Topic: reading a linux hard drive formatted with ext2 ext3 or ext4 with an windows os

[purvis]

Thankfully, i have not had to recover any files from any sme hard drives issues.
But i want to be prepared in the case I do.

I had setup a server using ubuntu 12.something to receive video files (avi files) from some cams
we have been testing and as far as i know, the drive was formatted to EXT4. The avi files grow fast in number and size, and i only needed the avi files if
something happened.
I did use a questionable 1.5 gig hard drive and yes it was defective for sure, at least it had some bad sectors.
I removed this defective drive and put it in a usb and downloaded  "ext2explore-2.2.71.zip" off the internet.
The program allowed me to easily to browse the drive and retrieve the files that i was interested in from
a windows xp sp3 machine. I just ran the executable file and then opened the drive in the software.
There is now a 3 gig drive in place of the bad 1.5 drive.
I do not even know if SME can handle a drive larger than 2 gig. I think I tried and failed to install SME8 on the 3gig drive.

So the files on the ubuntu server where only going to be needed in a somewhat emergency so no big loss.

Now the SME server drives that are in raid 1 mode. I have concerns of  losing data on those servers.

Has anybody used other programs or done other things to recover(not restore) files from SME linux raid 1 drives.
I have read a little here and there on the forums about recovering some files and some of the information appears old.

I was interested in other thoughts of recovering files from hard drives that may not be bootable but still accessible in other ways.

[Stefano]

don't use windows.. use a live distro and you're done..

[purvis]

hi Stefano
lol
that sort of cracks me up
care to explain any further

[janet]

purvis

that sort of cracks me up
care to explain any further

The parlance is standard stuff which you obviously are unaware of.
I'm sure you could have easily googled for "live distro", which I did and there are lot's of results.

I believe Stefano means to download a CD iso, burn the CD, which runs a live version of a Linux OS from the CD.
So no need to install Linux on another box in order to read the drives, as you can boot your trusty Windows workstation from the "live" Linux CD OS, and then interrogate the connected and mounted Linux drive in question to retrieve data.
eg Knoppix.