by Nirupam Biswas

Access Ext3/Ext2 file system on Mac OSX Lion (10.7)

On Mac if you want to access ext3/etx2 filesystems, which are used by Linux systems, you will find lots of links on net but all are pretty outdate and they don’t work for Lion. So, here is the updated version, which works. At least for me. 😉

You will need two softwares:-

  1. OSXFuse – Download link
  2. Fuse-ext2 – Download link

Download and install them in the sequence shown above.

Fuse-ext2 needs MacFuse to run, but this is no longer maintained and does not work on Lion. OSXFuse is the next generation MacFuse, but Fuse-ext2 is not meant to work with this. Fortunately OSXFuse includes “MacFUSE Compatibility Layer”. Just make sure to select this option when installing OSXFuse and you are good to go.

When both of them are installed, then try plugging in ext3 or etx2 partitioned disk and they should get automatically mounted, just like any other disk. Note, after installing them you may or may not need to restart your system.

PS. You will be able to read the disks but not write to it. As of now write option is not reliable.

53 Comments

  1. Timely! I decided to move my ext2 formatted usb drive (music and video storage) over to my mac to jaikoz today, and you just saved me the research!

    Thanks!

    Reply

  3. Is a 2TB drive, ext3 formatted (in a Popcorn Hour media player) accessible on my mac?
    In other words; is there a limit in drive TB’s to work with OsXFuse
    I didn’t purchase the drive yet.

    Reply

    2. Yes it worked for me with EXT4!!
      Partition was ext4 created by ubuntu 11.04 and read very well on os 10.7.4 lion.
      Thanks for the great tutorial!

      Reply

  12. It is important to note that if you are running Link Aggregation on your system (Like usinga OSX Server) That install this will disable your link aggregation.

    What i did was install, copy, uninstall and my link was back up and data was copied. Now this solution will only work if you dont need the EXT3 drive attached all the time.

    Reply

    1. Sorry I have no information on that. Since you are using Mac, I would suggest using TimeMachine. This is not portable across systems but is easy, intuitive and very good.

      Reply

  17. it all works fine. But writing takes ages, it is not possible to transfer data of 200 GB within reasonable time. In about 6 hours it copied only 1.5 GBs. Did anybody else have similar observations?

    Reply

    1. Same issue here with fuse-ext2 v0.0.7 under Lion 10.7.4. It is definitely very slow in write mode. Same kind of speed (around 250Mo per hour).

      Reply

  19. Hi,

    I have installed the software as described on my MacBook Pro 2010 with Lion. I have connected the hard drive via USB/external controller to the computer but it does not show.

    The drive is taken from a broken Netgear ReadyNas NV+ which I am pretty sure uses Ext3.

    Any ideas?

    Reply

  20. […] Once you’re all set, just plug the USB stick in, wait 10 seconds or so (plus however long you expect your commands to take), then unplug it. Any output from the command(s) will be piped into a file called ‘log.txt’, which you can read by plugging it into your computer. Note your computer will need to be able to read the ext3 filesystem to mount the USB drive, so use Linux or install OSXFuse and fuse-ext2 on Mac OS X as described here. […]

    Reply

  25. Thanks man,

    Works like a clock on 10.7.5. I had to revive my otherwise dead NAS MyBookLive 2T. I took it out of the case and stuck in my Mac so the next problem was to read it and your stuff was really handy. Appreciate.

    Best regards

    Reply

  27. fuse-ext2 works but is very slow (I get some 7 MB/s reading and 1 MB/s writing via USB 2.0).
    If you have the choice, better use Apple’s HFS+ on the external drive, which is much faster (I get some 30 MB/s both reading and writing, both on Mac and Linux).

    HFS+ is supported by Linux mostly out-of-the-box. To get write access even to a journaled partition on Ubuntu, install support via `sudo apt-get install hfsprogs` and when the drive is mounted (e.g., automatically), re-mount it writable using `sudo -o remount,force,rw /mount/point`

    Reply

  28. Thanks, great post…

    … Do you know how to mount the second partition? /boot mounts automatically but I can’t mount the main partition…

    I’ve tried two old drives.. same problem?

    Thanks!

    J.

    Reply

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