[NTLUG:Discuss] Explore2fs -- Windows reads Linux partitions

[greenglow484@juno.com]

All --

Like usual:  If you decide to try any of the below, the risk is on
yourself; YMMV.  Back up everything, before you do anything.  On his web
pages (below), Mr. Newbigin tells of reports that the program caused some
file corruption on Windows 95; luckily, I had no such experience.

I just came across this tonight, and it seems quite remarkable.  For me,
it has worked, and worked well.  It is explore2fs, a program which,
running under Windows, reads from -- and is supposed to be able to write
to (have not tried that) -- your Linux partitions.

I've run this under Windows NT, and under Windows 95 OSR 2 (the next to
last version, I think).  All my Windows NT and 95 fs'es are FAT 32.  My
Linux is Mandrake 7.1; the kernel is, I think, 2.2.14; the ext2fs is not
Reiser.  My 2 HDD are both large, 4 gig and 10 gig; 2 partitions (both
FAT 32) on the smaller, and 6 partitions on the larger (2 FAT 32, 4
Linux/ ext2fs).  I have BIOS set to lba/ "auto", I think.

Both HDD are Western Digital; the smaller 4 gig about 3 yrs old; the
larger 10 gig about 18 months old; neither is SCSI; the 2 are IDE primary
channel, master and slave respectively.  Neither is that new UDMA ATA-66,
I think it is, although they do have DMA capability.
 
Maybe you all are aware of this, but it's brand-new to me.  Running it, I
had a similar feeling of amazement, like I did the first time I ever saw
VMWare running Win on a Linux box.

The program launches a "Windows Explorer" type GUI, which read all my 3
Linux partitions (/, /var and /boot -- hdb6, 8 and 9).  It very easily
opened up, and read/ viewed/ listened to:  various text and HTML
documents (the Windows called up Netscape, and it opened the HTML doc
just like normal -- it was a how-to from my /usr/share/doc, I think); it
opened the splash screen/ bitmap from my Loki Railroad Tycoon demo,
opening it in Microsoft Paint; and it opened and I heard, in the Windows
Sound Recorder, 2 or 3 wave sound files, including the KDE "startup"
theme, from /usr/share/sounds.  It can view and copy files, from the
Linux box to the Windows box.  I believe the way it operates, is that it
opens on the Linux side, and then copies to the windows\temp folder, the
document you're dealing with.  On my Pent. II 266 MhZ, the performance
was acceptably quick, as quick as reading from an ordinary (!) Windows
partition.

It is a GPL freely-available, free (speech) program.  The author -- Mr.
Newbigin, who, I believe, is in university in Australia -- has his home
page and download page at:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm     Note:  his
pages list 2 download URLS; 1 is ftp://  and the other is http://     I
was not able to get the ftp link to work, but the http link worked fine.

My congrats to him on a very novel, and workable, program!  Best to all. 
Again:  Proceed at your own risk; back up everything, before you do
anything.
--
  Douglas D. Darnold	Principal/ Attorney
  LAW OFFICES OF DOUGLAS D. DARNOLD <greenglow484 at juno.com>
  P. O. Box 12461	Dallas  Texas 75225-0461	Voice: 214-368-0068

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