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Full Version: Windows 7 can read / write on ext4 partitions without additional software...!
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I made a surprise observation today...

I found out that I could both read & write data files on an MSDOS-ext4 formatted data partition on my PC, using a Win7 VM, mounted as guest in an LL3.2 host.  "Surprised", because I didn't think ext4 was normally accessible from Windows OS, unless special software was employed. 

Is the above only seen when  Windows OS is installed as a VM?

It means I'll have to adjust the shared folder settings in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager  to  'read only',  to avoid any potential security issues, e.g. the possibility that Microsoft updates might over-write parts of the PC's data files or OS files.

Recently, I had to abandon a Win7 / LL3.2 legacy dual-boot, because following a recent patching of Win7 with Microsoft security updates, the PC failed to boot. It even failed to detect the SSD drives on setup1 - they weren't even listed in the boot device list.


As a consequence of this,  I've now returned to a Linux-only setup (setup1 in sig): LL3.2 as the main workhorse OS, dual-booted with Linux Mint 18 (XFCE)  as a back-up, in case anything happened to LL. 

And of course Win7 (& any Windows OS in general) is now relegated to VM status, following the unfortunate experience that I've just described above...

Cheers
Mike