OWC launches MacDrive 11 to bring APFS support to Windows users

MacDrive 11 Pro

OWC has launched the latest version of their MacDrive software that helps bring the SSD-centric APFS support to Windows PC users.

Available to download now, MacDrive 11 is a substantial update that brings Apple File System (APFS) support alongside the existing HSF+ support to users of Windows. It includes both full read and write capabilities.

Other APFS benefits tag along such as APFS crash protection, multi-platform APFS discs, APFS formatting, and more. OWC says users can even browse Time Machine backups from their Windows-based PC.

OWC MacDrive 11 Pro used to access APFS drives on PC

MacDrive 11 is available now with a new license running $49.99 or users can upgrade a previous license for $29.99. Currently, OWC is offering users of competing software to access Mac-formatted drives on PC the ability to crossgrade the license for $19.99.

A full-featured five-day free trial is available too.

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7 Comments

avon b7 7703 comments · 20 Years

About 9 months ago

One of Apple's biggest strategic errors was never offering HFS and HFS+ support for other platforms.

That brought headache after headache back in the day, and the need to purchase third party solutions.

Not only in cross platform environments but also for anyone with occasional needs to read and write to a native formatted Mac drive.

Now, in the age of networked and cloud storage it is less of an issue but, wow, back then it was horrible.

dominikhoffmann 71 comments · 13 Years

I am wondering, whether this product will forever be hampered by Apple’s limited release of information about APFS. It is not an open-source specification, much less something that has been made into an industry standard.

auxio 2728 comments · 19 Years

avon b7 said:

One of Apple's biggest strategic errors was never offering HFS and HFS+ support for other platforms.

That brought headache after headache back in the day, and the need to purchase third party solutions.

Not only in cross platform environments but also for anyone with occasional needs to read and write to a native formatted Mac drive.

Now, in the age of networked and cloud storage it is less of an issue but, wow, back then it was horrible.

Right, because Microsoft was always so open with supporting their technologies on other platforms back then.

auxio said:

avon b7 said:

One of Apple's biggest strategic errors was never offering HFS and HFS+ support for other platforms.

That brought headache after headache back in the day, and the need to purchase third party solutions.

Not only in cross platform environments but also for anyone with occasional needs to read and write to a native formatted Mac drive.

Now, in the age of networked and cloud storage it is less of an issue but, wow, back then it was horrible.

Right, because Microsoft was always so open with supporting their technologies on other platforms back then.

Who was in more need of compatibility?

It definitely wasn't Microsoft.

Apple had to battle and scrape to get anywhere once the desktop publishing market was viable on Windows.

Being a Mac user in a Windows world was hard enough as it was without Apple stubbornly refusing to make things easier with pitifully cheap solutions open to it. It would have been so damn easy to do.

The same applied to firmware for graphics cards.

The same applied to supporting .avi files in QuickTime.

They were all situations that made life unnecessarily difficult for users.