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[How to] Access Linux Files In Windows When Dual Booting Linux, Ubuntu, Linux Mint And Windows 10 / 8.1

by Sohail1

use linux files in windows

If you are dual booting Windows and any Linux distribution then I’m sure you would not have any trouble in accessing Windows files & folders in Linux because Linux distributions mount all Windows partition automatically. But what if you need to access any Linux files in your Windows OS then how to do that? This is what this article is all about. Windows does not mount any Linux partition automatically but we can do it. Let’s see how to access Linux partitions (Ext4 etc.) in Windows.

Windows does not allow you to mount your Linux partitions with some built-in tools. So you often have to boot into Linux to access files. Now you won’t face this problem again because there are some good and easy ways to access your Linux partitions in Windows without even booting into Linux. Please don’t forget to take the poll below after reading this article. Also, tell us if you use dual-booting at all or you use VirtualMachines.

Ext2Fsd

Ext2Fsd is a tool in Windows that can easily mount Linux partitions and you can access each file from Linux partitions. This tool is nice and saves so much time when you’re dual booting Linux and Windows for any reason. You have to copy some of the files from other file systems.

Ext2Fsd: Features At A Glance

Features Ext2Fsd supports:

  • ext2/ext3 volume reading & writing
  • ext3 journal replay when mounting
  • various codepage: utf8, cp936, cp950 …
  • mountpoint automatical assignment
  • large inode size: 128, 256, …
  • large file size bigger than 4G
  • CIFS sharing over network
  • htree directory indexing
  • ext4 extent support
  • fast fsck (uninit_bg) and group block checksum support
  • up to 4G*blocksize volume: 16TB for 4K block
  • 64k block-size, support compatible to Linux ext4 and e2fsprogs
  • OS: 2k, xp, vista, server 2003/2008, win7

Supported Ext3/4 features :

  • flexible inode size: > 128 bytes, up to block size
  • dir_index:    htree directory index
  • filetype:     extra file mode in dentry
  • large_file:   > 4G files supported
  • sparse_super: super block backup in group descriptor
  • uninit_bg:    fast fsck and group checksum
  • flex_bg: first metadata group
  • extent:       reading, writing, deleting, everything
  • journal:      only support replay for internal journal

Unsupported Ext3/4 features:

  • journal: log-based operations, external journal
  • EA (extended attributes), ACL support
  • 64-bit block number

Features Ext2Fsd doesn’t support:

  • fully ext3 journal support
  • LVM and Linux raid (md)
  • NT4 is no longer supported.

How To Mount Linux Partitions In Windows Using Ext2Fsd

To mount Linux partitions in Windows, first of all, download Ext2Fsd in your Windows.

Download the latest version of Ext2Fsd from the list. The current latest version is 0.62. Follow the simple installation wizard and install Ext2Fsd and launch it from the start menu. I’m using Windows 8.1 and this is working perfectly fine on this Windows. When you launch you get the following screen.

ext2fsd main interface to mount linux partitions

As you can see all of my Linux partitions are available here with all the basic information like Type, File System, Total size, Used size and codepage, etc. You can also see the Linux swap partitions, don’t mount them because can only be some system files. To mount EXT4 files simply double-click the partition.

Ext2Fsd mount window to mount linux

Now check ‘Mount volume in read-only mode’ and also check ‘Automatically mount via Ext2Mgr’. Now click apply. You’ve done! Now open the file manager and see the Linux partition has been mounted in Windows. In the same way, you can also mount other Linux partitions. This single application helps a lot. It saves precious time and we don’t have to boot our system in other OSes for some important files. Let us know if you’re using any similar apps for using other Linux partitions. Share them with us below. Also, tell us how frequently you need to use Linux files when you’re using Windows.

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Mohd Sohail is a web developer and a Linux sysAdmin. He also loves to write how-to articles, applications reviews and loves to use new Linux distributions.

1 comment

rick kampstra January 3, 2020 at 8:47 pm

I have a muli boot old computer. Windows 10 32 drive 1, windows 10 64 bit drive 2, and Ubuntu 64 bit drive 3. I downloaded a movie in Ubuntu and wanted to burn it to a DVD. I tried to find something to that but did not find what I needed. I booted up in Windows and was going to us Freemake but could not access my movie. I tried the file you recommended but could not get the movie off the Ubuntu drive. I gave up and copied it to a flash drive formatted in FAT32 and was able to use it in both systems. I will experiment more in trying to share files between the systems as i play on it. I don’t work so I have little else to occupy my time 🙂

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