If you have Windows and Linux in the same machine and want to access files of your Linux partition from Windows then you need to use some kind of software to read Ext file system because Windows can't access Ext file system without any additional utility. So you can access Ext 2/3/4 partitions with these three utilities which are completely free: Ext2Fsd (Ability to Read/Write on Ext file system), Linux Reader (Only can read Ext file system to avoid any problem in Ext partition), Ext2Read (Can read Ext file system).

1: Ext2Fsd (Can Read/Write on Ext file system)

Ext2Fsd is free and open source software which is Ext file system driver developed for Windows. It can handle partitions Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 with write ability but don't touch system files of Ext partition otherwise you may break something. It is under GPL2 license which means anyone can modify or distribute it under this license.





Features:
  • Ext2/ext3 volume reading & writing
  • Ext3 journal replay when mounting
  • Various code-page: utf8, cp936, cp950 …
  • Automatic mount-point assignment
  • Large inode size: 128, 256, …
  • Large file size bigger than 4G
  • CIFS sharing over network
  • htree directory indexing
  • Ext4 extent read-only, no size truncating and expanding support
  • Fast fsck (uninit_bg) and group block checksum support
  • 64k block-size, support compatible to Linux ext4 and e2fsprogs
  • OS: 2k, xp, vista, server 2003/2008, win7


2: Linux Reader (Only can read Ext file system)

DiskInternals Linux Reader is completely free and considered very safe utility to read Ext2/Ext3/Ext4/HFS and ReiserFS file system partition because it only allows to read the file system from Windows, this guarantees that the interference in an alternative file system will not affect the work of Linux later. It uses the common Windows Explorer for extracting data. A preview option for pictures is one more pleasant point. The program also can create and open disk images such VHD, VDI and so on.



3: Ext2Read (Only can read Ext file system)

Ext2Read is just like a file explorer utility which allows user to explore Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 partitions and it also supports LVM2. 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.
Note: You must run Ex2Read as administrator.

Features:
  • View and copy Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 files and folders.
  • Ext4 Extents support.
  • LVM2 Support
  • Recursively copy whole directories
  • LRU based block cache for faster concurrent access

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