Linux file-systems like ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, jfs and xfs are used both for compatibility and performance reasons. To access these Linux formatted partitions on other platforms like Windows and Mac, we can easily setup an Networked File Storage Server (NAS) as we did using Samba share on Raspberry Pi running an Debian image.

However, in-case you need to directly plug and read/write onto these Linux file-system formatted disks on windows computers - you will need help of third-party utilities as Windows does not natively support these file-system formats.