[starwolf39]

To lay out the details, I have 3 hard drives, each partitioned into seperate drives.

Before I installed Linux, I was running WinXP under one partition on Disk 3, and had several other partitions spread throughout my disks that contain data in NTFS format. I backed up all my data on Disk 2, wiped it clean, and installed Fedora Core 4 on it, creating a root drive and a swap partition.

Once I booted into FC4, I realized that I had trouble even viewing my NTFS partitions. I managed to install support to read NTFS, but I have learned that writing to an NTFS partition under Linux is dangerous.

Another problem to factor in is that I have a network setup in my house with 3 other computers running WinXP. I thought at first I could backup all my data, create new partitions using ext3 format and replace my data so that I could read and write to them under Linux. However, all the other computers on my network would then be unable to read them, or even view them. I read somewhere that it might be possible to install support for WinXP to read ext3 partitions, but I am unsure of this.

Can anyone find me an appropriate solution for my troubles? Note that using Linux on all the other computers in the network is not an option.

[tsunam]

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/ext2ifs.htm <--is the link for the driver. Might I suggest you look into samba, which is actually quite easy to work with, so that you can use the linux machine as a file server for the other boxes? (seems to be what you are trying to do)

[starwolf39]

Great, that link was exactly what I wanted. And yes, I forgot to mention I would be using Samba to network the machines together.

So basically, the best way to use make all my partitions ext3 and install this driver on all the WinXP machines?

Also, are there any file limitations in ext3 that are allowable in NTFS? Like 4 GB file size barrier, etc?

[tsunam]

The windows machines don't need ext3 support if you are using samba, its the nice thing about samba for file sharing . Not sure about file limitations in ext3. i've not run into any, but then I don't grab 5-6 gig files often or at all (think i did once without problem)

[starwolf39]

Well having ext3 support is necessary for me to at least be able to move files from my backup media back onto my new ext3 partitions. I found a driver listed on the page on the bottom of the link that you sent me which grants read AND write access to WinXP on ext3 drives and it works beautifully. Thanks for your fast reply tsunam.

[tsunam]

not a problem, its what we're here for

[jiml8]

Originally Posted by starwolf39

Great, that link was exactly what I wanted. And yes, I forgot to mention I would be using Samba to network the machines together.

So basically, the best way to use make all my partitions ext3 and install this driver on all the WinXP machines?

Also, are there any file limitations in ext3 that are allowable in NTFS? Like 4 GB file size barrier, etc?

Be very careful about using this utility to write to an ext2 or ext3 file system. Unless it has been improved since I played with it a couple of years ago, it can badly hose the file system.

Samba implements the Windows SMB file system sharing in other operating systems, including Linux. You don't need any ext2/ext3 drivers on any system that is accessing an ext2/ext3 fs via samba.