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Mount a Linux file system on Windows

Originally published

I dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows Vista on my desktop, but cannot access my Linux volumes from Vista. I have three 500GB SATA2 disks, one of which is partitioned and formatted with the Ext2 Linux file system. I have two options for reading those volumes from Windows:

  • Explore2fs is a simple tool that does not require low-level system drivers. It operates in read-only mode.
  • Ext2IFS uses the kernel-mode file system driver Ext2fs.sys to add Ext2 support to Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista (x86/x64).

I wanted full read/write access to my Linux volumes, so I installed Ext2IFS.

  1. Open the download page and download Ext2IFS_1_11.exe.
  2. Run Setup and follow the installation wizards.
  3. In the Drive Letters Wizard, select the Linux partition and assign a drive letter. I used L:.

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Drive L:\ is now mounted with read/write access from Windows Vista SP1 x64.

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