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Q) What systems could Ext2Fsd 0.50 support
A) Windows 2000, xp, 2003, Vista, Win7 (X86, AMD64)
Windows NT 4.0 is no longer supported.
My stress test systems:
Win7 AMD64/X86, Vista AMD64, XP pro X86, Win2k SP4
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Q) How to install ext2fsd version 0.50
A) Just click the file of ext2fsd-0.50.exe. It will guide you for all.
You can also try the setup.bat or registry manually editing, only for
advanced installation.
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Q) How to uninstall
A) If you created group "Ext2Fsd" in your "Start Menu", just click
the link of "Uninstall Ext2Fsd".
Or you need "Add/Remove Programs" in "Control Panel" to remove
the program.
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Q) Vista always reports "The parameter is not right" when executing any
applications from my linux partition
A) The exact reason is unknown yet. But it's related to UAC. This issue
can be resolved by disabling UAC.
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Q) How to mount an ext2fsd partition or a volume ?
A) It's becoming easy with the help of the program "Ext2 Volume Manager".
Just "right click" on the dialog list, and select "Change Drive Letter".
Then you'll see the mount point dialog, you can add, change or remove
any driver letters.
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Q) Windows explorers shows up my mounted Ext3 partition as unformatted ?
A) 1, Make sure ExtsFsd service is started:
Ext2Mgr: Tools Menu->Service Management->Start Button
2, If ExtsFsd is started already, then try to remove the drive letter
and re-assign
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Q) How could I change the volume's codepage and other attributes ?
A) Right click the Ext2/Ext3 partition or volume in the list with your mouse,
you could see the menu item of "Ext2 Management", or double click and then
click the "Properties" button in Properties dialog.
Do not forget to apply your changes. These settings won't be kept after
booting, I'll implement it in next version.
Make sure the ext2fsd service is already started, or you won't get the
chance of changing ext2 volume information.
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Q) What's a permanent mountpoint ?
A) Windows system's mount manager will automatically mount volumes and
assign driver letters during booting. For xp and later systems, windows
only create unique volume ids for all the recognized volume/partitions,
such as FAT32, NTFS. The ext2/ext3 volumes could not be mounted by the
windows mount manager.
Ext2Mgr provides 3 methods to mount a Linux volume:
1, Using Windows API DefineDosDevice
Driver letter won't be kept and be lost after reboot. But it's convenient
for a temporary usage.
2, Using Windows MountMgr + Ext2Mgr
This method provides automatic mounting when Ext2Mgr detects new
disk is plugged and removal of driver letters after disk is removed.
If you are heavily using removable disks, this is the best choice.
3, Using registry to store the driver letter as a DosDevice
This method always works and it's better for fixed harddisks. Under
some conditions, you need a reboot to see the driver letter in explorer.
You could also modify the registry manually, see below:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\DOS Devices]
"X:"="\\Device\\HarddiskVolume1"
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Q) Windows Explorer always says the directory is not empty when deleting
A) There are several possible reasons:
1, the directory or any file under it is being used
2, there are hidden files inside the directory, try to make explorer
show all files or do "dir/a" in a cmd shell
3, remove all hiding patterens with ext2mgr: "." prefixed names
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Q) How to start Ext2Fsd automatically during system booting
A) Open program "Ext2 Volume Manager" and click menu "Service Management"
in submenu "Tools". Select "SERVICE_SYSTEM_START" and apply the changes.
You could click the "Start" button to start ext2fsd service. But it's
only start the service, not enabling auto-starting.
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Q) The system configuration changed, but Ext2Mgr doesn't refresh ?
A) Current version of "Ext2 Volume Manager" does not monitor system changes.
You must refresh it manually: click "Tools" -> "Reload and Refresh". Or
just simply close and reopen the program :)
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Q) Ext2Mgr hotkeys
A) F1: Help (this FAQ.txt)
F2: About Ext2Mgr
F3: Ext2 Volume Management
F4: Mountpoint Management (Drive Letter)
F5: Reload and Refresh
F6: Show Properties
F7: Ext2Fsd Service Management
F8: Ext2Fsd Statistics
F9: Remove Dead Letters
F10: Copy Everything to Clipboard
F11: Flush Cache to Disk
F12: Change Partition Type
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Q) Why is Ext2Mgr only listing CD/DVD devices or nothing on Vista ?
A) Vista's User Account Control (UAC) prohibits Ext2Mgr to query system
SECRET of harddisk/volume configurations.
You need run Ext2Mgr as administrator or disable UAC to stop Vista's
endless natter forever :)
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Q) How to turn off "Driver signature check" on Vista
A) Normally you can disable it by pressing F8 when booting and select
"Disable Driver Signature Enforcement"
If you want to disable it forever, do as the followings guide:
1, Run cmd.exe as administrator
2. Execute the followings in the cmd shell:
bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set nointegritychecks ON
WARNING: Turning off "siging check" might put you in danger of other
evil softwares like virus/trojan horse.
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Q) I don't like Ext2Mgr showing the splash screen
A) Add a parameter "/quiet" in command when executing Ext2Mgr, like
"Ext2Mgr /quiet" or ""Ext2Mgr -quiet""
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Q) How to build Ext2Fsd package ?
A) You need Winddk (available on Microsoft connect, free). After setup,
you just select a build environment (such as windows 2003 free), and
then execute "build" under the root directory of Ext2Fsd source code.
