Ext2 Installable File System For Windows

[JerMe]

You won't have journaling when you mount ext3 under Windows, but at least the journalling will be back when you remount in linux. I thought that ext3 was more or less just ext2 with journaling? (thinks back to mke2fs -j)

The driver is great, I've been using it for a while now. I like the fact that I can unmount the drive in Windows (so that the drive won't appear on startup.)

The gotcha is that if you mount an external ext2 drive in Windows as drive X:, but forget to unmount it before you remove the ext2 drive (shut down, reboot)... when you boot back up, the X: drive will still appear under My Computer. Simple uninstall/reinstall of the driver fixes it.

Once in a while, some Windows application won't like the drive. I can't remember which proggie hiccupped with my ext3 drive. Still, all in all a great driver.

However, there's always the possibility of a windows virus running over your now accessible ext2 data... so I suggest, if possible, to only have the drive mounted when you use it, and unmount it when you're done. I don't think there's a worm/virus that mounts possible ext2 drives just to wipe 'em out.

 

[Gnufsh]

"Of course you do not take advantage of the journaling of the Ext3 file system if you mount it as an Ext2 file system."

So, if I mount the partition as an Ext3, not Ext2, there's no journaling?

No, if an ext3 partition is mounted as ext3 there is journaling, if it is mounted as ext2 there is no journaling. THe windows ifs driver, however, only supports ext2. So, when it mounts an ext3 partition, it mounts it as ext2.

to word the above statement backwards, " To take advantage of the journaling of the Ext3 file system, mount it as an Ext3, not Ext2".

Either way, it's better than FAT32.

This is correct.

 

[itshondo]

Ok, I understand now.

However, there's always the possibility of a windows virus running over your now accessible ext2 data... so I suggest, if possible, to only have the drive mounted when you use it, and unmount it when you're done. I don't think there's a worm/virus that mounts possible ext2 drives just to wipe 'em out.

Excellent advice-