Ext2Fsd

{{Infobox software

| logo =

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| author = Matt Wu

| developer = Matt Wu

| released = {{Start date and age|2002|01|26}}

| discontinued = yes

| latest release version = 0.69 {{cite web |url=http://www.ext2fsd.com/?p=236 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125125212/http://www.ext2fsd.com/?p=236 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2019-01-25 |title=Ext2Fsd 0.69 released ! |date=2018-01-13}}

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2017|11|2}}

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| programming language = Chttp://www.ohloh.net/p/ext2fsd

| operating system = Microsoft Windows

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| language = English, Simplified Chinese

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| genre = Installable File System

| license = GNU GPL v2

| repo = {{URL|https://github.com/matt-wu/Ext3Fsd}}

| website = {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20240805114013/https://www.ext2fsd.com/ Archive of the original website]}}

}}

Ext2Fsd (short for Ext2 File System Driver) is a free Installable File System driver written in C for the Microsoft Windows operating system family. It facilitates read and write access to the ext2, ext3 and ext4 file systems.

The driver can be installed on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8,{{cite web |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTcyMjg |title=Ext2Fsd: EXT3/EXT4 Support Now Works On Windows 8 |date=2014-06-19}} Windows 10, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2. Support for Windows NT was dropped in version 0.30.{{cite web |url=http://ext2fsd.sourceforge.net/index.htm |title=Ext2fsd|date=2009-07-27}}

The program Ext2Mgr can optionally be installed additionally to manage drive letters and such. Since the final release in 2017, no further updates have been made to Ext2Fsd. The official website succumbed to link rot in 2024.

Reception

The German computer magazine PC-WELT reported frequent program crashes in 2009. The program was not able to access ext3 partitions smoothly. This often led to a blue screen. Crashes of this type can lead to data loss, for example if there is not yet permanently stored data in the main memory. The program could only access ext2 partitions without errors.{{Cite news|url=https://www.pcwelt.de/ratgeber/Ext2fsd-Absturzgefahr-Windows-396374.html|title=Ext2fsd - Absturzgefahr|last=Donauer|first=Jürgen|work=PC-WELT|access-date=2018-08-25}} In 2012, Computerwoche warned that access to ext3 partitions was "not harmless". Data loss may occur.{{Cite web|url=https://www.computerwoche.de/a/power-tools-fuer-windows-7,2488466,8|title=Ext2fsd: Zugriff auf Linux-Partition - Tuning für Microsoft Windows: Power-Tools für Windows 7 - computerwoche.de|website=www.computerwoche.de|language=de|access-date=2018-08-25}}

Features

= Feature matrix =

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 85%; text-align: center" ! class="unsortable" \| ! Read ! Write ! Journal ! dir_index
ext2 \|\| {{ya}} \|\| {{ya}} \|\| {{N/A}} \|\| {{N/A}}
ext3 \|\| {{ya}} \|\| {{ya}} \|\| {{Partial\|Limited}} \|\| {{ya}}
ext4 \|\| {{ya}} \|\| {{ya}} \|\| {{Partial\|Limited}} \|\| {{ya}}

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 85%; text-align: center"

! class="unsortable" |

! Read

! Write

! Journal

! dir_index

ext2 || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{N/A}} || {{N/A}}

ext3 || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{Partial|Limited}} || {{ya}}

ext4 || {{ya}} || {{ya}} || {{Partial|Limited}} || {{ya}}

=Supported Ext3/4 features=

Source:

flexible inode size: > 128 bytes, up to block size
dir_index: htree directory index
filetype: extra file mode in dentry
large_file: > 4G files supported
sparse_super: super block backup in group descriptor
uninit_bg: fast fsck and group checksum
extent: full support with extending and shrinking.
journal: only support replay for internal journal
flex_bg: first flexible metadata group
symlink and hardlink
Mount-as-user: specified uid/gid supported

=Unsupported Ext3/4 features=

64BIT mode (to support 2^64 blocks)
journal: log-based operations, external journal
Extended file attributes (EA), Access control list (ACL) support

=Features to be implemented in future=

Extents management improvement
EA and ACL security checking

Critical Bug

On November 2, 2017, a warning was issued with the release of version 0.69:

Don't use Ext2Fsd 0.68 or earlier versions with latest Ubuntu or Debian systems. Ext2Fsd 0.68 cannot process EXT4 with 64-BIT mode enabled, then it could corrupt your data. Very sorry for this disaster issue, I'm working on an improvement.

While it is not very clear whether v0.69 corrects this deficiency, users have reported {{Cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/ext2fsd/discussion/143329/thread/ae5685f415/?limit=25#dd5d|title=Ext2 File System Driver for Windows / Discussion / Ext2Fsd: You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it|website=sourceforge.net|access-date=2019-10-07}} that Windows 10 prompts them to format the ext4 drive even with the 0.69 version. The known solution is to convert the said ext4 drive to a 32 bit version.{{Cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/ext2fsd/discussion/143329/thread/ae5685f415/#dd5d|title=Ext2 File System Driver for Windows / Discussion / Ext2Fsd: You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it|website=sourceforge.net|access-date=2019-10-07}}

References

External links

{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20240805114013/https://www.ext2fsd.com/ Archive of the original website]}}
{{SourceForge|ext2fsd|Ext2 File System Driver for Windows}}

Category:Free software programmed in C

Category:Utilities for Windows

Category:Windows disk file systems

Category:Free storage software