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What is HFS+ (Mac OS Extended)?

HFS+ (also written HFS Plus) is the Mac file system that came before APFS. Disk Utility calls it Mac OS Extended, usually "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Apple's technical note says "HFS Plus is a volume format for Mac OS" and that it "was introduced with Mac OS 8.1" (Apple Technical Note TN1150, checked October 30, 2026).

Where you still find HFS+

  • Drives from older Macs. LaCie: "macOS Sierra (version 10.12) and earlier use HFS+ by default" (LaCie manual).
  • Drives sold "for Mac". Western Digital's manual says the My Passport for Mac "is formatted as a single HSF+J partition for compatibility with Mac OS X" (WD manual). WD My Passport for Mac on Windows
  • Older Time Machine disks. Apple: "Some older versions of macOS created backup disks using Mac OS Extended as the file system format instead of APFS" (Apple Support).
  • Hard drives used for video and photo archives, often formatted years ago and never changed.

Variants

  • Mac OS Extended (Journaled): the usual one. The journal helps the Mac recover the drive after a crash or a pulled cable.
  • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive), technically HFSX: "Photo.jpg" and "photo.jpg" are different files.
  • HFS ("Mac OS Standard"): the much older format HFS+ replaced. Diskferry does not read it.

Reading HFS+ on Windows

Windows does not read HFS+. LaCie: "Windows cannot natively read or write to HFS+ (journaled) volumes" (LaCie Rugged SSD Pro manual), and Samsung's T7 manual lists HFS as "Not recognizable" on Windows (Samsung manual). Diskferry reads Mac OS Extended, including the case-sensitive variant, read only. How to open an HFS+ drive on Windows

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Limits

  • Time Machine backups on HFS+ use directory hard links, which Diskferry does not follow yet. Not supported in this version.
  • Very old drives partitioned with Apple Partition Map, the scheme Apple says is for "old PowerPC-based Mac computers" (Apple), are not read in this version. Diskferry reads drives with a GUID Partition Map or Master Boot Record, and bare volumes.

Questions

Is HFS+ the same as Mac OS Extended?

Yes. Mac OS Extended is the name in Disk Utility, HFS+ or HFS Plus the name of the file system. HFSX is the case-sensitive variant.

Should I convert an HFS+ drive to APFS?

Not to read it on Windows: Windows reads neither. If the drive has to work on both a Mac and a PC, copy the files off and use exFAT instead. Format a drive for Mac and Windows

Last updated October 30, 2026. Still stuck? Support replies in person.

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