Accessing Linux files from Windows (Linux Windows file sharing). The following process covers methods that can be used to share files from Linux to Windows. Enabling you to read ext3 or ext2 partition data on Windows. This is useful when you have files on your Linux system you want to share with Windows.
Perhaps you dual boot Windows and Linux on your machine? Moreover, maybe you have some mp3's, Videos, Favorites, e-Mail and more you would like to have access to from both operating environments? You do not have to shut down Windows and then boot into Linux to use those Linux files! You just need an ext2/ext3 Linux filesystem driver for Windows.
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Access Linux files from Windows
To Access Linux files from Windows you can use a Free utility called Explore2fs. Explore2fs is a GUI explorer tool for accessing both ext3 and ext2 filesystems and partitions. It runs under all versions of Windows and can be used to read data on ext2 or ext3 filesystems.
Explore2fs browsing a Linux filesystem from Windows
Project Home Page: Explore2fs
Installing Explore2fs ext3 explorer
To install Explor2fs,
- Download and install Explore2fs - WIN32 explorer for Linux ext2fs partitions.
- Then, reboot to allow the changes to take effect.
You should now be able to access & read files stored on Linux partitions from Windows.
Read and Write Linux Partition access from Windows
To gain complete read-write access to Linux files and directories of volumes using Ext2 or Ext3 file systems, from Windows, you could use the following tool which includes an Ext file system driver for Windows.
Ext2 IFS (Installable File System) for Windows
This tool offers full read and write access to Linux Ext volumes and filesystems enabling you to quickly share files from Linux to Windows.
Ext2 IFS Home Page: Ext2 IFS
How to allow read and write access to Ext2 and Ext3 partitions from Windows.
- Download and install Ext2 IFS.
- Then reboot to allow the changes to take effect.
Update: Another tool, called Ext2Fsd is my personal favorite Windows Ext2, Ext3 Ext4 Read/Write access tool. It comes with a few extra features. You can learn more about how to access files from Linux on Windows using this tool. It is essentially another Ext explorer that enables you to easily read Ext4 on Windows.
