Three Ways To Access Linux Partitions From Windows On Dual-boot Systems

[dserban 0]

If you have a dual-boot Windows/Linux system, you probably know this problem: you can access files from your Windows installation while you are in Linux, but not the other way round. This tutorial shows three ways how you can access your Linux partitions (with ext2 or ext3 filesystem) from within Windows:

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Edited June 3, 2008 by dserban (see edit history)

[Quatrux 4]

This is really great, it always was a problem, I remember when accessing NTFS from Linux was quite a problem, but now you can do it with quite a good speed and you can even write to it with great performance, tried it myself.. It still doesn't say anything about the speed? How fast could I for example download a 2 GB file from a Linux partition in Windows using those tools? and I guess it is only readable? or I can write to those partitions too?But as I understood with Ext2 Installable File System For Windows you can do everything, delete, move, write and modify..

[FirefoxRocks 0]

I use Ext2 IFS but it occasionally bluescreens me. It can also cause my system to freeze, although this is quite rare (but I don't access the Linux partition from Windows much anyways). The only time I actually needed to use this was to move a folder because of an improper mounting, couldn't log into Linux.The speed is a bit slow, you can actually tell, but not notably slow.

[yordan 10]

How fast could I for example download a 2 GB file from a Linux partition in Windows using those tools? and I guess it is only readable? or I can write to those partitions too?

I would say that the goal for these interoperating systems is to save place, using the same files under Linux and under Windows. So, the interest for instance would be to send to a friend your picture from your last holidays, using your Crosoft Messenger when booting under Windows, but the file to be sent being on your Linux partition.Or downloading a Linux rpm while connected to windows (I simultaneously download the Windows version and the Linux Version of the Oracle patchsets for instance), and when booting under Linux I install the linux rpms which are physically on the Windows disk, without having to copy them.

[FirefoxRocks 0]

So you actually use this? Does it work good? What I mean by that is are there any system crashes when accessing/writing to the partition?

[yordan 10]

So you actually use this? Does it work good? What I mean by that is are there any system crashes when accessing/writing to the partition?

Don't want to startup polemics, but... a W___dows system which does not crash, who has seen that ? I see one every time I install a system from stratch, and then, as soon as I start surfing on the web I start experiencing crashes, and I support it until I feel sick an reload my sysbackup.Now, if your question concerns my own way of working, I do this that way :
a) Windows system on a FAT32 partition, so I can virus-scan it when booting off my ms-dos bootable cdrom (just for diagnositcs purpose in case of giant panic).
three NTFS partitions for Windows-only things (videocompression or things like that).
c) One FAT32 partition for cooperative disk-sharing.
d) When I am satisfied with the windows system settings, I boot off the Mandrake Linux CD.
e) During the Mandrake install I choose "install on the remaining space on the hard drive", and it automatically creates the Linux filesystems, and automatically mounts all the Windows partitions as Unix filesystems.
f) All my default Linux storages go the the FAT32 fileystems, all my default Windows storage go to the FAT32 filesystems.
When this filesystem is full, this means that some job is finished, I move the files to my USB storage disk.

[iGuest 3]

How to install Win XP and Linux on the same computerThree Ways To Access Linux Partitions From Windows On Dual-boot Systems

For school I have to install Win XP and Linux.  I know how to install Windows but I haven't found anything on how to install both on 1 computer.  I would like to format the drive on my computer and start from scratch.  How do I do this?  What partitions do I need?

The system requires several software applications to be installed on it as well as an area of the drive storage media to be set up as an organized space to store all of the user data.  You are also asked to make this system able to boot using the Linux operating system as well and to install applications required on that platform.

You want to maximize your file system capabilities with this system.  There is currently as 80GB hard disk installed in the computer which will provide plenty of storage space for all of the systems, applications, and data that will be installed.  There is also a tape backup drive installed in the machine that will be configured to perform regular backups of the drive(s). 

Is there somewhere that provides detailed instructions on exactly what I need to do?

Help me please!

Thank you/txtmngr/images/smileys/smiley1.Gif

-reply by Roni

[yordan 10]

For school I have to install Win XP and Linux.  I know how to install Windows but I haven't found anything on how to install both on 1 computer.  I would like to format the drive on my computer and start from scratch.  How do I do this?  What partitions do I need?

I don't have a real step-by-step instruction tutorial, but the way I will suggest is rather straightforward.You have a 80 gig disk, let's share it in three parts:
40 gig for Windows in two partitions : 20 gig NTFS for the system, and 20 gig FAT32 for data.
The rest of the disk unpartitionned.
First of all install Windows, but do not use the whole disk, create a 20 Gig partition and install windows on this NTFS partition.
Secondly, use Windows for creating a 20 gig FAT32 partition and format this partition. Put some texts on it in order to check you are able to read and write.
Third, boot on a Linux install disk (I suggest Mandriva, it's rather easy).
Tell the Linux installer to use the rest of the disk, it will automatically create the Linux partitions and will manage the dual-boot windows/Linux, tell that you want Windows as default boot (if some newbies have to power-up your system), and it will also mount the FAT32 partition automatically.
The FAT32 partition will be writable both from windows and from Linux, which is rather useful for data and downloads.
Hope this helped.
Yordan

[takerraj 0]

It´s very simple iGuest. Follow what Yordan said (In the exact order) and I want to add some points to the above tut. In Mandriva go for, Mandriva one 2009 Gnome version. Remember, first install windows and then Linux. Because Linux will detect Windows boot loader, but Windows won´t detect Linux boot loader. After successful installation of Linux over Windows make sure that your Windows is safe and won´t crash. If you install/repair Windows after linux installation, then you have to install/repair your linux once again. Make sure that you know the basics on how to restore linux after Windows installation. I suggest Ubuntu over Mandriva, because the community of Mandriva is not big one. If you get a problem then the chance of getting help from others is less. On the other side Ubuntu has a vast community, very well coded help contents. Before installing linux on your system, first test it in Virtualbox. Learn how to install linux and test yourself on virtualbox and then install on your system.Do few test drives on virtualbox, it will definitely help you.

[mahesh2k 0]

In this blog post there are few softwares/drivers mentioned. Out of that Diskinternals and explore2fs are worth to check out if you want to access linux partitions.

[wutske 0]

These are all great solutions ... if you're not using a 64-bit edition of Windows Vista or 7 because these programs don't work (probably due to required driver signing).Having a separate FAT32 partition for sharing data between two operating systems is a good idea, unless you're stuck with a 120Gb hdd and you can't waste any space. Having one partition for Windows and another one for Linux is the most efficient way because all free disk space is available for both applications and documents.

[takerraj 0]

All the softwares mentioned here can access EXT2/EXT3 but I am using EXT4 and is there any software for Windows, which helps me access Linux EXT4 partition?

[wutske 0]

All the softwares mentioned here can access EXT2/EXT3 but I am using EXT4 and is there any software for Windows, which helps me access Linux EXT4 partition?

As far as I know, there isn't any (yet). Though I doubt a bit we'll see any tool that can access ext4 partitions in windows as I haven't seen any ext3 tool for Windows Vista or Windows 7 .