If you’re dual-booting Windows and Linux, you’ll probably want to
access files on your Linux system from Windows at some point. Linux has
built-in support for Windows NTFS partitions, but Windows can’t read
Linux partitions without third-party software.
This list is focused on applications that support the Ext4 file
system, which most new Linux distributions use by default. These
applications all support Ext2 and Ext3, too – and one of them even
supports ReiserFS.
Ext2Fsd
Ext2Fsd is a Windows file system driver for the Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4
file systems. It allows Windows to read Linux file systems natively,
providing access to the file system via a drive letter that any program
can access.
You can have Ext2Fsd launch at every boot or only open it when you need it. While you can theoretically enable support for writing to Linux partitions, I haven’t tested this. I’d be worried about this option, myself – a lot can go wrong. Read-only support is fine, though, and doesn’t have a risk of messing
anything up.
You can have Ext2Fsd launch at every boot or only open it when you need it. While you can theoretically enable support for writing to Linux partitions, I haven’t tested this. I’d be worried about this option, myself – a lot can go wrong. Read-only support is fine, though, and doesn’t have a risk of messing
anything up.
The Ext2 Volume Manager application allows you to define mount points for your Linux partitions and change Ext2Fsd’s settings.
If you didn’t set Ext2Fsd to autostart at boot, you’ll have to go
into Tools –> Service Management and start the Ext2Fsd service before
you can access your Linux files. By default, the driver automatically
mounts and assigns drive letters to your Linux partitions, so you don’t
have to do anything extra.
You’ll find your Linux partitions mounted at their own drive letters
in Windows Explorer. You can access the files on them from any
application, without the hassle of copying files to your Windows
partition before accessing them.
This partition’s file system as actually EXT4, but Ext2Fsd can read
it fine, anyway. If you’re looking for your personal files, you’ll find
them in your /home/NAME directory.
DiskInternals Linux Reader
Linux Reader is a freeware application from DiskInternals, developers
of data recovery software. In addition to the Ext file systems, Linux
Reader also supports ReiserFS and Apple’s HFS and HFS+ file systems.
It’s read-only, so it can’t damage your Linux file system.
Linux Reader doesn’t provide access via a drive letter – it’s a separate application you launch to browse your Linux partitions.
Linux Reader shows previews of your files, making it easy to find the right one.
If you want to work with a file in Windows, you’ll have to save the
file from your Linux partition to your Windows file system with the Save
option. You can also save entire directories of files.
Ext2explore
It’s an open-source application that works similarly to DiskInternals
Linux Reader — but only for Ext4, Ext3, and Ext2 partitions. It also
lacks file previews, but it has one advantage: it doesn’t have to be
installed; you can just download the .exe and run it.
The Ext2explore.exe program must be run as administrator or you’ll get an error – you can do this from the right-click menu.
To save some time in the future, go into the file’s properties window
and enable the “Run this program as an administrator” option on the
Compatibility tab.
As with Linux Reader, you’ll have to save a file or directory to your Windows system before you can open it in other programs.
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