#HOW TO USE TIME MACHINE ON MAC HOW TO#
#HOW TO USE TIME MACHINE ON MAC INSTALL#
#HOW TO USE TIME MACHINE ON MAC SOFTWARE#

HFSExplorer will extract the files from your Time Machine drive and copy them to your Windows partition. To restore all your personal files to your Windows PC, navigate to this folder, select it, and click the Extract button. You can restore any files you want from the Mac system, but youвЂ™ll find your personal files under MacintoshВ HD/Users/NAME. Under the Latest folder, youвЂ™ll probably see a folder named вЂњMacintosh HDвЂќ - thatвЂ™s the TimeВ Machine backup for your MacвЂ™s system drive. Unless you want to restore old, deleted files or previous versions of files, go to the Latest folder. The Latest folder is your most current Time Machine backup.

Under that folder, youвЂ™ll see folders named after specific datesВ and times and a вЂњLatestвЂќ folder. This is the folder that contains all the Time Machine backups from that specific Mac. Underneath it, youвЂ™ll find a folder with the name of your Mac. Once youвЂ™re viewing the contents of your Mac-formatted Time Machine drive in HFSExplorer, youвЂ™ll see a folder named вЂњBackups.backupdbвЂќ. Restoring Files From Your Time Machine Backups If not, you can select devices manually from the вЂњDetected devicesвЂќ box until one works. Open the HFSExplorer application after installing it, click the FileВ menu, and select вЂњLoad file system from device.вЂќ It should auto-detect the appropriate device for you. However, they do offer time-limited trials that will work for a one-time restore process. Both of these are paid applications, and you probably donвЂ™t want to purchase them just to recover files one time. If you really canвЂ™t stand Java, other possible solutionsВ include ParagonвЂ™s HFS+ for WindowsВ and MediafourвЂ™s MacDrive.

#HOW TO USE TIME MACHINE ON MAC INSTALL#

Watch out for OracleвЂ™s obnoxious installer junkware when you install it, too. Unfortunately, it does require Java installed to function - we recommend uninstalling Java immediately after youвЂ™re done with HFSExplorer or at least disabling the Java browser plug-in to help protect yourself. The only free application weвЂ™ve found for this is HFSExplorer.

#HOW TO USE TIME MACHINE ON MAC SOFTWARE#

YouвЂ™ll need software that can understand the HFS+ file system to access your Time Machine backup files.

#HOW TO USE TIME MACHINE ON MAC HOW TO#

RELATED: How to Share Files Between Mac OS X and Windows With Boot Camp Windows canвЂ™t read it, but all your files are still there. You can normally share drives between a Mac and Windows PC because Macs also understand the common FAT32 file system, but OS X insists that Time Machine drives be formatted with HFS+.ДonвЂ™t immediately format the drive with a Windows file system or youвЂ™ll lose all the Time Machine backups on it.

ThatвЂ™s because Windows canвЂ™t understand the driveвЂ™s HFS+ file system. When you connect the Mac-formatted Time Machine drive to your computer, you wonвЂ™t see the files on it. Hopefully youвЂ™re using a USB drive for Time Machine backups - most Windows PCs arenвЂ™t compatible with Thunderbolt.

RELATED: How to Back Up Your Mac and Restore Files With Time MachineД®ither way, the first step is connecting that Mac-formatting Time Machine drive to your Windows computer.

How to use time machine on mac