samba - Mar 2004 - process of accessing linux from windows

I'm working on a project to develop a software to access files on linux 
partitions from windows, something similar to explore2fs but completely in 
c/c++.
I've figured out that to do this i'll need to read the mbr and obtain
the
address of the linux partition on the hard disk. But once this is done, how do 
I proceed? Do I need to read the superblock next? If yes, how do I do that with 
the linux partition address? 
After this is done, I guess the next step would be to get to the root inode 
from the superblock, and from there to the respective directive and finally to 
the file inode. Please tell me as to how this is to be done.
Also, if you can or cannot help me pls suggest some books / links which will be 
of help to me in this project. Pls reply to this mail.