Warning: Do not use Write Support! If you use the write support you run the risk of losing your filesystem, which depending on how your system is set up, the ability to boot other OS's (ie Windows). The default read only support is safe to use. NOTE: Read Only support is OK! Write support means that Explore2fs writes to your linux filesystem, not your windows one. Users of NT who have problems with partitions which are not detected can now use the Native IO feature of Explore2fs. This uses the partitions as identified by NT at boot time. This access is not available from the Win32 subsystem so Explore2fs can bypass Win32 and interface directly with the Native API. This supports drag and drop, as well as many other improvements. Subtle bugs in write support are being ironed out as well as other UI improvements. Despite being version 1.00, I think Explore2fs will join the list of 'Permanent beta' software, for now anyway. Currently, I don't have any time to develop it, but when I get a chance, I plan to implement more functionality, especially language support. I know there are a lot of non-english speaking people who I could make life easier for. I think there are still a few minor problems in the write code, so this is only pre release for now. When I get some free time, I'll do some more work on it. Quick jump to Download See what the press is saying about Explore2fs Reading ex2fs filesystems under NT 4.0 (and Windows 95). Have you ever downloaded a whole lot of files under Linux, but when you boot back into NT you remember that you forgot to copy them onto your NT Drive? Well I did, so I wrote an explorer like program that will allow you to save files from any ex2fs partition.
Supported Operating Systems Although Explore2fs was originally written for Windows NT 4.0, it now works on the following Win32 operating systems:
More Information on Windows 95/98/ME More Information on Windows NT/2000/XP Features of the latest version I have added many features, some of which include:
Coming features
Features that are not planned
Frequently Asked Questions Pleases take the time to read the FAQ Creating a File System in a file. For testing write support, I use a file system in a file, rather than risk killing my Linux partitions. These are simple steps to creating a file which contains an ex2fs filesystem. Please read the FAQ and the platform specific information NT 95!!! 1.00 pre 4 (With NT Native IO) http://explore2fs-1.00-pre4.zip Source code to version pre 4 http://explore2fs-1.00-pre4-src.tgz More info on the disk access under 95 can be found here. My goal is a program which will allow you to install Linux from NT. I hopefully will add support for importing .tgz files. I currently have some code, but I have had no time to finish it off. If you are interested, have a look at the source code. I have tested the write support, but it is still beta. There may be bugs in the code, if you come across any please let me know. Some of the algorithms used for allocation and de-allocation may be different to the Linux kernel, but e2fsck does not have any complaints. Remember is something goes wrong, send me the debug log and the output of a 'e2fsck -vf' Mailing List There is a notification list which I use to announce new versions of Explore2fs. It is very low traffic and an easy way to keep up to date with the latest version. To subscribe send an empty message to explore2fs-subscribe@uranus.it.swin.edu.au
See also the Readme and the Changes file
Installation Just unzip the file. If you got the source you should make sure you keep the directory structure. You can leave the DLL in the same directory as the executable. Remember to check out the options under the view menu. If you want to have user names and groups listed, export your passwd and group files and set them up under in options dialog. See the readme for more details. Please also note that some changes to the disk are not written to the disk till the program exits. If you have written to a partition, and for some reason the program does not exit cleanly (such as 95 crashing :) ) you will be left with a large mess of a filesystem. Version 1.00 has a sync on a timer to try and prevent this from occurring. Using Drag and drop You should be able to work it out. Use the left mouse to drag files. You can use the right mouse button to drag directories, but it can be very slow. If anybody has any better ideas for doing this, please send me an e-mail. Symbolic Links Symbolic links up to 60 characters can be viewed from the properties window. Longer symbolic links can be viewed by selecting View or Export. The reason for this is that instead of storing the link text in a data block, it is stored in the inode, where the data blocks are normally referenced. This allow a maximum of 60 chars. If it is longer that 60 chars, it is treated exactly like a normal file. Wanted Any help with disk access under 95, or improvements to the COM code would be greatly appreciated. Related Software Winux is a graphical configuration interface for the LOADLIN bootloader. It also has multi-language support including English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It runs under Windows and Linux. Written by Herve Utard. I have not used this software but it looks good. Could be very useful for fixing booting problems. More Information I am writing a document in which I hope to pass on all my knowledge of the filesystem. The document is still under development, but you can find it here. Filesystems-HOWTO: http://penguin.cz/~mhi/fs/ Last modified 25/09/01 |
