Read ext3/ext4 Partition from Windows 7

Great, exactly what I'm trying to do.. except… its sounds like it's read only?! Or can you write?

Ext2fsd actually allows you to enable ext2 & ext3 write support during
installation. However, try at your own risk.

ext4 write access is currently non-existent.

I follow all steps and yes, the ext4 is mounted but I only view root folders and files, if I try to get content inside /home or other nothing appears, is like empty!

Diogo, are you sure your ext4 partition doesn't have the 'extent' bit set?

To check, type (from Ubuntu):

sudo tune2fs -l /dev/sda2
(use your partition)

Make sure it doesn't list 'extent'

Mas Hendy…jika ternyata ext4 kita sudah terlanjur 'extent', apakah ada cara supaya bisa dijadikan tanpa 'extent' ? Soalnya cara yang mas Hendy katakan kan pas awal proses.
Lha Ubuntu-ku udah terlanjur di-install… Apa harus diulang dari awal ?

@Ocidbrass:

Q belum riset tuh..

Mgkn bs pake tune2fs utk mereset bit extent tsb, tp aq sndr blm prnah coba

Hello there.

Just a quick question. If an existing ext4 partition has the extent feature, is it possible to somehow get rid of it without formatting?

Thanks in advance

Dimitris,

I'm not sure yet for now. I'll look for a solution to this. If you'd
like to check, perhaps starting with the tool tune2fs.

Thank you very much.Thanks to Ext2fsd I've done it in a much easier way.I just installed it without a “Run as Administrator”,compatibility mode is no needed too.Then I just ran the program in Administrator Mode,then check the driver enable.Here every thing is fine.The ext4 driver is Mounted.Hope helpful to you!

I'm happy to know it's working for you, flowabcd

I'm was thinking of reinstalling ubuntu cos of some problems… so was just wondering if some1 could clarrify the “-O ^extent” aspect….
i.e. where do i add it.
I'm gona install ubuntu 9.10 using live CD and select manual method… got vista already installed and have 50GB unallocated space.

I'm not yet aware of a GUI way to do it (not even with gparted).

The way I did it is before install, I partitioned my drive and format the
filesystem as regular ext4. then I did this (can use Ubuntu 9.10 live CD for
this) (WARNING: this will reformat the partition!):

mkfs.ext4 -j -O '^extent' -L 'YourLabel' /dev/sda2

Replace /dev/sda2 with your own partition. During install, don't reformat
the ext4 drive.

thanks… that worked like a charm.

Glad it works out for you Cherieston.

I configure my system with “pure” ext4 for '/' partition and “^extent ext4″
for '/home' partition, because I only need to access my /home partition from
Windows (7).

I don't enable write access feature in ext2fsd due to paranoid-ness, but if
you happen to enable it and having no (corruption?) problems please share
with us

i had the write access feature enabled before when I was using ubuntu 8.04… and it worked fine…. now that I've got 9.10 I've still got it enabled and have not come across any problems yet however I have only coped stuff from the linux partition not pasted anything yet.

Cool!

So the ext2fsd ext3 writing feature is more than 1,5 years stable already..

From what I read just by using ^extent then ext4 is practically compatible
to ext3, (plus some ext4 features???). However I can't confirm.. hehe..

My / is ext4 and Ubuntu 9.10 boots very fast and I'm happy (though Windows 7
also boots quickly so I'm happy with both OSes). The “^extent ext4″ /home is
also alright, not noticing any problems but neither any noticeable
performance gains, since I use it only for data..

Thx.

Will try it.

good article.

It doesn't work..
I can't open my home directory in ext4..

Have you turned off the extent bit ? see my previous response.

I've been using ext2fsd for about 2 years for an ext3 partition with write support enabled. Everything has been fine.

That worked perfectly for me, thanks!!!

Glad it works for you

It doesn't work for me. I am using Windows 7 Home Premium, and it wants to reformat the ext4 volume.

Unfortunately when I installed Mint 8 64 bit(based on Ubnuntu 9.10) there was no option to disable extents when partitioning. I guess it needs to be done from the command line.
All first level folders show up correctly in XP but all second level folders and files show a single entry of the letter c for the entire folder.
Time to run XP and 7 as virtual machines or better yet Linux as a VM under Windows 7 since the menuing and options in Ubuntu are very primitive compared to Windows.

i can mount it, and see folders. but all folders are empty, what to do?

i can mount it, and see folders. but all folders are empty, what to do?

I was unable to get any files, all folders appeared empty. I was running in administrative mode on W7 professional. Ext2Mgr was able to see the drive as Ext3 and that's about all it could do after playing with all the settings for 15 minutes…

Hello, i using ext2fsd for writing onto my USB ext2 harddrive for some time long (several months) and i have no problem with it. Just check sometimes fs in linux and this all will be fine

THX 4 the guide.
Really helped me.

Looks like this won't work if you're already setup a normal ext4 partition with extents on

$ sudo tune2fs -O ^extents /dev/sda3
tune2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
Clearing filesystem feature 'extent' not supported.

I enjoyed this post and plan to subscribe to the feed. You do the same as well fellow reader!

[...] At the moment, you won’t easily be able to access your Ubuntu partition from windows, well, not with read/write access, but to get at least read access, you would need to do some work prior to installation. I’m not going to recommend this route, as I believe it leads to instability. So you will need to be strong, and always copy or move files to your shared partition when in ubuntu. If you really must have read access, look here [...]

still does not mount the linux hdd in my windows 7 – 64 bit

It doesnt work for me….
Im using Win 7 to load my Ubuntu 9.10 drive.

It can load all the folder my Ubuntu drive but all the folder are empty…. Nothing in it.
Can you help me.

Thanks in advance…

Same here, any known cures?

Your Ubuntu filesystem has the extent bit set. There's nothing you can do without reformatting and using different options.

Didn't work for me, it asks to format my partition, because it can't read the file system. Of course I already had my Linux installed, so I couldn't do the 'add “-O ^extent”' thing, so that could have something to do with it.

Thanks for the reply… Ive managed to retrieved all the files tht I needed from my Ubuntu partition by booting through the CD. I will do reformat the partition as you suggested..

Just one question though, how do I change this extent bit set. Im totally new with all Linux stuffs..

i tried it, but doesn't work at all!
the partition appears just like a formattable-only drive…
but i CAN NOT format it, so…?

the same 4 me!

don't work for me

It worked like charm… thanks a lot!

worked great for me.

Windows 7 and ubuntu 9.10

@pitoow

I would not touch it. I installed it on Windows 7, and once restarted, Windows could not recognize my own drives. Rebooted twice to make sure, same problem. I removed it and rebooted and back in Windows operation.

I have the latest Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 installed but did not even get far enough to try to access it.

dont work for me ((

Just a user-space file/directory browser, but take a look at this:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/
http://ext2read.blogspot.com/

having the same problem probably for the extent feature enabled

till now can't disable it and not intending to format again my /home

Nabis Descarguen este programa
DiskInternals Linux Reader 1.1
Freeware Linux Ext2/Ext3 Reader for Windows! 0.7 Mb

http://www.diskinternals.com/download/Linux_Rea…

Cabe mencionar ke ademas de ver puenden hacer imagen del disko funciona para windows 7 32bits (teoricamente los sistemas 64bits manejan la mayoria de las aplicaciones 32bits)

Salu2…

it doesnt work, I have windows 7 and the only thing I get , are empty folders. It is probably because it tries to read my EXT4 filesystems as EXT3 !!

This was a READ only solution. No formatting. Why on earth would you want to format? (You've got Windows Formatting Tools for that)

I used to tryed it on win7, but it did not worked. Thats why im back on XP and everythings working fine with write option too.
Be carefull on win7 with write access option, i destroyed whole partition there with it!!!

UPDATE: Newest version of Ext2Read open source software can read normal Ext4 filesystems from Windows, even with 'extents' feature bit enabled! Please share your experience with this software in the comments.

Thanks so much for this resource, a true life saver indeed. I'm not not using windows 7, rather use windows xp every now and then just so I still know how to use windows… So I'm surprised that this tool worked for me.

I had months and months worth of my business data and information on my ubuntu 9.10 partition so you can imagine the panic that set in when it crashed and would not load.

I was about to see months of hard work go up in smoke. Work that I foolishly had not backed up and could definitely not reproduce.

I was able to back up my entire ubuntu partition. I'm just counting my lucky blessings.

Thanks once again for this tool.

it worked for me, not even needed to reboot after installing.
Using Windows 7 x64, and could access ext3 partitions of OpenSUSE.11.3 and Ubuntu.10.04

Since everything was stored on /home your data would have been safe, unless you did a format of /home when reinstalling Ubuntu. Or you could have simply use a live cd to copy everything

I view directory, but its contents instead of files I see nonsense chasr: ÃLïÿÿ

Did not work to access my ubuntu partitions – it showed all folders empty. I tried few other programs. The one that finally worked: http://ext2read.blogspot.com/

can ext3 file systems be read/wrttten by ext2fsd or ext2ifs?

Works well reading Kubuntu 10.04 ext4 drives from Windows 7 build 7201

Works well reading Kubuntu 10.04 ext4 drives from Windows 7 build 7201

The latest Ext2Read tends to crash when copying very large files such as DVD ISO images. The Ext2Read log does not provide useful information.

Works fine for me. Reading ubuntu wubi install no problem

[...] Soluvas found a workaround to read Ext4 filesystem from within Windows using Ext2Fsd.However this [...]

I tried with an external USB-Drive ext4 on Windows7 64 Bit.

I have got the message:
Unable to read disc. Please make sure you are running this application as an Administrator.

Well, my mistake. I had to start the programm with right mouseclick: run as administrator.
So it worked well. Great! Thank you.

I was talking about ext2read > https://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/reviews/
So I was able to read an external USB-drive ext4 with my Windows7 64Bit-PC.

I used Ext2fsd on W7 happily for months, but just now, one of my ext3 drives disappeared. What to do. Well, I un-installed, and re-installed, and ALL ext2/ext3 drives are not there anymore. Tried running as admin, Vista SP2, etc. No luck. Hard to believe there is only a read-only solution, or NTFS reformatting. !!!

VIRUS WARNING! I tried to download Ext2Read from the link above an it was blocked by NOD32 antivirus telling that there is probably a virus inside.

Thanks a lot for your post.
I always used ext2ifs in the past but with W7 need something better and I discover ext2Read (formally est2Explore) that works perfectly

Almalino, one of the most important things in computer security is to trust your head, not your security software. Most bloated virus software use heuristic approach in finding viruses, which often cause problems when using high-tech but not so well known software (read: software that doesn’t profit antivirus companies a dime). Interesting article on this matter here, check it out; http://blog.nirsoft.net/2009/05/17/antivirus-companies-cause-a-big-headache-to-small-developers/

Very good software. By fault, I lost my ubuntu partition and i couldn’t mount it. And the biggest problem that I have very important file. After a week, my very last option was trying to get the files from windows seven using your software and it work like magic. This software make my eyes water.

Super useful! Now I don’t have to start up my live cd to access the files of my crashed ubuntu os

Wow…thx for your info about Ext2Read!!!
the first tool that works fine with my win7-(x64). no probs with driver signing, ext4…and no installer is used. just start the exe and access the linux drives.

greetz
xmas

thanks for the infos
i use Ext2Read 2.1, it works like a charm!

i tried the ext2read but it crashes when i try to save a file (690MB) to my desktop. can anyone help me fix it??

it works good, but the view is so simple.

Same here. I can’t access the ext4 drive, even as Admin (I get the same message).

How can I access Linux partition (ext4) in Windows?…

http://www.soluvas.com/read-browse-explore-open-ext2-ext3-ext4-partition-filesystem-from-windows-7/...

Excellent, thank you! Ext2Read works fine under Windows.

Using Ext2Read. Is there a way to sort files by date like a full fledged file explorer, aside from booting up the Linux partition?

Same to me under W7 64bit – and ext2fsd as empty directory…

works great ! win 7 can read my ext4 partitions

There’s a fix for Ext2Fsd that provides support for extents on this page: http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/
Compatible with Win7 32&64 bit.

The developer of Ext2Fsd has recently released version 0.50, which includes extent readonly support by Bo Branten. Read about it at http://www.ext2fsd.com/?p=74

The original download was repacked, though. Read and/or download from http://www.ext2fsd.com/?p=100

The developer of Ext2Fsd has recently released version 0.50, which offers readonly support for extents. See here: http://www.ext2fsd.com/

According to Bosse, the fix was included on the Ext2Fsd 0.50 official package.

ext2read is great! thanks man!
was able to move over 120gb of backed up files from my ubuntu partition :]

Ext2Fsd 0.50 works smooth and great for me…

Ext2Read 2.2.71 Worked flawlessly for me…Windows XP 32 bit with service pack 3/Ubuntu 10.10 64 bit dual boot system

Ext2Fsd works OK on ext3 inside a vmware *.vmdk disk. This is an ext3 from ubuntu9.

Check that Ext2Fsd service is up. Do the loopback mount using vmware-mount.exe . Browse with rw in explore.exe

DiskInternals Linux Reader newest version works like a charm with my Ext4 Ubuntu partition for me…

I forgot – I’m using Win7 x64 + Ubuntu 10.04 x64 dualboot

[...] Read ext3/ext4 Partition from Windows 7http://www.soluvas.com/read-browse-explo… [...]

Ad-Aware has found a Win32.Hoax.ArchSMS in the file : ext2explorer.exe !

[...] ext4 from Windows 7? Ext2Read | Download Ext2Read software for free at SourceForge.net From: Read ext3/ext4 Partition from Windows 7 | Soluvas __________________ Registered Linux User #468778 ———————————- Mera neta [...]

[...] Para que funcione Ext2Explore (que no confunda su nombre pues soporta sistemas de archivos ext3 y ext4) debemos correrla como Administrador desde Windows obviamente (clic derecho >> Ejecutar como administrador). Ya si queremos utilizar o copiar determinado archivo podemos hacerlo con clic derecho >> Save. La he probado en Ubuntu 11.04 y ha funcionado de maravilla. Por cierto, si utilizas Unity acá puedes saber como cambiar el tamaño de los iconos. [Página Oficial] [...]

Works great. Thanks for your information.

Ext2Read this one i am using now but the negative thing is you can not mount the partitions .. Of course you can see what is on your disks but you can not access them by another PC .. But okay maybe some day this feature will be available too.

Thanks for now!

[...] ext3/ext4 Partition from Windows 7Published July 6, 2011 | By Garfield Source: Copy from Soluvas UPDATE: Newest version of Ext2Read open source software can read normal Ext4 filesystems from [...]

Using Ext2explore on windows7 with Fedora 15 and it works great

[...] Here is a good tutorial show you how to Read ext3 ext4 Partition from Windows 7: If you use Windows 7 and want to dual-boot Ubuntu (or another Linux-based operating system), you’ll want to be able to read Ubuntu files from Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. [...]

Hi to Almalino and Snaipperi, the problem with heuristics is that most of virus uses command lines from other software that are used to compile tools too!! My NOD32 block updates from HP to my HP printer because a presumption of virus!! Come on, HP drivers updates with virus?? That the problem with that kind of software, an example, Blood is RED, if i use a RED T-shirt heuristic does recognize only the color and blockme because Blood is RED and i use RED for dressing! I use a lot of apps and exes that aparently contains virus, i use reverse engineering to know if they really are potentials virus and surprise they not! But not all are like that!

Nice post ..

Ext2IFS is just fs-driver.  I used it on Windows 2000 for quite some time,  It workd very well.  It made Windows 2000 handle and display Ext 2 and Ext 3 files just like they were another NTFS file.  The author did not extend the program to Windows 7.  He did have an invitation on the fs-driver web site asking for someone else to do it.  He said that he didn’t have the time.  Apparently no programmer took him up on his offer.  That is a shame, because it is a great program.  His web site indicates that it is good for Vista, XP , W2k & NTFS.  I highly recommend that anyone using these programs give fs-driver a try.  Also if there is a good programmer out there  who can update it to Windows 7, he would be doing a great service to mankind if he would do so.

Bill Bos

1) download

2) extract out of zip file

3) run as administrator

4) shows all ext? hard disks and when you click on one ext? hard disk it shows all the files.

I couldn’t open files from Ext2Read, just save them. Is there a way of reading the files without making copies that I’m missing?

Silent fail!

Ext2Read (ext2explore-2.2.71 – latest) on Win 7 Home Premium x64, reading EXT3 external USB drive.
Seemed to work OK, but found several issues:
- first is just a complaint about the UI. If you want to copy a whole directory, that’s fine, but if you need to copy several items you have to do each individually, wait for one to finish before you can select the next, and if you are copying folders, it forgets where you put the last one, so you have to find the destination location again.
- second is much more worrying. I came across several files which did not copy properly, and did not create an error. 1 x 2.4GB .iso, 1 x 250MB .exe, and 1 x 2MB .exe. The program reported the file size correctly, and appeared to copy fine, but the copy was too quick, and the created files were only 60KB or so. I tried several times, both with folder copy and copying the individual files, and after removing the drive several times, and got the same result. I have confirmed this is not an issue with the source – plugged the drive into ubuntu and copied the files with no problem.

Caution : useless comment

Thanks a LOT for this amazing tool! My old PC hardware crashed and it was the only solution founded with my configuration.

Thanks again folks!