Tools to access Linux Partitions from Windows
Posted by admin on April 11th, 2008 
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It happens sometimes you need to access your files on Linux partitions from Windows, and you realize it isn’t possible easily. Not really, with these tools in hand - it’s very easy for you to access files on your Linux partitions from Windows
Explore2fs
Explore2fs is a GUI explorer tool for accessing ext2 and ext3 filesystems. It runs under all versions of Windows and can read almost any ext2 and ext3 filesystem.
Project Home Page :- http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs
Latest Version :- 1.07
Sample Screenshot
DiskInternals Linux Reader
DiskInternals Linux Reader is a new easy way to do this. This program plays the role of a bridge between your Windows and Ext2/Ext3 Linux file systems. This easy-to-use tool runs under Windows and allows you to browse Ext2/Ext3 Linux file systems and extract files from there.
Project Home Page :- http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/
Latest Version :- 1.0
Sample Screenshot
Ext2 Installable File System for Windows
It provides Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes (read access and write access). This may be useful if you have installed both Windows and Linux as a dual boot environment on your computer.
Project Home Page :- http://www.fs-driver.org/
Latest Version :- 1.10c
Sample Screenshot
rfsd: ReiserDriver
ReiserDriver is an Installable File System Driver (IFSD), used to easily (and natively!) read ReiserFS disk partitions under Microsoft Windows (2K/XP) by allowing ReiserFS partitions to appear as additional disks to the Windows operating system.
Project Home Page :- http://sourceforge.net/projects/rfsd/
Latest Version :- 1
April 11th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Ext2 IFS for Windows does not work properly with directory and file names encoded using UTF-8 so cyrillic file names seems to be very odd in Windows Explorer.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Is it possible to reach your MacOS files too? its the same filesystem isn’t it?
April 11th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
@Robert
No. MacOS uses HFS+ not Ext2/3.
April 13th, 2008 at 1:38 am
You may want to reiterate that the programs above “access files” in “read-only” mode and does not allow you to write from Windows to the Linux Ext2/Ext3 file system partitions.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Is there anything that can access LVM?
April 14th, 2008 at 4:03 am
@Jj
Did you miss the link for the “Ext2 Installable File System for Windows”? It clearly states that it provides “Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes (read access and write access).” I use this to write to my ext3 filesystem and have yet to run into any serious problems. However, I don’t spend much time in Windows, and so I haven’t really used it enough to recommend it as safe.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:24 am
You forgot this one ext2fsd.sourceforge.net
April 14th, 2008 at 11:19 am
You also forgot a tool for ReiserFS.
Is called
May 5th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Thanks! I’ve been looking for something to access my linux partition from windows
July 30th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I need to repair an ext3 filesytem, preferably under windows as I know nothing about linux, but have a corrupted filesystem on the storage partition that I need to repair (I don’t care if the files are kept or not but the PVR it’s from needs to know that the space is free, NOT full as it keeps claiming). The MBR, system and swap partitions are fine.
What do I do? Can I run chkdsk on it if it’s mounted natively with ‘Ext2 Installable File System for Windows’? Are there any other tools that can repair the files and mark bad sectors as not for use so they can be ignored and the other ones used (temporarily). I will then clone the drive to another non-failing one and repair the storage partition again somehow so it uses all the sectors on the non-faulty disk. It seems like a major mission, but it would be nice to resurrect this PVR, it was costly! There’s no guides on the net as it’s not a popular one, and is hard-drive dependent, not ROM-dependent for the system.
I’ve tried mounting them with the above drivers in read-only mode, the drives and files can be seen OK (storage space partition reports nothing in it).
Any help appreciated, I’ve done a fair few hours’ research on this so far already and no answers save going into Linux from a live CD and using the FSCK command. I’m not comfortable with this right now, although I’m going to learn Linux as it’s a good idea. I’d rather be recording TV whilst I take the hours and hours to learn it though!
August 10th, 2008 at 7:01 am
i am using linux and windows dual os. as i need to access the windows files in linux gui is there any software for this issue. i using ubuntu 710. i need a software to install in linux.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
YAReG is a GUI for rfstool. Very nice!
http://yareg.akucom.de