Ext2Fsd: Mount Ubuntu (Or any Linux Drive) on Windows with just few clicks

Posted by Vivek ||

October 28, 2008 ||

1,691 views ||

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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I love Linux and of all the Linux distros I love Ubuntu. However, the matter of fact remains that I cannot totally migrate to Ubuntu and hence have been using Ubuntu as dual boot. The reasons are many, but one of them is the fact that there are softwares for which I have to keep my Windows Vista. I know there’ll be a time I wont have to use Vista anymore and I know the time is almost there.

I dedicated around 12 GB of partition for Linux installation, but I don’t use all of it. In fact after installing most of the things I still have close to 5 GB of space. And not to mention that I keep running out of space on my Windows partition. So i thought why not use the free space on Ubuntu to store files. Windows Vista or for that matter any Windows version aren’t friendly to allow you to mount anythings else other than FAT and NTFS partition. So I started looking out for ways in which I can mount my Ubuntu partition.

Good news is I did not have to search a lot. Just searched on SourceForge and ended up finding this wonderful utility called ext2fsd. Just under 1 MB this utility helps you mount any of your ext partition on to Windows environment. The utility is open source and is written in c, c++ and is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). You can download the ext2fsd here.

After starting the application just select the EXT drive and hit F3, you’ll see a screen like the one below.

Now select options that suits your need. The tweak however is to not select Mount Volume in readonly mode, because you’ll not be able to write copy or save file in that drive and hence the purpose will be defeated. However, please ensure that you don’t mess with files in the drive as it might cause issues with your Ubuntu Boot or other problems. Have fun with the extra space!