I am curently having ubuntu and win 7 dual boot and I want to delete my windows 7 and format all my partitions to use a linux file system. But I want to leave a door open in case I have any problems with linux, to be able to acces my linux file system with windows. I know that there are programs that can give you read-write acces to a ext2/3/4 FS (I tested none). I need advice in choosing the right FS, what are the diferences between ext 2/3/4 and what is the best software to do that.
Ubuntu – The best choice of linux file system and software that can be accesed from Windows
ext4filesystemwindows
Best Answer
The driver from http://www.fs-driver.org/ allows you to read/write to ext2 and 3 on Windows. AFAIK it does not support ext4.
Not being a filesystem expert, I don't know too much about the differences between ext 2/3/4, but I do know that ext4 is slightly faster, especially on a clean Ubuntu install, and will give you shorter boot times. Ext2 is pretty old, so few systems use it anymore, especially since ext3 is fully backwards compatible with ext2.
But to address you're real problem, which is to say "What if Ubuntu crashes and I can't access any of my files?", the easiest, most likely to work way would be insert your Ubuntu LiveCD and boot it up, then either repair your existing Ubuntu install, or transfer all the files you need to save into a portable hard drive.