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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Fuse-ext2 needs MacFuse to run, but this is no longer maintained and does not work on Lion.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.

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Nirupam Biswas

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53 responses to “Access Ext3/Ext2 file system on Mac OSX Lion (10.7)”

  1. John T Avatar
    John T

    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
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      Glad it helped. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    Well done!! Full support for my linux usb drive in a few clicks 🙂
    Thanks indeed.

    Reply
  3. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    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
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      I didn’t find any such limitation, but I suggest that you ask this question at their forum at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/osxfuse-group .

      Reply
  4. lonetree Avatar
    lonetree

    The disk got mounted. But its only read, no write support?

    Reply
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      As of now write mode is not that reliable (ref: http://alperakcan.org/?open=projects&project=fuse-ext2).

      Reply
  5. IDE, the obsolete standard « nelsonslog

    […] doesn’t work on Lion and is abandoned and all the Fuse folks have scattered every which way. This blog post claims that OSXFuse + Fuse-ext2 will work on Lion, but I don’t have enough confidence in all […]

    Reply
  6. Julien Avatar
    Julien

    Wonderfull, it works !!!!
    Many thanks to you.

    Reply
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      You are welcome. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Mac OS X Lion, Rascal and nano | High Level Hardware

    […] Recipe Before starting, it is worth reading this recent blog entry which provides an […]

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  8. Mac OS X Lion and Backing up the Rascal ext3 microSD card | High Level Hardware

    […] Recipe Before starting, it is worth reading this recent blog entry which provides an […]

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  9. Frode Avatar
    Frode

    Hello,

    will this solution read ext4 files as well?

    Cheers

    Reply
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      I haven’t tested but this should.

      Reply
    2. Caleb Avatar
      Caleb

      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
      1. Apple Grew Avatar
        Apple Grew

        Thanks. 🙂

        Reply
  10. Eric Avatar
    Eric

    Dynamite! Thanks.

    Reply
  11. macmadness86 Avatar
    macmadness86

    Thanks, this is great! Most guides are confusing. This one is simple. Nicely done.

    Reply
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      Thanks and you are welcome.

      Reply
  12. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    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
  13. bobby Avatar
    bobby

    works perfectly. thanks!

    Reply
  14. Paul van Oss Avatar
    Paul van Oss

    Thanks, that was easy!

    You have any idea if/when writing to ext2/ext3 will be possible? I would like to back-up on Linux.

    Reply
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      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
  15. George Avatar
    George

    No love. Then again I’m using an EXT3 formated partition from a Synology NAS. For reference I’m running OSX 10.7.3.

    Reply
  16. RS Avatar
    RS

    Thank you very much.
    Works fine with 10.7.4 and an EXTFS3 drive, writing to it too!

    Reply
  17. Bono Avatar
    Bono

    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. Yann Avatar
      Yann

      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
  18. Victor Avatar
    Victor

    excellent!

    Reply
  19. Erik Avatar
    Erik

    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
    1. Apple Grew Avatar
      Apple Grew

      Not sure, but I would suggest that you test your drive with a Linux system first. Make sure that it is working.

      Reply
    2. Bash Avatar
      Bash

      Hey Erik,

      I’m in the same boat. Have you had any luck?

      Reply
  20. Pwn Plug Command Execution Using USB Sticks | Security Generation

    […] 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
  21. Easy as Python « araspberryaday

    […] http://blog.applegrew.com/2011/12/access-ext3ext2-file-system-on-mac-osx-lion-10-7/ […]

    Reply
  22. Jeff Avatar
    Jeff

    Links provided are not compatible with Mountain Lion.

    Reply
  23. marcelor Avatar
    marcelor

    Worked like a charm on Mountain Lion 10.8.2. Thanks!!

    Reply
  24. Chris F Carroll Avatar
    Chris F Carroll

    Thanks! Chris

    Reply
  25. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    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
  26. OSXFuse + MacFUSE Compatibility Layer + Fuse-ext2 = ext[23] on OS X (ro) | Mostly Ramblings

    […] nice) ext3 filesystems on external drives from OS X, without having to start up a virtual machine. This page suggested I use OSXFuse and […]

    Reply
  27. David von Oheimb Avatar
    David von Oheimb

    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
    1. Nirupam Biswas Avatar
      Nirupam Biswas

      Thanks for sharing this.

      Reply
    2. David von Oheimb Avatar
      David von Oheimb

      Oops, correction: the mount command is of course
      sudo mount -o remount,force,rw /mount/point

      BTW, recently I suffered from a system crash apparently due to fuse-ext2
      https://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse-ext2/forums/forum/787602/topic/6549364

      Reply
  28. Jim Morrison Avatar
    Jim Morrison

    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
  29. troj Avatar
    troj

    thumbs up men…

    Reply
  30. Jacobo Avatar
    Jacobo

    It works!
    Thanks a lot, you saved me a lot of time!

    Jacobo

    Reply
  31. Necdet Yücel Avatar
    Necdet Yücel

    Still works!

    Reply
  32. faiz Avatar
    faiz

    Thank you, it works on ML

    Reply
  33. Ubuntu on Macbook Pro! | Celso Mireles

    […] http://lifehacker.com/5934942/how-to-dual-boot-linux-on-your-mac-and-take-back-your-powerhouse-apple… […]

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  34. El cambio a Mac, experiencias de un switcher « Programming and So

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  35. Swinburne Lecture August 2012 • LateNite Films Blog

    […] Access EXT3/EXT2 File Systems on Mac […]

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  36. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    It still works thanks!!!

    Reply
  37. Enabling SSH on RPi without screen – keystrokes for raspi-config? | CL-UAT

    […] 1st google result for ext2 macosx: http://blog.applegrew.com/2011/12/access-ext3ext2-file-system-on-mac-osx-lion-10-7/ […]

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  38. Can I access my Ubuntu partition from OSX? – Boot Panic

    […] blog article explains how to setup your Mac in order to get read-only access to Ext2 and Ext3. This solution […]

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  39. [Solved] How to mount ext4 partition on OS X 10.8.2? – Ten-tools.com

    […] found also this, where it’s said that most of available solutions don’t work for Lion, but this […]

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