Use ext4 in External Storage among Linux, MacOSX, and Windows

My Buffalo HD-LX2TU3 comes with NTFS pre-formatted. Because I have Linux and Windows PC, and maybe a OSX later, I decide to use ext4 to minimize invalid characters in filenames. : ” \ / * ? < > | are not allowed in Windows NTFS but only / in ext4 and : in OSX.

Access ext4 on Mac OS X

According to How to make OS-X recognize ext4 file systems in Apple Support Community, there are commercial Paragon ExtFS for Mac OS X 9 and open source Fuse4X which has been merged to FUSE for OS X after 2013 December.

How can I mount an ext4 file system on OS X? on Ask Different provides an interested alternative solution: mount ext4 with Linux in VirtualBox then shared by Samba or FTP. But again, you will need to handle invalid characters in filenames with Samba. It also recommend fuse-ext2 which support ext2 and ext3 only.

Access ext4 on Windows

Paragon ExtFS for Windows 2.73 is free for personal use. It works with Windows 8.1 on my Lenovo C440.

Reference

1. Alper Akcan : ~/projects/fuse-ext2
2. Apple: OS X
3. Apple Support Communities: How to make OS-X recognize ext4 file systems
4. Ask Different: How can I mount an ext4 file system on OS X?
5. Buffalo HD-LX2TU3
6. Fuse4X
7. FUSE for OS X
8. Lenovo C440
9. Oracle VM VirtualBox
10. Paragon: ExtFS for Mac OS X 9
11. Paragon: Paragon ExtFS for Windows 2.73
12. Samba
13. Wiki: ext2
14. Wiki: ext3
15. Wiki: ext4
16. Wiki: File Transfer Protocol