Latest version: 0.19 (Nov 14 2007) [changelog]:
Latest version: 0.19 (Nov 14 2007) [changelog]:
HFSExplorer is a useful application for extracting files from an HFS+ volume (Mac OS Extended) located either on a physical disk, on a .dmg disk image, or in a raw file.
Potential users are:
The program is written mostly in Java 1.5, with Windows-specific parts written in C in order to be able to get raw access to block devices, which seemed impossible with the standard API, and to create a practical launcher application.
Testing has mostly been done using Windows XP SP2 x86 and Java 1.5.0/1.6.0, and some on Windows Vista x86 with Java 1.6.0.
Linux and OS X users should not need HFSExplorer for browsing file systems on devices, but it seems to work fine if you need it. Linux users might find use for opening .dmg files.
Keep in mind that old HFS volumes (Mac OS Original) or HFSX volumes (Mac OS Extended with case sensitive file names) are not supported.
First make sure you have Sun's Java 2 Runtime Environment version 1.5.0 or greater. Second, make sure you have administrator privilegies.
Starting from version 0.17, you can download an installer for Windows which places files in the right folders, creates shortcuts and associates files if you want it to.
The installer will place two shortcuts to HFSExplorer in its start menu folder. The first, "HFSExplorer", simply opens the application. If you are an administrator, you will be able to access block devices, and otherwise not.
The second shortcut, "Run HFSExplorer in Administrator mode", makes it possible to elevate your privilegies. In Windows Vista, this is done with the User Account Control dialog, and in Windows XP a similar but not as fancy dialog is shown making it possible to type in the password of an administrator.
If you want to access a partition on the disk of your computer, and you run Windows Vista, you must always start HFSExplorer in "Administrator mode".
If you downloaded the zip-file, extract it to a location of your choice and run/click runfsb.bat (Windows XP), runfsb_vista.vbs (Windows Vista) or runfsb.sh (Unix) to start the graphical interface.
This is for when the HFS+ file system is located on a file inside the current file system. One example is when you want to load an extracted disk image. Another example is when you're on a UNIX-like system and want to access a block device (the file would be something like /dev/disk0 or /dev/hda). Partition systems (Apple Partition Map, GUID Partition Table and Master Boot Record) will be autodetected if present.
Windows users will have an additional alternative:
This is because block devices in Windows are not as easily accessible as under UNIX-like systems. The user will be presented with a dialog where he/she can choose which partition to read.
The easiest way to find your HFS+ volume is to press the "Autodetect" button, but in case it doesn't work, you can specify the device manually. The naming scheme is as in the following examples:
Hard disks are enumerated from 0 upwards. Partitions, on the other hand, are enumerated from 1 and upwards, with Partition0 representing the whole drive. Keep that in mind when looking for your HFS+ partition.
If there's nothing in the list, take a look in your system using WinObj from Sysinternals to see if you can find what you are looking for.
There is also a minimal text mode program, which is started by invoking hfsx.bat/hfsx.sh. Invoking the script file with no arguments prints usage instructions.
Plans for a future version:
The program is released under the GPL version 3. It operates in read-only mode so it is extremely unlikely to cause any harm. I'm always in need of feedback, so please email me if something doesn't work as expected, or if you have a suggestion on how to improve the application.
As usual with software like this: It is provided for free with NO WARRANTIES.
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