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Windows 10 alters Ext4 partition it should not be accessing

Anonymous
2019-03-05T08:52:16+00:00

Hello Forum,

Windows 10 is on partition /dev/sdd3

I have an Ext4 partition on /dev/sdd5 for backups.

When I use Linux, shutdown and reboot Linux, the partition is mountable, but after using windows 10 and rebooting into Linux, the partition is  not mountable.

I have to use Gparted to fix the mess that Windows 10 made. Why is Windows 10 even accessing the sdd5 partition not to mention altering it?

The screenshot shows my disks in Gparted. After using Windows the USED and UNUSED columns return --- and ---

I don't know what /sdd2 is, but it looks like it has problems.

Gparted returns many invalid entries after checking and fixing the partition. Here are some examples:

ext2fs_open2: Superblock checksum does not match superblocke2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizesPass 2: Checking directory structure Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass 4: Checking reference countsPass 5: Checking group summary information Free blocks count wrong for group #1 (31743, counted=3055). Fix? yesFree blocks count wrong for group #2 (32768, counted=2866).Fix? yesFree blocks count wrong for group #3 (31743, counted=1430).Fix? yesFree blocks count wrong for group #4 (32768, counted=1549).Fix? yes

Many, many more of those.

Inode bitmap differences: -8194 -8197 -8203 -8208 -8226 -8229 And many more

Free inodes count wrong for group #256 (8192, counted=7859). Fix? yesDirectories count wrong for group #256 (0, counted=333).Fix? yesFree inodes count wrong for group #272 (8192, counted=5941).Fix? yesDirectories count wrong for group #272 (0, counted=2251).Fix? yes

And many more.

Could anyone explain why Windows 10 is invading none-Windows filesystem partitions and altering them? How can I stop it?

Thank you.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-03-18T15:26:23+00:00

    Hello Naresh,

    Thank you for answering and suggesting the IT Pro forum.

    I seem to have solved the problem.

    I had Ext2Fsd installed on Windows, which acts as a driver for Windows to access EXT file systems. Perhaps it was allowing Windows to mount the partition and then reconfigure it. After uninstalling Ext2Fsd, I have not experienced the issue.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-03-06T05:37:25+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

    Please note that if you install Windows on a device, it will create BCD files. As you had Linux and then you installed Windows, the boot files were created by Windows. This resulted in the above issue. You will need to install grub to make sure that you are able to boot to Linux. Once you have install grub, the dual boot for both the operating system will work fine.

    Also the partition /dev/ssd2 is system reserved partition. You can see the details under Flag section, it says msftres (Microsoft reserved).

    Regards,

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-03-08T09:14:21+00:00

    Hello Naresh,

    Thank you for your reply.

    My Linux system is located on a separate, external USB drive. It is not using any boot records on the disk with Windows on it. I do not dual boot, I use F8 to select my Linux drive in BIOS, and the Linux boot partition and GRUB are on that drive. The two systems are completely isolated.

    The partition that Windows 10 keeps altering is not a boot partition and contains no Linux system files. It is for backups only, so I don't understand why Windows is even accessing it at all.

    Okay, thank you for the information about /dev/sdd2.

    A-ha! Windows was installed years before I installed a Linux system. I only recently created the new partition on /dev/sdd5 for my backups, so Windows was there before creating it. As I mentioned before, EVERY time I fix the partition and then use Windows again, Windows insists on writing to it again.

    Is there a way to force Windows 10 (Pro) to ignore the partition and leave it alone?

    Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-03-14T06:26:44+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for writing back. I appreciate your time and patience.

    I would request you to post the query in Windows 10 IT Pro forum so that it reaches the dedicated team as they advance troubleshooting experience on this and would be able to help you.

    Regards,

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-03-14T08:01:17+00:00

    Windows uses NTFS or FAT32 file system and it does not have built-in support for extended file system (Ext2/3/4). Thus if you connect a drive containing a partition that have been formatted as Ext4, it won’t recognize it. Thus you cannot read data in the Ext4 volume.

    You need to format your internal hard drives or external devises (like SD card drives) to Ext4 on the Windows operating system so that Linux can successfully identify them. Or, if you are dual booting Windows and Linux, you may want to access files on your Windows system from Linux at some point, which also requires formatting the disk as Ext4. Check out this article and you may better know this.

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