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I installed Windows 8 and Linux dual boot on UEFI system. Windows 8 recognizes Linux (btrfs) partitions as unformatted D: and E: and offers to format them when I accidentally click on them. I'm used to that Windows doesn't see Linux partitions, at all.

Windows 8 doesn't recognize Linux ext4 pattitions on my laptop with (MSDOS table and MBR boot mode). Is it the partition table or the boot mode or why is that happenig?

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    Linux has built-in support for Windows NTFS partitions, but Windows can’t read Linux partitions without third-party software. Check these threads for more info: superuser.com/questions/609205/… and superuser.com/questions/37512/…
    – Nikola Dimitrijevic
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 11:59
  • @NikolaD my point is that Windows did not see the unix partitions at all, but now it sees them as blank.
    – Yaroslav Mytkalyk
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 12:00
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    Just added another link in my comment (first one) and you have explanation there :)
    – Nikola Dimitrijevic
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 12:04
  • @NikolaD thanks. With your link now it appears my question is a duplicate :) It's a matter of finding the right words before searching...
    – Yaroslav Mytkalyk
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 12:10

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That's normal. Windows does not recognize any other OSes' partition type. So it will consider that as a raw unformatted volume. Just ignore the offer, and don't double click on that partition. Or you could run diskmgmt.msc and remove the partition's drive letter

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  • Thanks for the solution. I wonder why it sees those partitions by default on my UEFI PC and it don't on my MBR laptop.
    – Yaroslav Mytkalyk
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 12:03
  • I've seen many MBR Linux disks recognized as unformatted by windows before, sometimes it won't display the disk. Likewise the 100MB boot partition is hidden most of the time while sometimes it appears, make somebody wonder. Maybe that's the unconsisten behavior of Windows
    – phuclv
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 12:06
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    It's not normal; it's a bug in most Linux distributions' version of libparted, as described in my answer to this question. It's easily corrected, as both answers to that question show.
    – Rod Smith
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 16:59

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