Windows 7 Cannot see files on linux drive

[dancer58]

Windows7 RC
Ubuntu linux 9.04
ext3fsd 0.46

I have used ext2fsd to assign drive letter and give windows the ability to display/change files in windows XP and Windows7 beta with no problem but in Windows 7RC it shows drives but when I try to look at files it says folder is empty.
Does anyone have a sollution ?

 

[wpurcell]

Good Day! As far as I know Windows of any flavor will not recognize a GNU/Linux installation on another drive. GNU/Linux will however see all drives on a computer. Fancy that!

 

[Radenight]

Good Day! As far as I know Windows of any flavor will not recognize a GNU/Linux installation on another drive. GNU/Linux will however see all drives on a computer. Fancy that!

You are correct! Windows can't see the Linux partitions but Linux can see the Windows partitions and Linux takes it a step further by allowing you to move/modify/use the files that are on the Windows partitions... There may be a workaround to this though.. I'm not sure what it is but I'm sure if one does a little research on the subject, an answer would probably turn up quickly..

 

[dancer58]

Windows needs a helper program, ext2fsd will do the job on XP and Windows7beta but does not work on Windows7rc.
Apparently something Microsoft did on Win7rc has caused it to stop working.

 

[fjgold]

You are correct! Windows can't see the Linux partitions but Linux can see the Windows partitions and Linux takes it a step further by allowing you to move/modify/use the files that are on the Windows partitions... There may be a workaround to this though.. I'm not sure what it is but I'm sure if one does a little research on the subject, an answer would probably turn up quickly..

This is true although NTFS support is still considered "experimental" in some circles, I haven't had issues however.
The new Fat64 (also known as exfat) isn't supported by linux as of yet, although there are some folks out there trying to "reverse engineer" exfat.

A program I've use in XP is ext2IFS 1.11a

Ext2 IFS For Windows: Download

It's supposed to work in Vista but won't install on Win 7.
It also doesn't support the newer adaptations of ext3 that use inodes greater than 128kb in size, like the latest releases of Ubuntu.

The author is working on a major update that will support inodes greater than 128kb and hopefully Win 7.

When working properly it allows full read/write access to ext2/ext3 partitions.

There is a small risk involved in messing with ext3 partitions ie: editing files etc. as Windows doesn't "understand" the file permissions structure used by Linux so modifying some system files could result in problems when booting the affected linux distro.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
a get around would be to have Linux installed as a small Virtual Machine say using VBOX. Then using standard networking just use SAMBA on the Virtual Linux machine to share your files.

I wouldn't recommend ANY windows program to mess around with a Linux file system -- it's just not only about reading the data but you also have to keep the directory structure consistent.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Ethernal]

...

please write some post and if you can write me a mail when you know somthing new about ext2/3 driver.. that is so important for me.. thanks alot..

 

[ENZO]

I had this problem, all i did was make an extra partition for all my files id like to share,a nd i never bothered going back

 

[Ethernal]

I want to transfer some files from NTFS(Windows 7) to ext2/3 file system . I`m using RAID for my Windows 7, and I want to write some files to different SATA HDD with ext2/3 ..
I tried but the effect was not what I want.. it`s possible saving data from ext2/3 to Windows 7 but I can not write there..

 

[fjgold]

please write some post and if you can write me a mail when you know somthing new about ext2/3 driver.. that is so important for me.. thanks alot..

See the link for ext3 IFS in my earlier post (post #5). The version listed is 1.11a and It won't work at this time with ext3 filesystems that use anything other than 128kb inode structure. Recent versions of Ubuntu create ext3 partitions that use 256 kb inodes,
windows XP doesn't recognize these partitions using the present ext3 IFS. I emailed the author a couple of months ago and he said a newer version is forthcoming that will support the newer ext3 setups. Hopefully it will also work with Win 7.
Keep checking that website (bookmark it) for updates.

A workaround is to tranfer the data to a fat 32 thumb drive first and then copy it to your linux install.
Jimbo's right, you need to be careful messing with a ext3 filesystem from Windows, mess with a directory structure or a directory's permissions and you could render your linux install unbootable or severely cripple it. As long as you are just copying files you should be ok. An even better method is to create a Fat 32 partition that you can transfer your files to from Windows and access from linux.

I always create a Fat32 "share" partition on any machine I dual boot. I keep my MP3's there and can play them from either Windows or linux using the installed mediaplayers.