If you find yourself frequently shunting between OS X and Windows on your Mac, you’ve probably gotten frustrated at one point or another with the inability to retrieve files from your OS X partition while booted into Windows. While OS X understands both FAT and, to a lesser extent, NTFS, Windows can be pretty obstinate without the help of some often expensive third-party utilities.
However, there is an alternative. If you need just need to read files from your OS X partition while in Boot Camp (and, presumably, Parallels or VMWware), check out HFSExplorer. It’s a free, open source app that lets you read HFS+ volumes in Vista and XP; that means not only your Mac’s hard drive partition, but also HFS+ formatted disk images too.
Do note that it doesn’t work with older HFS volumes or HFSX volumes (case sensitive), and it doesn’t let you write files back to the volume. Still, it’s a nice, nifty, free way to make commuting between Windows and OS X a little more pleasant.
[via Mac OS X Hints]
