Ext3/EXT2 Recovery | How to Recover Linux Partitions in Windows

How to Recover Deleted/Lost EXT2/EXT3 Partitions in Windows

Step 1: Run the "Partition Recovery" tool on your computer.

Step 2: Wait for the scan to complete.

Step 3: Preview and restore the deleted partition.

Click "Start Recovery" to finish the partition recovery process. Read More >>

There may be times when you need to recover EXT3/2 data in Windows 10/8/7. But without third-party software, Windows is unable to read the Linux partition. That's when you'll need the assistance of both data recovery software and a partition recovery tool. In this EXT3 recovery guide, we'll walk you through two parts:

You can repair Linux partitions from Windows and recover Linux data as needed.

Can I recover data from a Linux partition in Windows?

Here are some common scenarios where Linux users can lose their data.

• Accidental deletion
• Formatting of the disk
• Emptying the Recycle Bin
• Virus infection leading to inaccessible drives
• Hard drive failure with numerous bad sectors that cannot be opened

It's safe to say that many of us have experienced data loss at some point and were desperately looking for a way to recover lost files. With the popularity of Windows 7 and the latest Windows 10, Linux is used less frequently. Some users might still have dual-boot systems with Windows 7/Linux or Windows 10/Linux.

The other fact is that though there're plenty of reliable data recovery software on the market, few of them support Linux file system. That's why Linux users would be so scared of accidentally deleting some important files, or even worse, formatting the disk and losing all the data. Does it mean all hope is lost for Linux users when it comes to lost files? Not really. As long as you have access to a Windows computer nearby, you can still recover data from Linux partition with Data Recovery Wizard tool in Windows.

Part 1: How to Recover Data from a Linux Partition in Windows

Firstly, download and install the hard drive recovery software on your computer or laptop with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista.

Then, safely remove the Linux drive from your computer and connect it to your Windows machine correctly. If you have a dual-boot setup, you can ignore this step – you don't need to remove the Linux drive.

Then, run the Data Recovery Wizard on Windows and follow the three-step guide to < strong>restore data</strong> from Linux EXT2/EXT3 partitions.

Step 1: Select and scan the lost partition

Launch the Data Recovery Wizard, select “Lost Partition,” and click “Scan” to search for all lost data. If you have multiple lost partitions, you should be able to identify them by their partition size.

Note: Since Windows does not support Linux file systems, Ext2 or Ext3 partitions will appear as unallocated space and without drive letters in this software. If you want to recover data from an Ext2/Ext3 partition, follow these steps.

Step 2: Refine the scan results

With many files to scan, you can use the Quick Filter feature to search by Images, Videos, Documents, Audio, and Other. If you remember the file name, you can also search directly in the search bar at the top-right corner.

Step 3: Preview and recover data from the lost partition

Before recovery, you can preview the files to make sure that they are the data you need. Select all the required files and click “Recover” to restore them.

WARNING: Saving files to the partition or drive from which you are recovering data may overwrite your data, causing permanent loss!

Part 2: How to Recover Deleted/Lost EXT2/EXT3 Partition in Windows

At times, people might mistakenly use the Disk Management or any third-party partition management utility to delete a hard drive partition instead of the data, making the partition an empty Unallocated space. If that's the case and you wish to recover the entire partition along with its data - Linux Partition Recovery, this time, head over to our other product named Partition Recovery Tool.

Similarly, connect your Linux hard drive to your Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP computer and start to recover EXT2/EXT3 partition as per the instructions.

Step 1: Run the Partition Recovery tool on your computer.

Select the hard drive or device where the lost partition was located and click “Scan” to continue.

Select the hard drive where you lost partitions

Step 2: Wait until the scanning process is completed.

Have the program scan the selected disk for lost partitions.

Step 3: Preview and recover the lost partitions

Please double-click on the partition that is labeled as "Lost" and has "Recoverability" as "Good".

Preview the content of the lost partition. Click “OK”, and then click “Next” to start restoring the lost partition.

4. Click “Start Recovery” to finish the partition recovery process.

Note: If the tool detects any conflicts, back up the partition that contains important data to an external hard drive before proceeding with the final operation to restore the lost partition.

Further Reading - What are the EXT2 or EXT3 File Systems?

EXT2, or the Second Extended File System, is a file system for the Linux kernel. It was designed to be a replacement for the Extended File System. It is fast enough to be used as a benchmark standard. Its main disadvantage is that it is not a journaling file system. Its successor, EXT3, is a journaling file system which is almost fully compatible with EXT2.

EXT3, or the Third Extended File System, is a journaling file system that is gaining popularity among Linux users. It is the default file system for Red Hat, Fedora, and Debian Linux distributions. Why migrate from EXT2 to EXT3? There are four main reasons: availability, data integrity, speed, and ease of transition.

Though it lacks the performance and scalability of many of its competitors, such as ReiserFS and XFS, its major selling point is that it allows in-place upgrades from the popular EXT2 file system, without requiring a backup and restore of data.

EXT3 adds to its predecessor the following features:

• Logging
• H-tree directory indexing
• File type within a directory

Without these, an EXT3 file system is also a valid EXT2 file system. This allows well-tested and mature file-system maintenance tools (such as fsck) to be used for maintenance and repair of EXT3 file systems with only minor modifications. It also makes it easy to convert between the two file systems (either way, from EXT3 to EXT2 or vice versa).

The Linux implementation of EXT3 offers three logging levels:

< ul >< li > Logging , where both metadata and file contents are written to a log before being committed to the main file system. This improves reliability, but at the cost of performance, because all data must be written twice.< li > Write-back , where metadata is journaled but file contents are not. This is faster, but can lead to out-of-order writes, such as files that were being appended to when the system crashed appearing with garbage at their ends the next time they are mounted.< li > Ordered , similar to write-back, but forcing file contents to be written to their original files after their associated metadata. This is an acceptable compromise between reliability and performance, so it is the default.

Conclusion

We have gathered two third-party tools to perform Linux partition recovery and EXT2/EXT3 data recovery. These Linux data recovery utilities can restore files that you have accidentally deleted, fix corrupted files, and recover information from an inaccessible disk. You can easily recover EXT data.

"Frequently Asked Questions on Restoring Linux Partitions in Windows with UTF-8 Encoding"

If you still have questions, check the FAQ.

How do I fix a corrupted partition table?

Initiate the process to rebuild partition table:

Step 1: Right-click on "My Computer/This PC", choose "Manage", and enter Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click the disk that says "Uninitialized" and select "Initialize Disk."

Step 3. Choose the desired partition style for your selected disk – MBR or GPT – and click 'OK' to confirm.

Can I recover data from a deleted partition?

Normally, when you delete a partition, the system simply frees up that spot on the hard drive, allowing it to be overwritten as needed. As long as that part of the disk hasn't been changed, you may be able to use a recovery tool to get the partition back.

Please download and install a hard drive recovery software on your computer, then follow these steps:

Step 1. Start tools Data Recovery Wizard and scan the Ext2 or Ext3 disk.

Step 2. Preview the EXT partition files found from the scan results.

Step 3: Recover data from an Ext2 or Ext3 partition.

How can I recover lost partitions for free?

Restoring a Linux Partition in Windows

Step 1: Run the Partition Recovery tool on your computer. Select the hard drive or device where the lost partition was located and click "Scan" to proceed.

Step 2: The program will scan the selected disk and find the lost partition(s).

Step 3: Double-click the partition which is labeled as "Lost" and has "Recoverability" as "Good".

Click “Start Recovery” to complete the partition recovery process.

Can Windows 10 read ext4?

Ext4, or the Fourth Extended File System, is a file system for Linux. While Linux can read NTFS, Windows 10 does not support Ext4. So to answer the question, can Windows 10 read ext4 – the answer is no! However, you can use third-party software to read ext4 on Windows 10.