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Get files off a Linux drive (ext4, XFS, Btrfs) on a Mac or Windows PC

A Raspberry Pi SD card with your project on it, the disk from an old Linux laptop, a drive from a home server: plug any of them into a Mac or Windows PC and nothing happens, because neither system reads Linux file systems.

By Jishnu Mahanta · Updated 2026-10-18

In short

Retrova reads ext2/3/4, XFS and Btrfs directly on macOS and Windows, read-only. Pick the Linux partition, browse your files with their real names, and copy them to your computer. No Linux machine, drivers or virtual machine needed.

Typical cases

  • Raspberry Pi SD cards. The boot partition is FAT and opens anywhere, but your files live on the ext4 partition that macOS and Windows can’t see.
  • An old Linux laptop or desktop disk in a USB enclosure.
  • Single-disk home servers and NAS units formatted with ext4, XFS or Btrfs.

Copy your files off

  1. Plug the drive in and open Retrova. On the home screen choose A drive won’t open. Retrova lists every drive and partition it can see, with the file system it detected and a health check where the drive reports one.
  2. Pick the drive or partition. Reading a drive directly needs administrator rights, so Retrova asks for your password at this point and only uses it to read.
  3. Browse and choose what you want back. You see the original folders and file names. Select whole folders or single files, and preview photos, videos, PDFs and text before copying.
  4. Choose where the copies go. Always pick a different drive with enough free space. Retrova never saves onto the drive it’s rescuing, and it pauses by itself if the destination runs low on space.
  5. Copy, then verify. Files are written as temporary parts and renamed only when complete, so a half-copied file never looks finished. Anything unreadable is logged and the copy carries on. When it’s done, run Verify to compare every copied file with the original, byte for byte.

Limits to know about

  • RAID and LVM. Disks that were part of a multi-disk RAID array or an LVM volume group usually can’t be read one disk at a time.
  • Encrypted volumes (LUKS) can’t be read without unlocking them on Linux.
  • Permissions and owners from Linux don’t carry over. You get the files, readable by your own account.

Get Retrova

Free and open source for macOS 11+ and Windows 10/11. No account, no recovery limit, and it never writes to the drive you’re rescuing.

Download RetrovaFree for Mac and Windows

Questions

Can I write to the ext4 drive from my Mac with Retrova?

No. Retrova is a read-only rescue and copy tool. It never writes to the drive it’s reading.

Does it work with a Raspberry Pi SD card?

Yes. Insert the card with a reader, pick the ext4 (Linux) partition, and copy your home folder or project files out.

Which Linux file systems are supported?

ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS and Btrfs, plus FAT and exFAT. Retrova finds the partitions on GPT and MBR disks by itself.

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