa-7-114:~ [user]$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group A9A0F7D3-6A18-4EB8-BE2B-45CEFF2637F2
=========================================================
Name: Macintosh HD
Status: Online
Size: 224357044224 B (224.4 GB)
Free Space: 4722688 B (4.7 MB)
|
+-< Physical Volume E1158858-15FF-4971-B722-A9BACBEDFC47
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk0s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 224357044224 B (224.4 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family 177F70ED-E388-4B5C-9F05-A3978B464AAE
----------------------------------------------------------
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: None
Conversion Status: NoConversion
Conversion Direction: -none-
Has Encrypted Extents: No
Fully Secure: No
Passphrase Required: No
|
+-> Logical Volume 44362DFF-E45C-439C-813A-5494BDEA98BE
---------------------------------------------------
Disk: disk1
Status: Online
Size (Total): 224000000000 B (224.0 GB)
Conversion Progress: -none-
Revertible: Yes (no decryption required)
LV Name: [hd_given_name]
Volume Name: [hd_given_name]
Content Hint: Apple_HFS

 

[jeffjorgy]

Please do send a note to support, I'll watch for it. We have some tools we can use to help track down where the issue might be.