up vote 199 down vote favorite
66

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

share|improve this question
7  
Try Linux Reader by Diskinternals, it's the best tool I have found that really works well. Unlike Ext2Fsd, Ext2Read or Ext4Explorer which don't even give you basic information like how many files you have when you open up a folder. – sammyg May 24 '13 at 17:24
1  
This is a useful question. – Colonel Panic Jun 22 '13 at 14:57
up vote 70 down vote

Ext2Read works well. 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

share|improve this answer
2  
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
1  
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
1  
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
12  
It doesn't support removable devices. Try putting a SD card with an Ext4 partition on it inside a SD card reader and try reading it with this software. It won't work. It only supports internal HDD devices. For external and removable, get Linux Reader by Diskinternals. – sammyg May 24 '13 at 16:35
1  
Newest release of ext2read/ext2explore is also infected so be careful while downloading this software. Take a look at this VirusTotal report – JNLK Dec 15 '16 at 12:33
up vote 39 down vote

DiskInternals Linux Reader

This program plays the role of a bridge between your Windows and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4, HFS and ReiserFS file systems.

Linux Reader Website

Features

  1. Integrated with Windows Explorer
  2. Reader for Ext2/3/4, ReiserFS, Reiser4, HFS, HFS+, FAT, exFAT, NTFS, ReFS, UFS2
  3. Can create and open disk images
  4. Freeware

enter image description here

share|improve this answer
1  
This is the best – Anwar Dec 9 '14 at 13:09
2  
This does work to browse even large partitions of 500GB on an MBR partitioned disk, including ext4. However it's only a recovery (copy to another partition) tool, with preview of files but no way to open them. – RichVel Apr 30 '15 at 6:13
up vote 32 down vote

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

After installing set a letter to each Linux drive (see screen-shot) and then restart the application. After that Windows Explorer will show the Linux partitions as any other partition.

setting a letter to a Linux drive

share|improve this answer
2  
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
3  
It apparently works if the ext4 was created without the extent option. See soluvas.com/… – harrymc Nov 15 '09 at 8:37
1  
I just tried the Ext2Fsd 0.52 release on Win8.1 and it was easy to setup (run installer with default options), I can read my files with Windows Explorer and other existing applications (no special app required), and it reads my external USB disk (that has ext4 and NTFS). I am using it for read-only use (there's an option in the installer to enable writing and force writing). – idbrii Aug 4 '14 at 17:49
1  
In Windows 7: I see no features missing in ext4. All options available in the Windows Explorer. -- what ext4 capabilities are you referring to? – cipricus Mar 8 '16 at 20:17
2  
Tried on Windows 10: Easy to install (avoiding the hindrances-warnings of windows). I could easily mount ext3 and ext4 partitions of Ubuntu 14.04 to both read and write. Just smooth. Great job. – loved.by.Jesus Sep 4 '16 at 17:13
up vote 26 down vote

There is now another solution - Paragon ExtFS for Windows, which acts as a file system driver and so you don't need to use a specialized program to access your files.

From the website:

- Fast and easy read/write access to Ext2 / Ext3 / Ext4 under Windows
- The only solution with Ext4 read - write support!
- Easy-to-install and supports Windows 8 / 7 / Vista / XP

edit 2015/04/06 you might want to stick to read files off Linux - there have been anecdotal reports of file system corruptions when writing files to ext4 partitions using Paragon

share|improve this answer
1  
Works like a charm. – Olegs Jeremejevs Jul 28 '14 at 16:19
6  
Or so I thought before getting my partition corrupted. Apparently I'm not the only one. hecticgeek.com/2014/02/extfs-windows-corrupts-ext4-windows-8 – Alicia Apr 1 '15 at 18:32
2  
Note that this software is for personal use only. – starbeamrainbowlabs Sep 24 '15 at 18:46
4  
Just used it, I did set to "read-only", but still got the disk corruption. Going back to ext2fs, take extreme care when using this. – Adversus Nov 4 '16 at 8:50
2  
@Adversus knows whats up. Do not use this. I too suffered disk corruption and trying to help them out by providing logs and such yielded one of the worst support conversations I have ever had. – Ian Schoonover Mar 26 '17 at 20:28
up vote 22 down vote

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

share|improve this answer
4  
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
8  
how would one add a raw disk? – Babu May 17 '10 at 5:33
5  
elaboration of the answer would help – Anwar Dec 9 '14 at 13:08
2  
@Anwar Lifehacker has a tutorial on this, see lifehacker.com/how-to-dual-boot-and-virtualize-the-same-part‌​ition-on-y-493223329 – Ragnar123 Jul 21 '15 at 11:49
1  
VirtualBox's documentation on raw disks: virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#rawdisk – user29225 Oct 13 '15 at 7:53
up vote 8 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

share|improve this answer
1  
It doesn't support EFI partitions! – user2284570 Sep 9 '14 at 20:38
up vote 0 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!

share|improve this answer
5  
Not found! a 404 error – Anwar Dec 9 '14 at 13:10

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

Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).

Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.