Hi Greg & Lee, On Mon, 2004-11-22 at 07:54, BandiPat wrote:

On Monday 22 November 2004 03:41 am, Greg Wallace wrote:

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I recently converted one of two partitions on a USB hard-drive I have from NTFS to EXT2 so I could use it on my Linux machine <snip>

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I tried installing oneof them that I found that was freeware (I think it was called EXT2FS), but couldn't figure out how to operate it, so I ended up trashing it. <snip> Where are you downloading your Windoze free/share/trial ware from? It almost always come with at least one `readme.txt' file. If not that,

I agree with Lee, below, regarding using fat32 instead of ext2 -- with one potential caveat: When I move files from Linux to my Win98SE/fat32 file system -- most of the time, but not always -- an alert is generated to remind me that the permissions did not correctly translate into the fat32 copy. I understand this part, but what happens when you're exchanging or backing up data from the dark side when it's native file system is NTFS? Are Linux and NTFS file security/permissions strategies at all compatible -- assuming there even is one in XP? Does one run into related problems when rotating many file types between the three systems? <snip> there's usually a *.htm which links to their on-line (spyware installing) website with on-line docs an an order form ;-)

Greg, The simple answer would be to make the new partition FAT32 instead of ext2. Doing that would allow your WinXP to read & write as well as your Linux side. Linux can easily take care of the FAT32 partitions. That would give you the best all around setup, if you are needing to transfer files from either or both.

regards, Lee

regards, - Carl

On Monday, November 22, 2004 3:54 AM, BandiPat wrote:

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On Monday 22 November 2004 03:41 am, Greg Wallace wrote: I recently converted one of two partitions on a USB hard-drive I have from NTFS to EXT2 so I could use it on my Linux machine, which means I can no longer even browse it on my Windows XP (SP2) machine. I'd like to have that capability, so I did some internet searches and discovered that there is software available that will allow you to read (and even write) to an EXT2 hard drive partition on a Windows machine. Not sure if I'd ever need to actually write to it from Windows, but being able to view data and maybe pull files off of it from the Windows machine would be sort of nice. Anyone have any experience with any of this type of software? I tried installing one of them that I found that was freeware (I think it was called EXT2FS), but couldn't figure out how to operate it, so I ended up trashing it. Maybe it was good software and I was just too dumb to figure out how to operate it, but when I tried to install it, I couldn't see that anything actually happened. After the install, clicking on the various exe's that came with it didn't seem to do anything either. I would like to think there's something out there with at least some rudimentary GUI front-end, but maybe that's wishful thinking on my part. Worst case, if it came with at least some rudimentary operating instructions, that would be better than nothing. Suggestions anyone?

Thanks, Greg Wallace ==========

Greg, The simple answer would be to make the new partition FAT32 instead of ext2. Doing that would allow your WinXP to read & write as well as your Linux side. Linux can easily take care of the FAT32 partitions. That would give you the best all around setup, if you are needing to transfer files from either or both.

regards, Lee

-- --- KMail v1.7.1 --- SuSE Linux Pro v9.2 --- Registered Linux User #225206 "Don't let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!"

Lee: Well, actually I tried using FAT32 first (I used "PARTITION MAGIC" to format the drive). However, when I tried to copy a large file over to the device from my Linux machine it errored off at app 2G saying the file was too big. I was trying to move over a YAST backup file of app 6G in size. Apparently, FAT32 cannot handle files that are that large. It errored off at (as I recall) app. 2G (maybe slightly larger). So, I regrouped, deleted that partition, and re-allocated the space on the drive as EXT2. I was then (of course) able to move my 6G backup file over to the USB drive, 6G being (of course) no problem for EXT2. The downside is that now, with the file system being EXT2, I can no longer even mount it on Windows. I really need to be able to put backups on this USB disk and I would like to at least be able to browse it on my Windows machine. Unless there is some alternative, I think installing some EXT2 software on the Windows machine is my best alternative. But if there is some way to go, I'd certainly be interested in learning about it. Thanks, Greg W

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 18:28:37 +0100, Catimimi wrote:

Greg Freemyer a écrit :

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I have the same task as you this morning, getting a ext2 FS to be usable from windows. In my case I need full functionallity. ie. I need 250GB partitiona support, a drive letter assigned, then I need to be able to use normal windows software.

I found ext2fsd (like you did?), but the "alpha" quality rating is pushing me away. The good news is that a release was made in the last couple of weeks, but it looks like a pretty significant bug that was just fixed.

bug fixes are listed at http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net/projects/projects.htm#ext2fsd

There is also ext2ifs which considers itself beta software under Win2K, but is read-only

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm

I also found a commercial product for $30 which one hopes is production quality.

http://www.ext2fs-anywhere.com/index.htm

It appears to be from a German software company (Paragon Software Group).

Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about Paragon?

Thanks Greg

I use ext2fs-anywhere in order to read and write to ext2 or ext3 partitions. It is OK with small (a few GB) partitions, but I got difficulties with 250GB partition so that I came back to NTFS. I write to NTFS under linux by using vmware and mounting a smbfs share. It works fine but it is rather expensive even with an education license.

Writing to ext2fs with Paragon give you up to 60% of non contiguous files and you get warnings with the trash under windows XP but it works.

Michel.

Based on the above, I'll give the ext2fsd driver a try. I also just saw the ext2 tools for cygwin were released this summer. They could prove usefull as well. http://www.mail-archive.com/cygwin-announce@cygwin.com/msg00897.html Greg -- Greg Freemyer

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 12:39:33 -0500, Greg Freemyer wrote:

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On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 18:28:37 +0100, Catimimi wrote:

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Greg Freemyer a écrit :

...

...

I have the same task as you this morning, getting a ext2 FS to be usable from windows. In my case I need full functionallity. ie. I need 250GB partitiona support, a drive letter assigned, then I need to be able to use normal windows software.

I found ext2fsd (like you did?), but the "alpha" quality rating is pushing me away. The good news is that a release was made in the last couple of weeks, but it looks like a pretty significant bug that was just fixed.

bug fixes are listed at http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net/projects/projects.htm#ext2fsd

There is also ext2ifs which considers itself beta software under Win2K, but is read-only

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm

I also found a commercial product for $30 which one hopes is

...

...

...

http://www.ext2fs-anywhere.com/index.htm

It appears to be from a German software company (Paragon Software

Group).

...

Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about Paragon?

Thanks Greg

I use ext2fs-anywhere in order to read and write to ext2 or ext3 partitions. It is OK with small (a few GB) partitions, but I got difficulties with 250GB partition so that I came back to NTFS. I write to NTFS under linux by using vmware and mounting a smbfs share. It works fine but it is rather expensive even with an education

On Monday, November 22, 2004 @ 12:45 PM, Greg Freemeyer wrote -- production quality. license.

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Writing to ext2fs with Paragon give you up to 60% of non contiguous files and you get warnings with the trash under windows XP but it works.

Michel.

Based on the above, I'll give the ext2fsd driver a try.

I also just saw the ext2 tools for cygwin were released this summer. They could prove usefull as well.

http://www.mail-archive.com/cygwin-announce@cygwin.com/msg00897.html

Greg -- Greg Freemyer

ext2fsd did not work for me. I found sufficient docs to get the driver installed as a service. I did not find any need for a mount command, it all seemed pretty automatic.

One small issue is that by default you have to enter "net start ext2fsd" after every reboot, but I assume you can set that up permanently via the windows services program.

Once ext2fsd was running I could copy files off of the ext2 FS to a native windows FS.

I was not able to actually use the files directly on ext2. ie. The file open dialog box for my main application would not even let me select files on the ext2 partition.

Fortunately for me my files are static, but now I am having to put 2x250GB to tape, then restore them to a FAT32 partition. (I don't have a spare 250 GB drive to go direct disk-to-disk :(

I'm doing the first restore now. If I'm really lucky I will be able to start the second one before I leave work tonight.

FYI: I had to make my 250 GB fat partition in SUSE 9.2. Win2K and partition magic both refused to format something that big FAT. I considered NTFS, but Linux can't write to NTFS, so that was no good.

Greg -- Greg Freemyer

Greg Sorry ext2fsd didn't work for you. Based on the .22b release notes on their web site, looks like this software is still very much a work in progress. I went back through the thread for this topic and here's a quick summary of software based on what I got going out to the various web sites. *) Ext2ifs -- Says "If you have a PC which can dual boot...", meaning, I guess, if you have a machine with a dual Windows-Linux installation on it. It also says "What EXT2IFS can't do ... use removable media". I need to use this for a USB mounted hard drive, so not sure if it will work. *) e2fsprogs -- Looks like this is software for a Linux machine and not for Windows. *) ext2fsd -- Looks like they're still shaking out lots of bugs. *) ext2fs anywhere -- Michael had problems with it on large files, but looks like it still might have a chance of working for me. Based on your experience with ext2fsd, I've about decided to plunk down the $29.95 for Ext2FS Anywhere and just see what it will do. I was going to try the demo first, but then I saw this on the demo download page -- "Demo Restrictions: Read only drive Mounting of partition less than 1Gb" Right off the bat, I know that won't work, since my backups are app 6G. Oh well, at $29.95, it's really not too big a gamble. I'll let you know how it works for me. Greg W