ExtFS for Windows Early Adopter Testing

Paragon Software Group proudly announces its new driver for cross-platform compatibility ExtFS for Windows. Remove the borders between Windows and Linux file systems with this new driver!
As always we are thankful for your comments and reports on new product.

How to download and run the driver:
- Sign up for Early Adopter testing of ExtFS for Windows here: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/extfs-windows-beta/
- Download and install latest version of Dokan library from official project page: http://dokan-dev.net/en/download/
*To install dokan on Windows 8 you might need to run the installer in compatibility with Windows 7 mode.
-Download and run Paragon ExtFS for Windows
-Locate Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 volume the list and double-click it
-In right frame you should see the string "Volume will be mounted on" and drive letter assigned for this volume
-To unmount the volume just exit the program

Note, the GUI is not final and going to be redone. What we are interested in is the productivity of this driver. In case you see any error please copy paste us the info from the right info-bar that you will see as you run the UI of the tool. In the left pane you will see the disk list and in the right the detailed description. So this description is important.

Thanks in advance
With best regards
Paragon Development Team

 

First impressions are good.
As stated, the GUI needs some love but I'll overlook that for now.

File system labels are shown correctly, read speed is reasonable (~20mbps for a 5400rpm drive over USB2 for a 700mb file)

Trying to copy the same file back, I initially got "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service" in the copy dialogue.
Clicking on "Try again" succeeded, with the write speed increasing slowly from ~4mbps to 7.2mbps by the end of the copy.

System resource usage is good, with only 22mb RAM being used, didn't really increase during copy operations, CPU usage peaked at 3% which is perfectly acceptable.

Seemed a bit slow to respond to certain operations, like displaying metadata or allowing me to seek in Windows Media Player. Also opening directories in some instances.

At one point Windows made a USB disconnect noise and my drive chirped, then it connected again. Filesystem was inaccessible but windows didn't close, which is not normal for Windows.
(If I quit the program while browsing a mounted directory, the explorer window closes as expected.)

Checked the log and it was full of

The last line meaning "Error reading" in Russian.

Remounted the drive and it seems to have only mounted the folder I was in previously, drive capacity is correct but a folder 1 level deep was now the top-level directory
Closing the program and re-opening and re-mounting solves this.

Delete operation works fine. Deleting files is quick and there is no option for a recycle bin (which is correct)
Sometimes it does take quite long before anything happens though.

In Linux, all write operations appear correctly, however e2fsck reports that the drive was not cleanly unmounted.
Also reports "Block bitmap differences" and 9x "Free blocks count wrong for group"
Haven't gotten these errors in the past.

I haven't checked this myself, but how are illegal characters dealt with?

System info:
Windows 7 x64 SP1
Lenovo Thinkpad X220

Drive is ext2 formatted, connected via USB2.0
e2fsck log: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=EwQL5KDR

 

I get the error message "Cannot initialize UFSD. Error 0xa000011c" when attempting to mount an Ext3 formatted 1TB Seagate Desktop USB disk in the following configurations:-

1. Toshiba Satellite Pro L300 - Intel Core 2 Duo ,Windows 7 Home Premium , latest patch level.

2. GigaByte GA-MA78G-DS3H , AMD Phenom II X4 955 , Windows 7 Professional latest patch level, Disk connected to ASUS U3S6 SATA/USB3.0 Interface.
3. GigaByte GA-MA78G-DS3H , AMD Phenom II X4 955 ,Windows XP Professional latest patch level, Disk connected to ASUS U3S6 SATA/USB3.0 Interface.

Configurations 2 & 3 work with the on board USB2 connection, but give a message " insufficient system resources" on first access in file explorer, subsequent access is okay.

The same hardware configuration as 2&3 mounts the disk when connected to ASUS U3S6 SATA/USB3.0 under Windows 8 Professional, but still gives the same " insufficient system resources" message.

The disk was formatted using Paragon Backup and Recovery 10 Suite, the disk was then used to transfer video files from a Humax PVR. The videos appear to play without problems using the beta software , although extensive testing has not been done.

Another minor problem I noticed was that on one occasion the mount message did not appear at the end of the log file but in the middle of a previous entry.

 

I think the tranfer speed is a little slower than ext2fsd: same usb pen ext2 formatted ext2fsd 26 MB/s, ExtFS 22 MB/s. A doubt: how can i uninstall the program? I don't see a link to uninstaller.

 

Dear friends,

testing of ExtFS for Windows has been closed. Please contact us directly via online support form if you have additional questions concerning this software.

Many thanks for your participation and collaboration.
With best regards
Paragon support team.