An across-file-system file access system and method for accessing files across different computer operating systems and file systems is disclosed. The across-file-system file access system includes a file resource table generator and a file resource table reader. The file resource table generator creates and up-dates a file resource table, which associates file markers for files stored in a given partition with the physical addresses of the files within the given partition. The file resource table generator is run on top of a first operating system, and the given partition is managed by a file system that uses a file system table. The file resource table reader run on top of a second computer operating system, which cannot access the file system table of the file system. The file resource table reader reads the file resource table to provide access to the files listed in the file resource table.