Access Your Linux Partitions In a Dual-Boot Environment
If you're running Linux in a dual boot or multi boot environment, chances are good there's been times when you've needed to access some or other file on your Linux partition from within windows. Luckily there's an Ext2/3 file system driver available, for free.So you've taken the plunge and installed Linux, you've decided to be cautious and run a dual-boot environment; just to be safe in case you find yourself out of your depth. Or perhaps you're serious about your gaming, you're going to have to hang onto your windows environment to play some of your favorite games. Smart move, but it does come with it's little quirks.
Accessing your Windows partitions from Linux has been possible, and really easy for quite a while now. The Fat and Fat32 file systems have been supported for years, and thanks to the ntfs-3g initiative, read/write support is available for NTFS partitions too. Windows on the other hand, is a little less clued up when it comes to accessing Linux partitions.
So here's one of the quirks I mentioned earlier; You've booted into your Windows environment, but you urgently need a file that resides on your Linux partition! Is it really worth rebooting your box into Linux just to get that one file you need?
In short, most of the time, No, it's not. But it's also unnecessary; thanks to the Ext2 Installable File System For Windows.
Installing this driver is quick and painless, we'll cover the installation and configuration in the next few steps, so let's start right at the beginning. For this example, I've used a USB flash/jump drive formatted with the Ext3 file system.
Read More...
http://kungfucodemonkey.blogspot.com/2009/01/access-your-linux-partitions-in-dual.html
What's unique about this software?
It provides Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes (read access and write access). This may be useful if you have installed both Windows and Linux as a dual boot environment on your computer.
The "Ext2 Installable File System for Windows" software is freeware.
If you currently have Windows running and you realize that you need some files for your work which you have stored on an Ext2 volume of your Linux installation, you no longer have to shut down Windows and boot Linux!
Furthermore, Windows will now be able to handle floppy disks which have been formatted with an Ext2 file system.
Linux Ext3 volumes can also be accessed. To do that, please read the FAQ section.
It installs a pure kernel mode file system driver Ext2fs.sys, which actually extends the Windows operating system to include the Ext2 file system. Since it is executed on the same software layer at the Windows NT operating system core like all of the native file system drivers of Windows (for instance NTFS, FASTFAT, or CDFS for Joliet/ISO CD-ROMs), all applications can access directly to Ext2 volumes. Ext2 volumes get drive letters (for instance O:). Files, and directories of an Ext2 volume appear in file dialogs of all applications. There is no need to copy files from or to Ext2 volumes in order to work with them.
Features
Detailed list of features:
- Supports Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 2008.
- Supports both the 32 bit x86 and the 64 bit x64 platform.
- Includes drivers with a digital signature for Windows Vista x64.
- All operations you would expect: Reading and writing files, listing directories, creating, renaming, moving and deleting files or directories, querying and modifying the volume's label.
- UTF-8 encoding.
- Files larger than 2 GBytes. (Please read the FAQ section, too.)
- Supports hash indexed (htree) directories (utilizes the so-called dir_index feature of Ext3).
- Full plug-n-play functionality. When a drive is removed, the corresponding drive letter is deleted.
- Supports use of the Windows mountvol utility to create or delete drive letters for Ext2 volumes (except on Windows NT 4.0). This is useful for scripts. (Please read the FAQ section, too.)
- A global read-only option is provided.
- File names that start with a dot "." character are treated as hidden.
- Supports GPT disks if the Windows version used also does.
- Paging files are supported. (A paging file is a file "pagefile.sys", which Windows swaps virtual memory to.) Users may create paging files at NT's control panel at Ext2 volumes.
- Specific functions of the I/O subsystem of NT: Byte range locks, notification of changes of directories, oplocks (which are required by the NT LAN manager for sharing files via SMB).
The file system driver Ext2fs.sys caches file data and the file system's meta data such as directories and all the on-disk structures of the Ext2 file system. (It uses the file cache of the Windows NT operating system.) Therefore it is performant. The level of sophistication of the Ext2 file system driver's implementation is indeed comparable to Windows NT's native file system drivers.
The "Ext2 Installable File System" software package is distributed as a single executable solution, complete with all of the features. It is a setup wizard which installs and configures the Ext2 file system driver. (The screenshots section contains some images of it.) If you wish to uninstall the software, select "Add/remove Software" from the Control Panel.
Furthermore, "IFS Drives" is installed at the computer's control panel, which allows you to assign drive letters to Ext2 volumes. (The screenshots section section contains an image of it.)
Go the the Software Makers Site to Download...
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