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My laptop which has ubuntu installed has the motherboard blown. If I use my hard drive as an external on another windows computer, would I still access my files?

elias munzika
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    Does this answer your question? How to read ext4 partitions in Windows? – user68186 Apr 16 '20 at 20:36
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    Window can't read the disk format ext4 used by Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. So, your Ubuntu disk will not be recognized as an external drive in Windows. You will need another computer running Ubuntu. The easiest way to run Ubuntu is to boot from the installation USB drive and choose "Try Ubuntu without installing..." option. – user68186 Apr 16 '20 at 20:40
  • @user68186 I think that comment should really be an answer. It is a very real solution which along with a suggestion to copy the data to a Windows readable flash drive, or even the hard drive on the computer used to live boot is worth documenting – Dennis Apr 16 '20 at 20:45
  • @user68186 thanks, thats answers my question. – elias munzika Apr 16 '20 at 21:00
  • I am writing the comment as an answer so that you can accept it. – user68186 Apr 16 '20 at 21:01

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You can but it's risky.

There are drivers for Windows to access ext partitions such as ext4. However, many experienced folks (including yr. humbl. correspondent) report losing lots of data when writing into ext4 partitions from Windows, even with the latest version of the driver.

It is infinitely preferable to boot from an Ubuntu Linux LiveUSB and perform the file transfer under Linux into another HDD or SSD (normally made with NTFS by Windows), or to a USB flash memory drive which is traditionally partitioned as FAT32.

K7AAY
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  • You can also insert search terms in the search bar up top where you see "Search on Ask Ubuntu" to find results for key phrases from your error messages, then click on the Votes button right of center to sort up the answers found helpful by the most folks. That's why it's important to click on the up arrow and the checkmark on answers which solve problems. – K7AAY Apr 16 '20 at 21:04