Is there a way to read ext4 partitions from Windows? If so, what can I do?
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11Try Linux Reader by Diskinternals, it's the [best tool](http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/) 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. – Samir May 24 '13 at 17:24
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@Samir Linux Reader does not work at all under Windows 10. Cannot open by itself (inside list of drives) and when trying to mount under drive letter, throws a lot of nags about the need of purchasing pro version and mounts a drive that has only one file on it, called "Storage" in size of entire disk. – trejder Sep 04 '20 at 18:15
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11In 2020, it is now possible to access Linux filesystems with WSL: [devblogs.microsoft.com](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/access-linux-filesystems-in-windows-and-wsl-2/) – hlg Dec 18 '20 at 11:46
10 Answers
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

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You sure @Andreja ? might be false positive or gotten infected from a dormant virus. – Sathyajith Bhat Sep 13 '10 at 16:39
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@Andreja Ran it by Sophos & Symantec Endpoint, comes out clean. – Sathyajith Bhat Sep 13 '10 at 16:43
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4There 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](http://www.mediafire.com/?y73q291ujr0sqdn). It clearly shows where the virus is poking. – AndrejaKo Sep 13 '10 at 17:47
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2Here are results of [VirusTotal](http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=e9f03b80e02865689b68e810996cea747718f9e4ed21cad621fa7a014cdab7c8-1284401079) and [Anubis](http://anubis.iseclab.org/?action=result&task_id=1dd3b3ed92fb86ed4098e46f7f388a2c5&format=html) (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
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3On the other hand [here](http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=eaa7e0e8fcaf75e25dd6d7c8db36ffff17501a438f08788744fbf1af36bca1df-1284415800) are VirusTotal results for previous version and [Anubis](http://anubis.iseclab.org/?action=result&task_id=1175ced89022825b48d975397ea88a296&format=html) 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
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41It 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](http://superuser.com/questions/599516/how-do-i-read-the-ext4-partition-of-my-sd-card-on-windows). It only supports internal HDD devices. For external and removable, get Linux Reader by Diskinternals. – Samir May 24 '13 at 16:35
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6Newest release of ext2read/ext2explore is also infected so be careful while downloading this software. Take a look at this [VirusTotal report](https://virustotal.com/pl/file/6b2d7b7293c0b605b6d9276605b1efb52ca11a570894568d1e527cf2021d1241/analysis/) – JNLK Dec 15 '16 at 12:33
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I can confirm this is working with windows 10. Ubuntu pc died, was able to connect the hdd via usb and this app allowed me to grab all the data on the disk from my windows 10 laptop – Dan Hastings May 05 '17 at 20:36
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Under Windows 10 does not recognise EXT4 drives, OP asked for, after using "Rescan Drives" option. Entries found in created log file suggests that it should work for EXT2/EXT3 drives, but not for EXT4. – trejder Sep 04 '20 at 18:21
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DiskInternals Linux Reader
This program plays the role of a bridge between your Windows and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4, HFS and ReiserFS file systems.
Features
- Integrated with Windows Explorer
- Reader for Ext2/3/4, ReiserFS, Reiser4, HFS, HFS+, FAT, exFAT, NTFS, ReFS, UFS2
- Can create and open disk images
- Freeware

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5This 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 06:13
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2Looks like we can only read files this way. We can not copy new files to ext4 drive thi way – Jeegar Patel Mar 19 '18 at 19:10
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Does not work at all under Windows 10. Cannot open by itself (inside list of drives) and when trying to mount under drive letter, throws a lot of nags about the need of purchasing pro version and mounts a drive that has only one file on it, called "Storage" in size of entire disk. – trejder Sep 04 '20 at 18:13
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WARNING
According to multiple reports, it does not work on Windows 10 version 1909 and later
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.
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It doesn't, only theoretically; check out this comment: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9449#comment-337357 – alex Sep 08 '09 at 04:42
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@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 08 '09 at 05:03
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@alex : could be wrong on the drive format though on second thoughts, will double-check and update. – caliban Sep 08 '09 at 05:07
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2I 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 08 '09 at 06:15
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3It apparently works if the ext4 was created without the extent option. See http://www.soluvas.com/read-browse-explore-open-ext2-ext3-ext4-partition-filesystem-from-windows-7/ – harrymc Nov 15 '09 at 08:37
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See my comment on Ext2Read. This doesn't support [removable devices](http://superuser.com/questions/599516/how-do-i-read-the-ext4-partition-of-my-sd-card-on-windows) either. It's either that or it doesn't support Ext4. I've used this in the past on Windows XP and on Windows Vista and it worked on internal HDDs. But now, still on Vista, it refuses to assign a drive letter and mount even my internal HDD with Ubuntu. It's the same with my SD card with Ext4 on it. – Samir May 24 '13 at 16:41
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Some updates in Ext2Fsd 0.52 (May 2014). @alex's link refers to inode limits, changelog says "flexible inode size: > 128 bytes, up to block size." @harrymc mentioned `extent` is unsupported, changelog says "extent: reading, writing with no extending." – idbrii Aug 04 '14 at 17:28
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1I 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 04 '14 at 17:49
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In Windows XP, using Ext2FSD, ETX4 file systems appear as RAW and it is not possible to access them :( – aloplop85 Sep 18 '15 at 07:05
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4**In Windows 7: I see no features missing in ext4. All options available in the Windows Explorer**. -- what ext4 capabilities are you referring to? – Mar 08 '16 at 20:17
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@cipricus From the projects web page: Unsupported Ext3/4 features: 1) journal: log-based operations, external journal 2) EA (extended attributes), ACL support – ndemou Jul 05 '16 at 14:04
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Maybe having more than 3 words in bold should raise a warning when posting comments... – ndemou Jul 05 '16 at 14:07
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@ndemu: yes; I was referring to the common options from the context menu of Windows Explorer (what I didn't see missing was what I feared will be missing). – Jul 05 '16 at 14:36
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2Tried 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 04 '16 at 17:13
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2**WARNING!** Some comments on the SourceForge page are *really worrying*. Since I can't permalink, [go here](https://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/reviews/?sort=created_date&stars=1&offset=0#reviews-n-ratings) and Ctrl+F "milmihalo333" and "markusdem". – Camilo Martin Dec 18 '16 at 04:05
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Yea this works on Windows 10. I especially love the fact that I can still access those partitions from explorer rather than having to go through another application to gain access to them. I would recommend not enabling writing to the linux partition just because...windows does not always communicate well with other tools that are not built using C#/.Net. I will also recommend that you rename them from explorer so that you know what names you have given each – smac89 Mar 14 '17 at 23:13
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1This was my preferred way to access my EXT partitions from Windows, but something has changed in Windows 10 and it no longer works. I haven't seen a response from the project maintainers and none of the workarounds suggested online have helped, which is what brought me to this question, to try to find an alternative. – Kenny Dewhirst Mar 18 '17 at 19:10
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I have been using it as well. It is not the prettiest but it works and solves the issue at hand (I use linux as main OS since a long time, so transferring data to a windows machine is a secondary concern to me; but when I needed to, ext2fsd worked very well). – shevy Jun 29 '17 at 15:36
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Um... can't "eject" removable (USB) drive? Really!!?? Or am I just missing something? – FizxMike Nov 09 '17 at 03:39
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1Attempted an Install with latest Windows 10 -- Complained that couldn't install "unsigned drivers" and I could not open my Ext4 partition on a usb and was unable to mount it. – will Oct 02 '18 at 02:44
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12As of `Windows 10` version `1909`, this doesn't appear to work. After I mount a `ext4` partition and is assigned a drive letter, double-clicking the drive says that I have to `Format` it first (which, of course, I don't want to do). :( – NYCeyes Jan 12 '20 at 03:05
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Yeah, I suspect something changed. ext2fsd used to work; it still works on my win10 laptop but not on a win10 pro installation on an older computer (desktop). I have not yet figured out the cause but I believe there is some reason since I had the exact same problem (it wants to format it always, whereas on my laptop it just works fine as-is). – shevy Sep 23 '20 at 03:55
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1I'm sure it's actually broken because companies just love to break things and make unwanted changes, but as an easy diagnostic step, are you sure the service is running? Press `[F7]` to check and start it if it's not. – Synetech Jul 26 '21 at 18:22
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WSL2 on Windows 10 Build 20211
Windows allows now to mount physical disks using the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL).
However, there is a limitation with this approach as noted in the Microsoft documentation. For convenience, this limitation is noted here:
- At this time, only entire disks can be attached to WSL 2, meaning that it's not possible to attach only a partition. Concretely, this means that it's not possible to use
wsl --mountto read a partition on the boot device, because that device can't be detached from Windows.
For people who are not familiar with WSL2:
... Windows Subsystem for Linux is a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables natively on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019. In May 2019, WSL 2 was announced, introducing important changes such as a real Linux kernel, through a subset of Hyper-V features. ...
The Windows 10 WSL2 now supports a mount command for linux filesystems called wsl.
First of all you have to install WSL2 on your windows10+ release. I recommend to simply follow the microsoft installation guide (note the minimum version required).
The following steps are taken from the microsoft's homepage docu wls2-mount-disk :
Identify the disk
Open a powershell (or something else) and type
wmic diskdrive list briefThe disks paths are available under the 'DeviceID' columns. Usually under the \.\PHYSICALDRIVE* format.
List and select the partitions to mount in WSL2
Note your disk to mount and enter:
wsl --mount <DiskPath> --bareNow the disk is available to the layer and you can use the common linux command
lsblkas you know well from linux systems.
Mount the selected partitions
Identify your partitons and mount it using the following command
wsl --mount <DiskPath> --partition <PartitionNumber> --type <Filesystem>If you ommit the
--partitionflag an ext4 filesystem will be choosen. Commands likehelp wslorcat /proc/filesystemswill give you more information about the options.Access the disk content
Once mounted, the disk can be accessed under the path pointed to by the config value:
automount.root. The default value is/mnt/wsl.From Windows, the disk can be accessed from File Explorer by navigating to:
\\wsl$\\<Distro>\\<Mountpoint>(pick any Linux distribution).Unmount the disk
To unmount and detach the disk run:
wsl --unmount <DiskPath>
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7`wsl --mount` option is only available to those using Windows 10 Build 20211, which is in the Insiders update channel as of the time of the writing (according to https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk) – Dinei Apr 18 '21 at 04:29
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you are right - it's the insider version, however it will be soon implemented in the standard option. – abu_bua Apr 18 '21 at 18:28
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5Please specify this as one of the first points in your answer if you don't want users to go down the `The disk is in use or locked by another process` rabbit hole after spending an ungodly amount of time getting WSL2 running. Quote from the MS WSL doc, **Limitations:** *At this time, only entire disks can be attached to WSL 2, meaning that it's not possible to attach only a partition. Concretely, this means that it's not possible to use wsl --mount to read a partition on the boot device, because that device can't be detached from Windows.* – niraami Oct 20 '21 at 11:39
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2@abu_bua define soon now its the end of year and there is still no non-insider version – aldr Nov 20 '21 at 11:56
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What is the underlying of wsl2 shared storage? CIFS? It's faster now? – Time Killer May 25 '22 at 01:42
Well not really a solution, but I use VirtualBox, use it as a bridge.
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4In windows add a raw disk, install a linux guest OS, add a shared folder, then you can read/write ext4 in virtualBox. – Dec 24 '09 at 14:10
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2@Anwar Lifehacker has a tutorial on this, see lifehacker.com/how-to-dual-boot-and-virtualize-the-same-partition-on-y-493223329 – Ragnar123 Jul 21 '15 at 11:49
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1VirtualBox's documentation on raw disks: http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#rawdisk – Warty Oct 13 '15 at 07:53
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1Guys, please don't link to external sources; reply below with a step-by-step guide. That way we don't have to depend on outside knowledge and can instead remain on that very page here. That is what made the StackOverflow useful to many people. HTTP Links tend to "die" and be removed over the years... – shevy Sep 23 '20 at 03:56
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
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14Or so I thought before getting my partition corrupted. Apparently I'm not the only one. http://www.hecticgeek.com/2014/02/extfs-windows-corrupts-ext4-windows-8/ – Alicia Apr 01 '15 at 18:32
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on the corruption story, that usually happens when you want to write from Windows. It now has a `read-only` option – Ciprian Tomoiagă Jul 04 '16 at 21:16
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9Just 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 04 '16 at 08:50
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I seem to be able to read files but I can't WRITE files. I get the error "An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem. Error 0x80070057: The parameter is incorrect." Also, Explorer (my taskbar and such) crashes. – Aaron Franke Mar 17 '17 at 01:01
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5@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. – Erin Schoonover Mar 26 '17 at 20:28
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.
Features
- Displays Windows Icons
- Symbolic Links Displayed with 'Shortcut' Overlay
- Follows Symbolic Links and Displays Correct File Information
- Copy Files and Directories
- Configurable Edit Context Menu Option

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I tried the latest version with Windows 10 and a USB with a ext4 formatted partition. The program only reported "No linux partitions found." I guess Windows 10 is a at present. – will Oct 02 '18 at 02:42
Ext2Fsd was common in the past, but it's usually outdated and constantly broken in newer Windows in my experience. You can also see that in many comments. There's a fork of it called Ext4Fsd
This is a branch of the Ext2Fsd project by Matt Wu where I try to implement support for metadata checksums and jbd2. I have also updated the project so it can be compiled with Visual Studio 2017 and Visual Studio 2019. This is work in progress. If you need a stable driver you should get the latest official release from http://www.ext2fsd.com.
You can try it at your own risk
Ext4Fsd is an ext2/3/4 file system driver for Windows (XP/Vista/7/8/10). It's a free and open-source software, everyone can modify or distribute under GNU GPLv2.
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DiskGenius is available as a free, versatile partition manager, running under Windows OS, up to and including Windows 10 v. 1909, that includes the ability to read extn (i.e., ext, ext2, ext3 & ext4)partitions. It allows full access to files and folders in those partitions. (There are also commercially licensed versions, but for the use described, the free versions should be sufficient.)
It also provides access to virtual disks created by some disk imaging software, such as Macrium Reflect. Reflect enables one to mount a disk image as a virtual disk, but browsing the image can only be done for file systems for which Windows has drivers. However, the mounted image can be explored in DiskGenius.
[Sadly, Ext2Fsd does not work on my current version of Windows, and Ext2Fsd has not been updated in years. It would have been nice to add drivers directly to Windows OS.]
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@Phill, There are currently 3 versions of DiskGenius: Free, Standard and Professional. For the use described, free is sufficient. See https://www.diskgenius.com/editions.php The paid versions have additional features, such as file recovery. – DrMoishe Pippik Jul 09 '20 at 18:46
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3If you want to copy a 1gb file (not recover it) you need the pro version. So it's not free. Not a good solution for just being too lazy to boot into linux and move a file and boot back into windows. – Phill Jul 10 '20 at 04:11
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@Phil, your comment does not apply to the question: simply how to read ext4 files from Windows. No mention of length, nor even access to Linux. – DrMoishe Pippik Jul 10 '20 at 16:38
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4So “read” is “I can see the file exists” and that’s it. No ability to open the file, copy, move, etc. Just see it exists? – Phill Jul 12 '20 at 00:54
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Because read to me is being able to open copy it. But not write or modify it. So if we take the definition of open or copy it then this software fails. – Phill Jul 12 '20 at 00:55
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Others not working in Windows 10 build 19044.1469. Only this option worked though! – Shiwakant Bharti Feb 03 '22 at 10:34
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:
Originally Posted by berm0o0da on August 29, 2010 :
The 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.
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.
From Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 ext4 filesystem uses by default, and previous versions use ext3 and ext2 filesystems. There are several good options to read and write ext2 filesystems from Windows systems, but ext3 or ext4 support is an entirely different scenario.
I tried three different software to read my ext4 partition: Ext2fsd, Ext2IFS, and DiskInternal Linux Reader. Ext2IFS fails to mount my ext4 partition due to unknown feature bit AND because my partition has inode size of 256 (Ext2IFS only supports inode size 128). DiskInternal Linux Reader apparently tries to scan my harddisk forever.
With Ext2fsd, I’ve successfully accessed my ext4 filesystem from Windows 7. Here I’ll show you the steps to make it happen:
- When creating/formatting the ext4 filesystem, make sure to add
-O ^extentwhich means disabling the “extent” feature bit. The following steps will not work if your ext4 filesystem still has “extent” feature enabled. ext2 and ext3 partitions should be fine.- Download ext2fsd here.
- Right-click the downloaded file and click Properties. Set the compatibility mode to “Windows Vista Service Pack 2″ and check “Run as administrator”.
- Run the ext2fsd installer. During install, I recommend you uncheck the “enable write access” feature to safeguard against losing data in your Linux partitions.
- Restart Windows 7.
- Run the Ext2 Volume Manager from Start Menu.
Now you should be able to mount your Linux ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions from Windows 7 and read the files without any trouble.
These steps should also work on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP, only that you will not need to enable compatibility mode (step 3).
note : You should run this program as an administrator. Use it and enjoy
Hope this helps!
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Why all the downvotes on this answer? Seems super weird given how thorough and how correct it looks. Makes me skeptical though seeing -3 on it, with it greyed out and hidden by default. – Gabriel Staples Jul 26 '19 at 08:35


