Donald Grayson wrote:

Doug McGarrett wrote:

...

I will shortly receive SuSE 9.1. Assuming it allows me to choose between Reiser and Ext3 file systems, which should I choose, and why? (It would be useful to be able to access the Linux system files from Win XP, on the NTFS, if that can be done, and even more so, the reverse--i.e., access NTFS files from Linux.) I am not currently sharing my XP system with any other OS, so this will be a new installation in all respects. All comments and observations gratefully received.

--doug

Myself, I prefer ReiserFS. It's the default choice with a SuSE install and I've had no trouble with it. For the average home user, I really don't think it matters which filesystem you use, it's only an issue if you're dealing with legacy data on already formatted drives or if you're running certain applications in high traffic environments.

As to viewing ReiserFS or EXT3 in Windows. Well, Windows will at best ignore them, at worst it will show the partitions in my computer as unformatted discs and suggest reformatting them with NTFS. NTFS drives can be read under Linux, but not written to.

Personally, I use a 20GB USB hard drive formatted with FAT32 to share data between Windows and Linux on a dual boot system.

Did some checking and there is apparently some tools to let Windows read an EXT2/EXT3 filesystem. For more info try: http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html -- Donald Grayson Systems Administrator SportPaint, Inc.

There is a tool called rfstool that reads reiserfs from Windows... I have used it under Windows XP and it works to copy files and directories... The version I have is rfstool-0.14, but there might be a newer version out there... Just google for it and I am sure you will find it... Daniel Silviu Marin-Caea wrote:

Donald Grayson wrote:

...

Did some checking and there is apparently some tools to let Windows read an EXT2/EXT3 filesystem. For more info try: http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html

You can read NTFS from Linux, and you can write to NTFS using Captive, but it's not for newbies.

You can read & write to FAT32 from Linux, so you might want to install Windows XP on FAT32 if you want that. FAT32 is inferior to NTFS, but you won't feel performance degradation on a desktop machine. In case of power failures, it will take long to scan the filesystem, because FAT32 is not journalized, and NTFS is.

You can read ext2 and ext3 from Windows, using explore2fs (search google). There is no tool, AFAIK, to read reiserfs (or xfs, or jfs) from Windows.

On Thursday 22 April 2004 15:17, Donald Grayson wrote:

Did some checking and there is apparently some tools to let Windows read an EXT2/EXT3 filesystem. For more info try: http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html

The are such tools on the SUSE 9.0 Pro DVD. Don't know about the CDs -- Kind regards Hans du Plooy Newington Consulting Services hansdp at newingtoncs dot co dot za

On Sunday 25 April 2004 00:20, Doug McGarrett wrote:

I really appreciate all the helpful and useful answers that I received from a whole batch of people. I knew about the tool that reads ext2/3 from Windows, but none of the others. I'm running at home, and I am not running a business or a server, so I think, after thinking about it, that I am going to go with ext3. It looks like a simpler environment. (If I'm wrong, please speak up.)

--doug

Doug, you can't go wrong with ext3 - it's not quite as fast as some other filesystems (although is is very relative and you might not see the difference at all, depending on how you use your computer). If you want to read more about reiserfs ect under other operating systems, there is a filesystems "homepage" somewhere, that lists just about every filesystem ever conceived and useful links and utilities for it. I found a driver for reiserfs for another OS (not windows and not a unix like OS either), so I'm sure there's a windows driver out there somewhere. -- Kind regards Hans du Plooy Newington Consulting Services hansdp at newingtoncs dot co dot za

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 09:12:27AM -0400, Donald Grayson wrote:

Doug McGarrett wrote:

...

I will shortly receive SuSE 9.1. Assuming it allows me to choose between Reiser and Ext3 file systems, which should I choose, and why? (It would be useful to be able to access the Linux system files from Win XP, on the NTFS, if that can be done, and even more so, the reverse--i.e., access NTFS files from Linux.) I am not currently sharing my XP system with any other OS, so this will be a new installation in all respects. All comments and observations gratefully received.

--doug

Myself, I prefer ReiserFS. It's the default choice with a SuSE install and I've had no trouble with it. For the average home user, I really don't think it matters which filesystem you use, it's only an issue if you're dealing with legacy data on already formatted drives or if you're running certain applications in high traffic environments.

As to viewing ReiserFS or EXT3 in Windows. Well, Windows will at best ignore them, at worst it will show the partitions in my computer as unformatted discs and suggest reformatting them with NTFS. NTFS drives can be read under Linux, but not written to.

Personally, I use a 20GB USB hard drive formatted with FAT32 to share data between Windows and Linux on a dual boot system.

Actually ext3 is better compared to reiserfs in means of the utilities for it, such as dump. There is not yet dump tool for reiserfs, thus makes it harder to backup the system. Yeah I know, someone will say, but but but can't you use tar?? Well, try to use tar to backup to a file within its own directory structure and see what happens. Eg: you want to backup the home directory, and home directory in your system has the biggest hard drive space so you do tar cvf /home/mybackup.tar /home see what happens Also if you are running reiserfs, usually it will make things harder for you in case you want to access the filesystem from the rescue disc. Just a thought.

* Irwan Hadi (Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 09:44:57AM -0600)

Actually ext3 is better compared to reiserfs in means of the utilities for it, such as dump.

DUMP CONSIDERED HARMFUL Forgot when it was posted, but the man himself (linus) has said that as of 2.4 dump is considered harmful, as the filesystem state on disk 9which si what dump reads) and the filesystem state as the kernel sees it, might not be the same, levaing dump/restore to come up witha coirrupt filesystem.

There is not yet dump tool for reiserfs, thus makes it harder to backup the system. Yeah I know, someone will say, but but but can't you use tar?? Well, try to use tar to backup to a file within its own directory structure and see what happens. Eg: you want to backup the home directory, and home directory in your system has the biggest hard drive space so you do tar cvf /home/mybackup.tar /home see what happens

If you want to make a backup, always backup to something else, either a seperate disk, a tape or a CD/DVD, never to the same partition/disk.

Also if you are running reiserfs, usually it will make things harder for you in case you want to access the filesystem from the rescue disc.

As of suse 7.0 (I think) reiser is standard part of the rescue system. Having said all that, I've been bitten a few too many times (in the 7.X days) by reiser bugs (mostly in combination w/ NFS) that Iv'e given up on reiser. An additional benefit of ext3 is that (if you really desire) you can mount them as ext2, and that it is easy to convert ext2 to ext3 . Also, there are decidedly more tools that can deal with ext2 then with reiser (which is I guess what Irwan meant). Even dos/windows based tools (older version of partition magic, drive imjage, ghost &c &c ) can all deal with ext2 , but could not deal with ext3. Kind regards, -- Gerhard den Hollander Phone :+31-10.280.1515 ICT manager Direct:+31-10.280.1539 Fugro-Jason Fax :+31-10.280.1511 gdenhollander@Fugro-Jason.com POBox 1573 visit us at http://www.Fugro-Jason.com 3000 BN Rotterdam JASON.......#1 in Reservoir Characterization The Netherlands This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the addressee. This e-mail shall not be deemed binding unless confirmed in writing. If you have received it by mistake, please let us know by e-mail reply and delete it from your system; you may not copy this message or disclose its contents to anyone. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.