How to format ext4 in Windows 10/8/7?

This post talks about methods to format EXT4/3/2 in Windows, read data in EXT4 partition and create EXT4 partition under Windows. If your computer is dual booting Windows and Linux, you may need to access data on Linux system from Windows. Windows does not support create or format EXT file system nor read EXT data. This guide is focused on methods to deal with operations about EXT4/3/2 file system.

Ext4 files system

• Ext4 file system was introduced in 2008, starting from Linux Kernel 2.6.19. 
• Provide option to disable journaling feature. 
• Backward compatibility is supported. You can mount Ext3 file system as Ext4 without upgrading it. 
• The maximum individual file size 16GB – 16TB. 
• Some new features are included such as multiblock allocation, fast fsck, journal checksum, etc. 

How to format EXT4/3/2 in Windows 10/8/7/XP?

It is easy to format a partition to ext4, ext3 or ext2 with the help of Eassos PartitionGuru, and the formatting speed is fast. Please note formatting wipes all data from the volume; you should make sure important files have been backed up. Let’s see have a look at the formatting steps.

1. Install and launch Eassos PartitionGuru from computer and you can see all partitions on the disk. 
2. Select the partition you want to format and click “Format” button from toolbar. 
3. Choose file system type you need from the Format Partition window and click “Format” button. To format ext4, you should choose Ext4 from the drop-down list. 
   
4. Wait several seconds and the formatting will complete. 

Here is video guide you can follow to format ext4 in Windows:

Article Source: How to format ext4 in Windows?

MBR VS GPT, which one is better for your SSD?

This page introduces two difference partition plans: MBR and GPT and how to choose partition plans correctly. Besides, this guide touches upon basic knowledge about BOIS and EFI and gives samples about MBR and GPT partition. You can click titles listed below to read corresponding content.

MBR VS GPT

There are two types of partition plans: MBR and GPT on Windows computer, and we’ll talk about both in the following sections.
Computer contains at least one hard drive for data storage, but the physical drive can’t store data directly before partitions are created. Strictly speaking, partition can’t store data if files system is not built. Partition should be formatted to NTFS or FAT files system before storing data.
One physical hard drive can be divided into several partitions (it is OK to have one partition only). How to create multiple partitions? This is when partition table come to use. Partition table defines and stores partition information, locating certain disk space on the beginning area. Operating system gains partition information by way of accessing data in partition table.

How to choose between MBR and GPT?

1. MBR can’t manage disk space that exceeds 2TB and GPT does not have such limitation. If your hard drive is larger than 2TB, please choose GPT.
2. It is recommended computers with traditional BIOS use MBR and EFI-based computer use GPT

BIOS + MBR

If motherboard in your computer is BIOS or UEFI with BIOS mode, MBR partition plan is the correct choice.

UEFI + GPT

Oppositely, if your computer is using UEFI motherboard and enables UEFI mode, then please employ GPT partition scheme.
You might be confused by the conclusion above, as there are many guides online teaching users to install operating system on BIOS+ GPT or UEFI +MBR. My advice is that if you are not technical geek or professional user, you’d better choose BIOS + MBR or UEFI +GPT, as you can benefit:
Better performance in hardware and software, faster speed.
Avoid many potential issues that may occur to installation or running Windows. Professional users can easily fix these problems, but common users can’t get rid of any system errors easily.
Some users may ask whether it is OK to use Legacy BIOS if the motherboard is UEFI. The advice is that for the consideration of performance and speed do not use Legacy BIOS unless hard drive’s capacity is very small. EFI+GPT takes more disk space (100MB or so) than BIOS+MBR, if 100MB matters much on your hard drive, you can choose Legacy BIOS.

How to convert MBT to GPT without data loss?

Step 1: Launch PartitionGuru from your computer. Select hard drive you want to convert and click “Disk” to select “Convert to GUID Partition Table”.

Step 2: Click “Yes” on the message box. Please note that only new operating system can use GPT disk, for example, 32-bit Windows XP does not support GPT disk. Also, only the EFI-based computer can boot from GPT disk. Thus your computer won’t be able to boot normally if it doesn’t support GPT and you need to reinstall Windows.

Step 3: Click “Save All” button and the conversion takes effect.

Article source: MBR VS GPT

Fix "The disk is write protected" error

What is "write protection" on USB disks?

When you try to write data to such disk you'll get error message "The disk is write-protected. Remove the write-protection or use another disk".

"I recently bought a new laptop that installs Windows 10. I have four USB flash drives and one of them is now marked ‘write-protected' for no reason, as I didn't do anything to it. I found a solution for windows XP and tried on my own computer. But it didn't remove write protection. I just want to copy files from the USB disk to computer and then reformat it. Can you help me on the write protection removal thing on Windows 10 computer or retrieve data?" 

Causes of USB write protected error

• Read only switch
• The flash drive is full
• Security settings
• The Read-only property
• Virus attack
• Drive is broken or has bad sectors

How to remove write protection from read-only USB drive?

Solution 1: Check the drive for a physical lock

Many USB drive and SD cards have a physical lock switch which can turn on and turn off write protection. Thus you need to examine whether the flash drive enables this lock. Check the left or right edge to find out the switch. If the switch is in the Lock side, just move it to the unlocked position. If this method can't solve the write protection error, please try following solutions.

Solution 2: Use Command Prompt to remove write protection

Read and write attributes of UBS disk can be modified from Windows Command Prompt with the help of a simple command line. You can follow steps here to clear write attribute for flash drive or SD card.

Step 1: Open Command Prompt. Click Start button and enter cmd in searching box. Then right click "cmd.exe" from the searching list and choose "Run as administrator".
Step 2:Type in diskpart and hit Enter.
Step 3:Type the following commands one by one and press Enter key after each command.
      list disk
     select disk #(# is the disk number for your USB drive )
     attributes disk clear readonly

How to recover data from write-protected flash drive?

Step 1:  Launch Eassos Recovery Free and select proper recovery feature. 

Step 2: Choose the USB drive and click "Next" button to start searching for files.

Step 3: Select files you need and click "Recover" button to get files recovered.