Accessing Ubuntu Partition from Windows 7

Question

My question is this: Is it possible to access my Ubuntu Partition from Windows? I can access Windows with no problem from Ubuntu (12.04), yet when I try from Windows, all I can see is the boot directory.

I've looked up this problem before, yet all I usually find is the opposite problem.

My specs are:
AMD A8-4500M with Radeon HD Graphics 1.90GHz
6 GB RAM
64-Bit OS
750 GB HDD, split directly down the middle, i.e, half for Windows 7 and half for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Toshiba Satellite L855D PSKE8C-00P001

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

It is possible but not without third party software.

There are a handful of them but I think this one will do the trick Ext2Explore

Here is more detail.

Basically you are going to install the program like any other program and then browse your Ubuntu Partition.

Although the best scenario is this:

Create 3 equal partitions, Once for your windows install, one for your data (must be NTFS), and then your Linux(Ubuntu) partition. If you do this, you will be able to save/access your documents to the data partition regardless of what OS you are currently booted into.

Answer 2

The crucial point, altought the implementations are absolutely free (I think they are released under a GPL3), is that Microsoft doesn't want you to use file systems apart from FAT and NTFS.

However you can access ext2-3 file systems using some workaround not officially supported, as this: http://www.fs-driver.org/

Please be careful in what you are doing and read carefully all the instructions and warnings on that site before doing anything.