[sf-lug] recommendations on file system

[Sameer Verma]

Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Sameer Verma (sverma at sfsu.edu):
>
>   
>> Does anyone have suggestions for a filesystem that's writeable from XP 
>> and Linux and supports large (4GB+) files so that I can use this 
>> partition from both OSes?
>>     
>
> Ext2 IFS for Windows
> http://www.fs-driver.org/
>
> Notable points:
>
> o  4 GB+ files are supported.  Accessing one for the first time sets a 
>    flag bit so that ridiculously ancient sub-2.2 kernels know not to 
>    mount the filesystem read/write, thereafter.
> o  Access rights are not maintained. 
> o  Dotfiles are given no special presentation within MS-Windows.
> o  Access is denied to "special" files (which fortunately doesn't matter).
> o  ext3 volumes are fully readable, but without journaling functions.
> o  Licence appears to be gratis-usage proprietary "freeware" [sic], 
>    i.e., lawful for any usage or redistribution, but with no right to 
>    modify; driver source code is unavailable.  Binary i386 binary
>    software.
>
>   
Sorry for replying on this  bit late.

I came across another Ext2 FileSystem driver for Windows: 
http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net/
I've been using it for some time now. Seems to work well. Given the 
choice of NTFS and Ext2/3, I decided to go with Ext camp simply because 
we know how it works and its not going to be [potentially] held hostage 
by a third party. Cannot say the same for NTFS.

As I usually use Linux (I don't boot into Windows unless I *really* have 
to) if I can read from and write to Ext2/3 partitions from both sides, I 
am quite happy.

Thanks for all the pointers.

cheers,
Sameer

-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/