How to read XFS on Windows

I often read about problems people have reading Unix formats on a PC.  Linux has many features that allow a new file system to be loaded and hence read disks in non Ext/2/3/4 format.

One solution for a PC is to use CnW to just read the data files from the foreign file system.  95% of the time this will be a satisfactory solution, though there will be occasions were read and write are required. CnW does not write to non PC file systems.

By using a copy of CnW Recovery software files can be read from many Unix disks, including XFS and Reiser.  It also included Macintosh.  The demo will read the files, but not actually save any.

CnW is designed as a data recovery tool, rather than this general reading tool, so file selection is limited, for instance there is no drag and drop.  However, there are extensive file filter tools so file of a certain date, size or name/location may be selected or skipped.

When presented with a problem of accessing data from a foreign drive, CnW may well provide a simple solution.  As a bonus deleted files can also be found.

Success with XFS deleted files

After a lot of hard work (and head scratching) it is now possible to recover deleted files from the problem XFS disk. This is a new development within the CnW data recovery software which will recover the file without doing any data carving. In other words, the files are recovered with correct names, original dates, and very largely, correct directory structure.

The process, by necessity is rather slow. It starts with a complete scan of the drive (or in this case, the RAID-0) to locate all existing iNode entries on the disk. These are then analysed, and regenerated to provide a list of possible directory entries. Once the disk structure is know, files can be recovered, including all files that have been deleted.

With all deleted files, there is always a danger that a new file written to the disk after the file was deleted, could overwrite critical data. However, if the recover process is started as soon as the error, or corruption is know, recovery levels will be good.