Linux partition not visible from Windows 2000 Explorer

[PsychoSword 0]

When I go into the explorer it shows my C: drive, but no longer shows my D: hard drive since I installed Linux Mandrake 7.2 on the D: drive, although it does show up in Device Manager. When I go into the Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management, the D: drive shows up fine there aswell, but it only shows 3.5 gigs in use as "Health (Active)" and the rest of the 30 gig drive is shown as "Free Space". What's going on here? I thought Linux uses FAT32 and should therefore be visible to Windows 2000 right? I'm a total Linux newbie, I just started using it yesterday so any help is appreciated.

[Roderigo 0]

Linux uses a totally different file system called ext2fs or Second Extended Files System. It is nothing like Fat32.

 

You won't be able to manipulate files on a linux partition from windows 2000 except in a read-only fashion using programs like Explore2fs. So whoever told you that Linux of any kind used a Fat32 filesystem did not do their reading.

[ThC 129 0]

yeah man, linux doesnt use FAT32. If you sit and think about it for a second it does seem odd ya know a Freeware product using an MS Filesystem.

[Brian Frank 0]

However, Linux can read FAT32. That's nice so that you can keep some files on the Windows partition and use them in Linux w/o having to put the same data on two partitons.