Problems Accessing Files on ext3 Partition from Windows

America's Sweetheart · 08-14-2008, 08:03 PM

Hi,

I have two hard drives. One is the primary SATA master with 230 GB and Windows XP. The other is the primary IDE slave with 75 GB. The IDE drive is divided into two primary partitions. One has Windows Vista and the other has openSUSE 11.0. I managed to get all the operating systems to boot, but Windows XP and Windows Vista cannot see the Linux partitions. I've tried installing ext2ifs, Diskinternals' Linux Reader, Explore2fs, and Ext2 FSD. After I install ext2ifs in XP and Vista, the two Linux partitions (/home and /) show up in Windows Explorer, but Windows says that they aren't formatted. Explore2fs doesn't show anything aside from "hda1" and "hda2." Ext2 FSD locks up using 99% of the CPU. Linux Reader doesn't do anything when I click Open with the Linux partition selected. It lets me create an image of the drive, but that takes up a lot of space and it doesn't let me browse it when I mount it, either. Does anyone know if I can get Windows to browse the partitions? I'm also having trouble with the bootloaders (I have to use a GAG boot floppy). But I guess that'd be another post. I've done this before without any isssues when I just had two IDE drives, but the SATA drive must be causing an issue?

TB0ne · 08-15-2008, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by America's Sweetheart

Hi,

I have two hard drives. One is the primary SATA master with 230 GB and Windows XP. The other is the primary IDE slave with 75 GB. The IDE drive is divided into two primary partitions. One has Windows Vista and the other has openSUSE 11.0. I managed to get all the operating systems to boot, but Windows XP and Windows Vista cannot see the Linux partitions. I've tried installing ext2ifs, Diskinternals' Linux Reader, Explore2fs, and Ext2 FSD. After I install ext2ifs in XP and Vista, the two Linux partitions (/home and /) show up in Windows Explorer, but Windows says that they aren't formatted. Explore2fs doesn't show anything aside from "hda1" and "hda2." Ext2 FSD locks up using 99% of the CPU. Linux Reader doesn't do anything when I click Open with the Linux partition selected. It lets me create an image of the drive, but that takes up a lot of space and it doesn't let me browse it when I mount it, either. Does anyone know if I can get Windows to browse the partitions? I'm also having trouble with the bootloaders (I have to use a GAG boot floppy). But I guess that'd be another post. I've done this before without any isssues when I just had two IDE drives, but the SATA drive must be causing an issue?

From this page http://www.fs-driver.org/faq.html#acc_ext3, it mentions running the e2fsck tool, to deal with the journaling on an ext3 filesystem. Although if you've done this before, you've probably already tried that.

Can you make a small ext2 partition somewhere, and try to mount it?

mostlyharmless · 08-15-2008, 04:38 PM

The new ext3 file system uses 256 byte inodes by default (a recent change), which are not recognized by the Windows add ons (ext2fs etc) you used. I suspect that if you make a ext2 or 3 file system and specify the inodes to 128 you'll be able to see it.

The boot loaders also need a patch.

America's Sweetheart · 08-16-2008, 01:52 PM

Thanks for the replies. How would I change the inode length?

mostlyharmless · 08-17-2008, 02:04 PM

Unfortunately, I don't know if that's possible without remaking the file system.

jnreddy · 08-20-2008, 07:54 AM

hi
America's sweetheart by your post i came to know that winxp can read the linux partition
if you succeeds plz post the solution

Thanks N Advance
NirU

mostlyharmless · 08-21-2008, 01:58 PM

To make the proper inodes [with a new file system

],
http://linux.die.net/man/8/mkfs.ext3 seems pretty clear that the bytes per inode cannot be changed once the file system is made.

i.e. mke2fs -i 128 -c -t ext3 /dev/hda1