writing on ext3 partition with ext2 driver. Journal?

rokkon · 06-06-2006, 10:41 PM

I want to use an ext3 partition as shared partition between win and lin. However there only exists a journal-less ext driver for win, is this a problem?
Does it mean less fs stability or lost/ outdated files on dics when writing with a ext2 driver on the partition?
Or do I have to do a disc check everytime i boot from win to lin?

pljvaldez · 06-07-2006, 12:44 PM

I don't know much about the windows ext2 driver, but generally you should use a fat32 partition to share between windows and linux. Both read an write to it flawlessly...

rokkon · 06-07-2006, 02:40 PM

well I want it to be my new /home partition, unfortunately because of lacking diskspace have to use it also from windows (for storage and big games).
I think an fat32 /home might be a bad idea, because of missing rights management. Also the 4gb limit of fat bugs me. I do write an dvd iso on disc from time to time, for example when downloading a new knoppix.

I think the win driver is stable; it would be the same question if I were to use and old linux with only ext2 support to write on ext3 partitions.

pljvaldez · 06-07-2006, 04:35 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3

From wikipedia and other web sources, it seems you can mount ext3 filesystems as ext2 filesystems and it should work fine. Never tried it though...

rokkon · 06-07-2006, 08:05 PM

ext3 is said to be backwards compatible.
oh well, I think I just do it now and see what happenes

However, because you linked to the wikipedia article.. this is what irritates me, point 1 and 2:

Quote:

Originally Posted by wikipedia

The ext3 file system adds, over its predecessor:

A Journal
Tree-based directory indexes for directories spanning multiple blocks
Online filesystem resizing

If ext3 has a different way to handle directories.. I wonder what the consequences are when creating ext2 directories on it.