Read and write every drive on your Mac

A native macOS explorer for NTFS, exFAT, FAT, ext4, APFS and HFS+. Browse, copy between drives, and write to NTFS.

Download for Mac See the benchmarks

VOLUMA listing a Mac's internal disk, an external drive and mounted disk images, each with capacity and free space

Read and write

NTFSexFATFAT32FAT16FAT12

Read

ext4ext3ext2APFSHFS+

One window for every disk

Built from the operating system's own disk APIs, with drivers that read the filesystems themselves.

Your whole machine as a tree

Disks, partitions, APFS containers and volumes with capacity and free space. Collapse what you do not need and the tree remembers its shape.

Expanded disk tree showing an APFS container with its volumes and free space bars

Storage Lens

See what is using your space by type, then drill into folders like Finder.

Copy and paste between drives

Paste into NTFS, exFAT or FAT from another drive or from Finder. A name clash never overwrites.

Eject from the same screen

One click unmounts every volume on an external drive and ejects it. The internal disk never gets the button.

Automated test functions

Each driver is checked against volumes made by macOS, ntfs-3g or e2fsprogs, then fuzzed with corrupted disks.

Write to NTFS without leaving the app

macOS mounts NTFS drives read-only, so Paste is greyed out. VOLUMA writes to them with its own driver.

Open the drive

VOLUMA notices that macOS mounted the volume read-only and says so, with one button to change that.

Enable writing

It unmounts the volume from macOS and asks for your administrator password once. Drives that Windows left dirty or hibernated are refused.

Paste, then give it back

Files go in through VOLUMA's NTFS driver. Finish, and the drive returns to macOS.

NTFS volume opened in VOLUMA with a banner saying macOS mounted it read-only and an Enable Writing button

Confirmation dialog explaining the volume will be unmounted and an administrator password requested

NTFS volume in VOLUMA after pasting a file, with a green banner saying it is writing through VOLUMA's NTFS driver

Measured, not claimed

Measured on an Intel Core i5-10310U @ 1.70GHz Mac running macOS 26.7.1. Drive tests use disk images and a warm cache, so they compare driver efficiency, not how fast a disk spins. Folder scans use real folders on this Mac.

3.3M files in 50.3 s

Storage Lens scanning a whole volume. Peak memory 541 MB.

4.8×

faster than du on the same folder. Totals agree to within 0.001%.

11×

faster NTFS writes than ntfs-3g’s own copy tool (2,140 vs 199 MB/s).

Scanning a folder

Time to total every file. Lower is better.

A whole 195 GB volume, 3,340,826 files

VOLUMA50.3 s

du243 s

The Applications folder, 383,866 files

VOLUMA2.6 s

du8.9 s

Both tools ran back to back on the same warm folder. VOLUMA's total is the on-disk size, the same quantity du reports.

Read speed

Streaming a 256 MB file out of the volume. Higher is better.

NTFS

VOLUMA5,366 MB/s

ntfs-3g1,261 MB/s

ext4

VOLUMA5,794 MB/s

e2fsprogs753 MB/s

FAT32

VOLUMA1,842 MB/s

macOS2,000 MB/s

exFAT

VOLUMA4,590 MB/s

macOS1,924 MB/s

HFS+

VOLUMA5,909 MB/s

macOS2,062 MB/s

APFS

VOLUMA5,243 MB/s

macOS1,745 MB/s

macOS reads these test images through its disk-image layer, which adds overhead, so the macOS bars are indicative. ntfs-3g and e2fsprogs read the raw image directly, like VOLUMA does.

Write speed

Copying a 256 MB file into the volume. Higher is better.

NTFS

VOLUMA2,140 MB/s

ntfs-3g199 MB/s

exFAT

VOLUMA572 MB/s

macOS356 MB/s

FAT32

VOLUMA583 MB/s

macOS253 MB/s

macOS cannot write to NTFS at all, so ntfs-3g's own ntfscp is the reference there.

Creating small files

2,000 tiny files in one folder. Higher is better.

NTFS

VOLUMA939 files/s

exFAT

VOLUMA175 files/s

macOS597 files/s

FAT32

VOLUMA281 files/s

macOS236 files/s

This is where VOLUMA is slower: macOS creates files faster on exFAT. Directory-heavy workloads are the next thing to tune.

Disk-image tests: a 256 MB random file, the median of three runs (one of which is a cold read), a fresh copy of the image for every write. Scan tests: one warm-up run, then timed runs of VOLUMA and du -sk back to back. Raw numbers: results.json. The harness ships with the source as tests/bench.

What each filesystem can do

Support is listed only where it has been built and tested.

Read and write

NTFS

Create, overwrite, delete, rename and move files and folders. Large directories, MFT growth, and refusal of dirty or hibernated volumes.

Checked by ntfs-3g: ntfsresize, ntfscat, ntfsls

exFAT

Files and folders with long and Unicode names, directory growth, and rollback when a drive fills up.

Checked by macOS fsck_exfat and a read-only mount

FAT32, FAT16, FAT12

Long names, nested folders, moves that fix up parent links. Refuses volumes that were not cleanly unmounted.

Checked by macOS fsck_msdos and a read-only mount

Read only

ext2, ext3, ext4

Extents, 64-bit, flex_bg, sparse files and symlinks. Refuses volumes that need journal recovery.

Checked by e2fsck-clean images from mke2fs

APFS

Newest checkpoint, checksum on every object, case-sensitive volumes, hard links and symlinks.

Compared byte for byte with a macOS mount

HFS+ and HFSX

Hard links, files with many extents, and refusal of volumes with an unreplayed journal.

Compared byte for byte with a macOS mount

Built to say no

Writing to a drive you cannot easily back up deserves caution, so VOLUMA refuses before it risks anything.

Honest status. NTFS writing is verified against ntfs-3g, not against Windows. Run chkdsk on Windows before you trust a drive that holds the only copy of something.

Dirty and hibernated volumes are refused

If Windows did not shut down cleanly, or Fast Startup left the drive hibernated, VOLUMA reads but will not write.

A helper that can only see one drive

The privileged helper serves a single device over a private socket, and touches files only by name inside a staging folder.

Paste never overwrites

If a name already exists, the copy becomes "name copy". Nothing is replaced behind your back.

A failed write leaves no mess

Space is released when a copy fails halfway, and the volume keeps its dirty flag after an I/O error so Windows can check it.

Download VOLUMA

Version 0.1.1 for macOS 14 or later. Universal build for Apple Silicon and Intel. Free, MIT licensed.

Download (4.1 MB) Read the FAQ

SHA-256 89a0a8d80694d032854537ed1da6114f64ab01c0282755482274ba2f6d738c6f

From the terminal

pip install nolo-voluma

Then type voluma in any terminal to open the app, or voluma install to put it in Applications. pip does not mark files as downloaded, so macOS normally skips the unidentified developer warning.

Or from the zip

Unzip and drag VOLUMA.app to Applications.
The build is not notarised yet. Right-click the app and choose Open the first time, or run xattr -cr /Applications/VOLUMA.app.
Writing to an external NTFS drive asks for your administrator password once per session.

Questions

Can I write to an NTFS drive on a Mac?

Yes, with VOLUMA. macOS itself mounts NTFS read-only. VOLUMA unmounts the volume, asks for your administrator password, and writes through its own NTFS driver, then returns the drive to macOS. It refuses drives that Windows left dirty or hibernated.

Is VOLUMA free?

Yes. It is free to download and use, under the MIT licence. There is no account and no network access.

Can I read ext4 and other Linux drives on a Mac?

Yes, read-only. VOLUMA browses and copies files out of ext2, ext3 and ext4 volumes, on disk images and on unmounted partitions. For a live partition it uses the same administrator-approved helper as NTFS writing, and it never writes to ext4.

Does VOLUMA mount drives in Finder?

No. It browses, copies and writes inside its own window and gives mounted volumes back to macOS afterwards. If you need a drive to appear in Finder while writing, that is not something this release does.

How is this different from Paragon or Tuxera NTFS for Mac?

Those products are commercial drivers that mount an NTFS drive read-write in Finder. VOLUMA is a free app with its own driver: you browse and paste inside it, and it asks for permission each session. It is younger, so back up first.

Is it safe to write to my NTFS drive?

The driver is tested against images made and checked by ntfs-3g, including corrupted disks, and it refuses unsafe volumes. It has not been checked with Windows chkdsk. Keep a backup of anything you cannot replace.

Is VOLUMA a disk image writer for bootable USB drives?

No. VOLUMA reads and writes files inside filesystems. To flash a Windows or Linux ISO onto a USB drive, use Ndaga Fijo.

Can I start VOLUMA from the terminal?

Yes. Install with pip install nolo-voluma, then type voluma in any terminal. voluma install copies the app into Applications, and voluma where prints where it lives. You can still open it from Applications or Spotlight like any other app.

Why install with pip?

Because it is one command and it skips the download-and-Gatekeeper step. pip installs the same signed app that the zip contains, and it does not mark the files as downloaded from the internet, so macOS normally opens it without the unidentified developer warning. The package is only the app and a small launcher, with no other dependencies.

Does it run on Apple Silicon?

Yes. The download is a universal build with native Apple Silicon and Intel code. It was built and tested on an Intel Mac, and the Apple Silicon half has not yet been run on real Apple Silicon hardware, so please report anything odd.