A DVR unit records TV programs on an external USB drive, providing that the drive is in EXT2 or EXT3 format. No other format is acceptable.
I'd like to view these files which are about 1GB each.
How does one mount such format on a MacBookPro in order to view the files? Tried two programs, and there was no success.
The Mac does not support Ext formatted disks as standard but there is a third-party tool to add this capability. See - https://www.paragon-software.com/home/extfs-mac/
It says it supports Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4.
Paragon have a long and reputable history of producing tools to do this sort of thing on a Mac.
The Mac does not support Ext formatted disks as standard but there is a third-party tool to add this capability. See - https://www.paragon-software.com/home/extfs-mac/
It says it supports Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4.
Paragon have a long and reputable history of producing tools to do this sort of thing on a Mac.
FWIW, it is possible that there is some kind of protection scheme preventing the drive from being read. It may only work while connected to the DVR. Unless it's explicitly stated you can read the files on a PC.
It is listed as being El Capitan compatible which means it should be both compatible with SIP and Gatekeeper security features of El Capitan. Did you download the latest version or use an old copy previously download?
Perhaps Paragon have been a bit silly and left an old non El Capitan trial version on their site and the version you actually buy is the latest. I have seen this before by developers. Might be worth contacting them regarding that.
You could in theory temporarily turn off SIP protection but to do this for a trial should not be necessary.
Yes, dialabrain. Sorry. I have MacBookPro's at each OS starting with 10.8 going to 10.11 . Yes, the laptop was restarted. The manufacturer of the DVR indicated it a standard unprotected EXT2 file structure on the external USB storage device.
On which MacOS have you found this program to work properly?
No need to be sorry. 😎
So here's what I tried. I formatted a 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive on my Linux box as Ext2. Plugged it into my iMac with 10.11.6 installed along with Paragon ExtFS v10.0.751 and it mounted and I can read and write to it. Don't know what else I could try but it seems it should work.
Wow! Although the System Pref Pane indicated no mount and an error, the partition on a USB stick DID MOUNT and the MP4 files are visible. (OS 10.95). They can be copied to the Mac's internal drive now.
Have no idea why the preferences report the error. Will next try an external platter drive with an EXT2 partition, as the USB thumb drives produce pixelation on playback.
Why does the system pref window have to close and reopen in order to use the program?
Thank you everybody.
MacPcConsultant wrote:
But I have an external drive with EXT2 partition, and do not want to write to the drive, only read the files on that partition.
Yes, I know what your setup was and what you were trying to do. I was making sure Paragon ExtFS was working correctly with Ext2 formatted drives. Which it does.
Sorry. No, QuickTime Player 7 did not work. Got one second of a team of noisy rats, then nothing. No video.
Video Converter Ultimate (Aimersoft) was able to play the video, so now there are two apps which work. Wonder why so few apps can play this file?
Oh Dial, that's a great idea. But I found that Elmedia Player works perfectly, better than the other two mentioned. So all is good.
One other thing of note. Paragon's ExtFS does work, but there's heavy drive access and no mount for about five minutes. Once it mounts, all is fine.
Thank you all.
Interesting. When El Capitan was still in beta the Elmedia player was a nightmare. Users couldn't install or run the developer seeds if it was installed. I guess it's fixed.
I don't know why it would take 5 minutes for a drive to mount. They mount as fast for me as any other drive.
You're welcome. FWIW, I have over 100+ mp4 videos and they all play with QuickTime or VLC. I know you said the codec used was MPEG Layer 3 but that is normally the audio track, i.e. mp3s. Is there another codec listed?
John Lockwood:
You are so correct re: Paragon working well. I copied the files off the drive, used the Mac instead of the external tuner to re-format the drive EXT3, and then copied back the files. Now all is fine. It plays on the tuner, as well as mounts and unmounts quickly from the Mac using the EXT system pref pane.
Also there was one small file which would not Finder copy, so deleted that.
Here is why it failed, and others have reported the same error
I try 😁
If you don't already have it installed, try QuickTime Player 7.
Tried that. Did not work. Any other suggestions?
How to mount an EXT2 or EXT3 external drive on a Mac (10.8-10.10) ?
