Hi guys, I've been having some troubles in trying to read files on my Linux HDD. So I was wondering if anyone knows how to read files on a Linux HDD from a windows PC. It seems to work fine the other way around, BLOODY WINDOWS!
Random Info;
The Windows PC, is a Toshiba laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium (64 Bit).
The flavour of Linux is Fedora (Sorry I forget what version it is).
Let me know if you need any other details.
Cheers.
I would like to add the Linux HDD will be plugged into a hard-drive dock that I cannibalised from an external HDD. There is physically nothing wrong with the dock itself. If any of this makes a difference...
The driver for the dock could be the issue, though doubtful. I know this article is for partitions, but see if this helps. http://www.howtoforge.com/access-linux-partitions-from-windows
I also have eSATA available, maybe that will be easier and faster to use than the dock.
Does it have to be a dynamic disk for it to be viewable in Windows?
Probably would be faster.
Yeah the software works fine, I think there may be something wrong with the drive I have though.
It cannot be assigned a drive letter in "Computer Management", I'm guessing this has something to do with it.
It shouldn't need to be dynamic, however it being dynamic might be what is needed when it comes to trying to read a Linux HDD on a Windows Install.
Also, try disk management to see if the drive is detected. If all else fails, install it in your computer.
Okay so you're doing something that microsoft doesnt really like... So it's gonna get a little tricky.
Step one you have to understand what a filesystem is. Linux uses many different types but the most common is called ext4. This is an open standard that apple and microsoft refuse to adopt because essentially they refuse to believe that more than Linus Torvalds uses it. Other filesystems include ReiserFS, Ext3, Ext2, BtrFS (or Butter FS), XFS (sometimes called UNIX FS), and ZFS.
Windows on the other hand most commonly uses NTFS (New Technology FS). FAT32, and exFAT (or FAT64).
So natively windows can only read and write to those three (aside from the filesystems of optical media but thats another RANT30 all together) so you cannot mount it to a "drive letter" like you would with traditional media in windows. The file browsers for linux filesystems are exactly that, File browsers. DO NOT try to write to the filesystem using it and reading from it is VERY slow.
In my honest opinion your best bet is to backup the drive to an NTFS partitioned hard drive from an ubuntu live cd then reformatting the drive as NTFS. Even though its probably one of the worst filesystems around, pretty much everything can read from it (90% of the time). But on the off hand you find something that doesn't.... Keep a flash drive on hand.
Down With Microsoft! \\m//