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Is there a way to read ext4 partitions from Windows? If so, what can I do?

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closed as not constructive by slhck♦ Aug 5 '12 at 15:09

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6 Answers

up vote 36 down vote

Ext2Read works swell. It can also open & read disk images ( eg: Wubi disk images)

Ext2Read is an explorer like utility to explore ext2/ext3/ext4 files. It now supports LVM2 and EXT4 extents. It can be used to view and copy files and folders. It can recursively copy entire folders. It can also be used to view and copy disk and file

alt text

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You sure @Andreja ? might be false positive or gotten infected from a dormant virus. – Sathya♦ Sep 13 '10 at 16:39
@Andreja Ran it by Sophos & Symantec Endpoint, comes out clean. – Sathya♦ Sep 13 '10 at 16:43
There are several reviews on the site of users complaining about virus infection. Ad-Aware reported it as infected to me. I'll do some more testing on my side and report this to project's mailing list. As for the report, it seems that Anubis is down at the moment. The PDF version of the report is here. It clearly shows where the virus is poking. – AndrejaKo Sep 13 '10 at 17:47
Here are results of VirusTotal and Anubis (from a clean system). To me it looks like it's poking around in registry where is shouldn't be poking around. – AndrejaKo Sep 13 '10 at 18:11
On the other hand here are VirusTotal results for previous version and Anubis results for previous version. The poking around the registry could come form the crash. I'm still not sure what to make of it. – AndrejaKo Sep 13 '10 at 22:47
up vote 9 down vote

Well not really a solution, but I use VirtualBox, use it as a bridge.

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2  
In windows add a raw disk, install a linux guest OS, add a shared folder, then you can read/write ext4 in virtualBox. – Kaizoku Dec 24 '09 at 14:10
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how would one add a raw disk? – Babu May 17 '10 at 5:33
up vote 6 down vote

Not at present. But, there should be one with full support soon.
A recent experience and interaction.

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Due to the high views can you please expand this answer with more details. Thanks. – Diago Jan 11 '10 at 7:12
up vote 5 down vote

EXT2FSD works for reading ext4 filesystems, though not all of ext4's capabilities are supported.

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It doesn't, only theoretically; check out this comment: linuxjournal.com/article/9449#comment-337357 – alex Sep 8 '09 at 4:42
@alex : Just only 3 weeks back I was forced to mount an ext4 disk for recovery. EXT2FSD actually read it (didn't test write, because I only wanted to recover certain data)... – caliban Sep 8 '09 at 5:03
@alex : could be wrong on the drive format though on second thoughts, will double-check and update. – caliban Sep 8 '09 at 5:07
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I wanted to recommend the same app, but I was put off by the comments. If it worked for you, edit your response to let the OP know it works. Positive feedback on an app is important. – alex Sep 8 '09 at 6:15
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It apparently works if the ext4 was created without the extent option. See soluvas.com/… – harrymc Nov 15 '09 at 8:37
up vote 3 down vote

ext4explorer

Ext4Explore is a program that allows Linux partitions to be browsed from Microsoft Windows. It has a GUI which will be familiar to users of Windows Explorer.

Ext4Explore Web Site

Features

  1. Displays Windows Icons
  2. Symbolic Links Displayed with 'Shortcut' Overlay
  3. Follows Symbolic Links and Displays Correct File Information
  4. Copy Files and Directories
  5. Configurable Edit Context Menu Option

enter image description here

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up vote 1 down vote

If you want to dual boot Ubuntu (or any Linux-based OS) with Windows and read ext3/ext4 filesystem, you can use Ext2FSD. Although you may need to take special steps as explained below.

I’ve successfully used Ext2fsd on Windows 7 to read my ext4 (!) filesystem this way.

For those interested, more detailed how-to is here: Read ext3/ext4 Partition from Windows 7

Hope this helps!

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protected by Jeff Atwood♦ Jul 15 '10 at 21:36

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