Can Linux safely read USB to IDE & SATA adaptor ?

When I plug the USBstik, that I use to boot linux,
into the Win8.1, it wants to "reformat the stik"
and destroy my linux-system.

So, if I buy a "USB to IDE and SATA" adaptor,
which is obviously made for the MicroSoft market;
will such a device allow me the inspect my old IDE
and SATA, under linux, on this new W8.1 laptop,
once I'm running linux ?

== TIA.



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Ryahow wrote:
When I plug the USBstik, that I use to boot linux,
into the Win8.1, it wants to "reformat the stik"
and destroy my linux-system.

So, if I buy a "USB to IDE and SATA" adaptor,
which is obviously made for the MicroSoft market;
will such a device allow me the inspect my old IDE
and SATA, under linux, on this new W8.1 laptop,
once I'm running linux ?

== TIA.

There's no need to buy anything.

If you present a disk with a foreign file system,
then double-click that partition or disk icon,
Windows will offer to format it for you. Don't
do that. Don't click on the partition. Don't
"Explore" it. And so on.

If you know the partition is EXT2/EXT3/EXT4, don't
try to access it, unless you have prepared the
OS properly. For example, there will not be any
form of Windows BTRFS support, so you would
never try to click a BTRFS partition. With
EXTn partitions, you have options.

*******

What (examples of) file systems does Windows support ?

FAT32/NTFS/ExFAT

On WinXP, you get ExFAT by installing a downloadable
package from Microsoft.

Now, how is that possible ? Well, Windows supports
"Installable File Systems" or IFS. If they want to
add ExFAT support, they have the option of doing
it as an IFS package. And other developers can
add file system support to Windows if they want.

In this example, you can add EXT file system
support to Windows.

You must be careful with this, and read the feature
set and decide whether you want to use it. This
has limited support for the Linux journal on
EXT3/EXT4. As far as I know, that would make
the resulting partition about as functional
as EXT2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext2Fsd

So if you want to look at the contents
of a Linux partition from Windows, you can.

*******

What other limits are there ?

Linux will put four partitions on a
USB stick.

Windows will only mount the first partition,
and won't look at the other three. The first partition
here is EXT4, the second partition is NTFS. Windows
wants to "format L: " and it ignores the perfectly
good NTFS second partition.

https://s18.postimg.org/piiqqidl5/Le...8_GB_flash.gif

What variables are involved on USB flash sticks ?

There is an RMB bit, which indicates the device
is "fixed" or "removable". The Windows properties
and behavior, are affected by RMB. On newer USB
flash sticks, probably = 32GB, you may find that
the RMB is set to "fixed disk" mode. Whereas your
smaller flash sticks have the RMB bit set to
"removable". (There is no real reason for these
choices, just the manufacturer noticing complaints
and flipping the bit the other way.) I haven't
tested it, but it's possible the four partition
mount behavior will change as a function of RMB.

For more info, you can review the content on this page.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html

*******

What would a USB to SATA adapter buy you ?

It *may* present itself as a fixed disk.
I haven't verified what it actually says
when plugged in. I don't know if I have
a good utility to test with. Certainly,
all four partitions of an MSDOS partitioned
hard drive would be recognized.

Does this change the "formatting" issue ?

No. If the file system you click is EXT2,
Windows wants to format it. If you install
Ext2Fsd as an IFS, then it should stop
trying to format it.

For a user, the only way to learn this stuff,
is keep testing it. I find it hard to
memorize all the possibilities. And my "lab"
isn't well equipped enough to re-do all the
tests.

HTH,
Paul