How to access Ext2, Ext3, Ext4 file systems in Windows environment. How to access your files on Linux partitions in Windows How to use the ext2 volume manager program
Almost all novice Linux users keep their Windows computer as a second system, some for toys, some for “safety net”. But what if, while in Windows, you urgently needed a document or other file stored on a Linux disk? You can reboot the system by loading Linux, transfer required file to an NFTS partition accessible from Windows and reboot back. But is there a shorter way? Eat! You can open a Linux partition directly from Windows. How? Today I will talk about Ext2Fsd.
Ext2Fsd is a driver for Windows that allows you to mount Linux partitions (ext2, ext3, ext4), read and write data to them.
Installation
Latest version of Ext2Fsd for Windows, install it. Immediately after installation you will see a settings window. Double-click on the Linux partition you need to mount on Windows and you will see information about this partition.
Now you need to set the mount point, click the “Mount Points” button, then add a new point using the “Add” button, in the window that appears, select the drive letter under which we want to see the Linux partition, and check one of the boxes:
Mount via DefineDosDevice- one-time mounting of the partition, before the first reboot.
Automatic mount via MountMgr- this mounting method requires constantly running the program, it is worth using it if you decide to mount removable devices, and when connected, the program itself will mount the partition and assign a letter to it, and after disconnecting it will unmount the partition.
Create a permanent MountPoint via Session Manager- the method does not require running the program; it is recommended to use it when mounting a partition on an internal, non-detachable hard drive. This is the point we will select.
After that, click “OK”, “Done” and “Exit”, close the program and restart the computer. That's it, now we can access Linux partitions from Windows at any time.
31.07.18.
How in Windows environment make it possible to access a disk partition or removable media with file systems Ext2/3/4
?
If, for example, there is also a second system on the computer Linux. And you need to work with its data from the environment Windows. Or another example - when inside Windows are mounted virtual disks with installed on virtual machines systems Linux or Android. With Ext2/3/ 4
Windows cannot work natively; it needs third-party tools for this. What kind of means are these? Let's look at those below.
***
The first three tools will make it possible to only read information devices from Ext2/3/4. The latest solution will allow you to both read and write data. All the tools discussed below are free.
1. DiskInternals Linux Reader
A simple program DiskInternals Linux Reader is a primitive file manager, made like a standard Windows Explorer, with support for file systems Ext 2/3/4 , Reiser4 , HFS , UFS2. In the program window we will see partitions and devices with Linux or Android.
To copy, you need to select a folder or file, press the button "Save".
Then specify the copy path.
2. Plugin for Total Commander DiskInternals Reader
Lovers of the popular Total Commander can retrieve data Linux or Android inside Windows using this file manager. But first install a special plugin in it. One of these plugins is DiskInternals Reader, it can connect and read information devices formatted in Ext2/3/4 , Fat/exFAT , HFS/HFS+ , ReiserFS. Download the plugin, unpack its archive inside Total Commander, confirm the installation.
Let's launch Total Commander (important) on behalf of the administrator. Go to the section "Network/FS plugins". Click "DiskInternals Reader".
Data is copied traditionally Total Commander way - by pressing F5 on the second panel.
3. Plugin for Total Commander ext4tc
A simplified alternative to the previous solution - ext4tc, another plugin for Total Commander. It can connect to read information devices formatted only in Ext2/3/4. Download the plugin, unpack its archive inside the file manager, and start the installation.
Let's launch Total Commander (important) on behalf of the administrator. Click "Network/FS plugins". Let's go to "ext4plugin".
If you need to copy data, use the usual way with the F5 key.
4. Ext2Fsd support driver
Program Ext2Fsd– this is the driver Ext2/3/4, it implements support for these file systems at the level operating system. You can work with disk partitions and drives formatted with these file systems as with regular Windows-supported media devices in an Explorer window or third party programs. The driver allows you to both read and write data.
Download the latest current version Ext2Fsd.
During installation we activate (if for long-term work) three suggested checkboxes:
1
— Driver autorun with Windows;
2
- Recording support for Ext2;
3
- Formatting support for Ext3.
At the pre-finishing stage, we activate the option to launch the driver manager window - Volume Manager— with associated assignment of information to devices from Ext2/3/4 drive letters.
In the window that opens Volume Manager We will see the media with the letter already assigned. For example, in our case, a carrier with Ext4 the first free letter is given F.
Now we can work with the disk F in the Explorer window.
Assign a letter to new connected devices with Ext2/3/4 can be done using the context menu called up on each of those displayed in the window Volume Manager devices. But simply by assigning a drive letter, such a device will not appear after restarting Windows; this solution is only for one session of working with the computer. To make a new device with Ext2/3/4 permanently visible in the Windows environment, you need to double-click on it to open the configuration window and set permanent connection parameters. In the second column you need:
For removable media activate the checkbox indicated by number 1 in the screenshot and specify the drive letter;
For internal disks and partitions, activate the checkbox indicated in the screenshot below with the number 2, and also indicate the drive letter.
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- http://site/2018/03/windows-10-10-windows-10.html
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Linux- this is good, but sometimes you have to switch to Windows, to perform a number of tasks that either cannot be performed in Linux, or can be performed, but are very hemorrhoids. In general, we switched to Windows, we want to copy something from the disk on which we saved it in Linux, and here newbies will have a problem - after all, Linux disks are not displayed in Windows, because this OS simply does not recognize them. She doesn’t understand what kind of file system this is (for example, ext3 or ext4), which is used in Linux. So what should we do now? Each time, transfer the necessary data to a flash drive or other removable media when you are on Linux, and then copy it again from the flash drive to yourself when you are on Windows? You can, of course, leave the data on the flash drive and work with it directly from removable media, but this is not always advisable.
So, the problems have been identified, and now they need to be solved. They (solutions), of course, exist. There are several in the world useful programs(free), which just allow you to read file Linux system from under Windows, performing copy operations to the Windows file system (but not back!). Although, in principle, this will be enough.
Programs for reading ext3/ext4 partitions in Windows:
- Ext2Fsd
- Ext2IFS(supports ext2, ext3 and raserFS partitions)
- DiskInternal Linux Reader(supports ext2, ext3 and raserFS partitions)
- ext2explore(supports ext2, ext3, ext4 and raserFS partitions)
Quite a lot of people still have to use two operating systems: Windows and Linux (and in our case, clearly Ubuntu Linux ). Such people are stigmatized" dual-butcher" and are trying in every possible way to ridicule. But unfortunately, quite a lot of special software is still being created, which has no analogues for Linux, and cannot be launched under Wine.
Because of this, problems often arise when working with files. Ubuntu out of the box understands ntfs, which Windows uses, but Windows does not want to understand ext3 or ext4. And this is even more upsetting, given that the Microsoft OS interface can be easily changed (more details here: http://tuksik.ru/transformers/), many programs work under both platforms, but the problem is with the file system.
Now everything has become easier! A special driver for Windows has appeared, called Ext2Fsd. It is thanks to him you can freely use ext2, ext3 and ext4 from Windows.
The driver works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. I'm glad that there is support not only for reading, but also records!
Working with Ext2Fsd
After installation Ext2Fsd you need to restart your computer. Then open:
Here you can mount/disconnect partitions with ext2, ext3 and ext4 file systems. If you need write support (which is not yet stable) on an ext4 file system, select " Ext2 Management", disable the item " Mount volume in readonly mode" and press " Apply".
What is this method?
Perhaps everyone has heard about the coLinux project. This is a Linux kernel ported and modified to run on Windows, including a driver to convert system calls Linux in Windows calls. Linux applications can run on coLinux without recompilation, and there is no loss of application performance.
We will use the coLinux system as an intermediate link to access the necessary file systems. coLinux will have direct access to file systems, and from under Windows (hereinafter - the host system) they will be accessible using a Samba server configured on the coLinux system (guest system). Communication between the guest and host systems will be carried out using a virtual TAP network adapter. In this case, compatibility will be almost complete, right down to editing access rights, etc. (naturally, in the guest system).
Advantages and disadvantages
The main advantage is that the native Linux file system driver is used (since it is actually running full copy Linux, and the driver runs in this environment). And therefore it will be carried out full access to a FS without bugs from Windows, unfinished, or even unrealized, capabilities of Windows drivers, etc.
The first disadvantage follows smoothly from the advantage: due to the fact that a complete copy of Linux is running with all drivers, services and programs, the amount of free resources of the host system is sometimes quite reduced, especially when exchanging files.
The second drawback is the low file exchange speed: the reading speed from the XFS file system does not exceed an average of 5 megabytes per second, and the writing speed is 7 (which is quite strange).
Installing and configuring a Linux guest system
- Download the coLinux kernel. We install, for example, in the C:\coLinux directory (later in the article this will be used as an example).
- Download one of the images of the installed Linux system. I preferred , and therefore the upcoming work in the guest system will use Debian-specific commands. You need to unpack the archive with the image into the directory where coLinux is installed, in our case C:\coLinux.
- Editing the config file debian-lenny.conf, located in the coLinux directory (we unpacked the archive with the image into it, right?). Remove the comment character (#) from lines #mem=256 And #eth1=tuntap
- Now you need to enter the names of the necessary sections in the config to access them. These names look like \Device\Harddisk1\Partition2. The easiest way to find the correct names for the desired partitions is to download the Windows-port dd utility and use the command:
dd --list
in the team Windows line with administrator rights (naturally, being in the directory with executable file dd) look for the section names we need under the words NT Block Device Objects(a little inconvenient, because you will have to search for the necessary sections by size, which, moreover, is given in bytes).
So, necessary names we found it, now we need to enter them into the config. At the end of the config we enter lines like:
cobdX=\Device\HarddiskY\PartitionZ
where X is the serial number of the device file (it will be seen from under the guest system in /dev), starting from 3, and Y and Z are the disk and partition numbers in its Windows name. For example:
cobd3=\Device\Harddisk1\Partition2
And so on for each section. - Go to the properties of the virtual network adapter “TAP-Win32 Adapter V8 (coLinux)” (in WinXP - Control Panel - Network connections- RMB on the adapter - Properties - Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) - Properties, in WinVista/7 - Control Panel - Network and Sharing Center - Changing adapter settings - RMB on the adapter - Properties - Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) - Properties) and set the IP address 192.168.37.10 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0 . Save the settings.
- The most awaited moment is the launch of the guest system. :) Run the file debian-lenny.bat from the coLinux root directory and wait until the system boots completely. Login with login root and password colinux. We create directories - mount points for partitions in the guest system. Editing the file /etc/fstab(using vim or nano, to suit your taste) and enter lines there to describe the file systems to be mounted, for example:
/dev/cobd3 /mnt/cobd3 xfs defaults 0 0
Everything is standard here, I’ll just note that the file name of the required section matches the section line in the coLinux config. Afterwards we immediately mount all partitions using the command mount -a. - Let's configure a virtual network adapter on the host system. To do this, add the following lines to the /etc/network/interfaces file:
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.37.20
network 192.168.37.0
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.37.255
Turn on network interface command:
ifup eth1
You can immediately ping the host system (192.168.37.10), everything should work without problems. - We create a regular user with the command adduser(eg. adduser user1) to prevent root access to files from Windows
- Install SSH and Samba servers in the guest system:
apt-get install openssh-server samba
In the Samba config (/etc/samba/smb.conf) we enter a section like this for each mounted partition:
path=/mnt/cobd3
users=user1
read only=no
We change the necessary parameters in our own way. After editing the file, restart Samba using the command /etc/init.d/samba reload - Select in context menu on the “My Computer” icon, select “Connect network drive...". We register it as a path for each section \\192.168.37.20\share_name, where the name of the shares is the name written in square brackets at the beginning of the Samba config section.
Registering coLinux as a Windows service
There is only one problem left - coLinux has to be started manually, and when its console window is closed, access to the disks disappears. The solution is to register coLinux as Windows service(which will run in the background) and configure it to autostart when the system starts:
- IN command line Windows (with administrator rights) in the coLinux directory we write the command:
daemon.exe --install-service colinux @debian-lenny.conf
Let’s start the service right away: net start colinux. - Let's launch services.msc(Win+R - services.msc - OK), find it in the list of services colinux, double-click on it, and in the window that appears, select the startup type - Automatic. Save.
Finally, I would like to note that this method of accessing Linux files is the best so far, because, as I noted above, existing drivers cannot yet provide full compatibility, and, moreover, they often require money for them.
