NTFS emulation

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SpoonmAn
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:09 pm

NTFS emulation

Post by SpoonmAn »

Hi everybody, this is my first thread to this forum, and i want to say first that i am verry impressed of what i see here about this OS. good work, keep on going!

i recently had a problem with a harddisc on a pc, and on searching solutions to resolve i found coincidantly (did i spell this right? sorry for my bad english) a ntfs emulation for linux caled captive. the website says that it uses parts of ROS, so maybe ROS could also do so and use parts of captive...?
oiaohm
Posts: 1322
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 8:40 am

Post by oiaohm »

Don't worry your english. My english is worse at times and english is my only langage.

Captive is not a cure for reactos.

Captive uses Windows NTFS driver. Not permited if you don't own a copy of windows for that machine and in some countries that is not even legal.

All useful code from Captive is already in reactos.

Back in the forum there has been alot of talk about this all ready.
MarOrt
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:00 pm

Post by MarOrt »

Been away for a couple of weeks.
Did anyone have a look at Datapol's NTFS4Dos?

http://www.datapol.de/dpe/recovery/ntfs/index.html

I have installed it on a floppy and at first glance it does NOT seem to use any Windows proprietary files.

And... it's free for personal use!
Matthias
Posts: 496
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:43 am

Post by Matthias »

MarOrt wrote:Been away for a couple of weeks.
Did anyone have a look at Datapol's NTFS4Dos?

http://www.datapol.de/dpe/recovery/ntfs/index.html

I have installed it on a floppy and at first glance it does NOT seem to use any Windows proprietary files.

And... it's free for personal use!
This is a DOS driver, and ReactOS can only load (some) Windows NT drivers. Also, it's no free software, so it shouldn't be used in ReactOS anyway.
MarOrt
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:00 pm

Post by MarOrt »

Matthias wrote:This is a DOS driver, and ReactOS can only load (some) Windows NT drivers. Also, it's no free software, so it shouldn't be used in ReactOS anyway.
It may work even if it's a DOS driver and ReactOs may incorporated it somehow or be adjusted to work with NTFS4Dos.

BTW it's FREE for personal use, so it could be used within Reactos by non corporate users. (Perhaps as an independent plug-in?)
Also it beats the ReactOS developpers having to develop a NTFS-driver from scratch!

And perhaps the makers could even be persuaded to donate it to Reactos or to make make special free version for ReactOS? (for idealism sake sources would be nice, but for the time being I'll would go along with a compiled version!)
Matthias
Posts: 496
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:43 am

Post by Matthias »

MarOrt wrote:It may work even if it's a DOS driver and ReactOs may incorporated it somehow or be adjusted to work with NTFS4Dos.
No, it *won't work*. Forget about it, it's not possible without the source code. Well, perhaps it is possible, but it would be a very dirty hack, and it certainly wouldn't be much less work than writing an NTFS driver from scratch.
MarOrt wrote: BTW it's FREE for personal use, so it could be used within Reactos by non corporate users. (Perhaps as an independent plug-in?)
Also it beats the ReactOS developpers having to develop a NTFS-driver from scratch!
And perhaps the makers could even be persuaded to donate it to Reactos or to make make special free version for ReactOS? (for idealism sake sources would be nice, but for the time being I'll would go along with a compiled version!)
You should go and learn what free software actually means.
To use a non-free driver in ReactOS would mean to miss the hole point in the project. ReactOS is free software and it shouldn't use non-free software, period.
Also, i don't think that NTFS is very important. As soon as ReactOS is able to load Windows file system drivers, available ext2 drivers can be incorporated into ReactOS. After all, the important point is that ReactOS needs a proper file system (no, fat is *not* a proper file system), and i personally don't care very much whether that is NTFS or ext2, as long as it's free. Sooner or later it would certainly be nice to have NTFS support, but at the moment i don't see the necessity, since only *very* few application mess with the file system anyway.
MarOrt
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:00 pm

Post by MarOrt »

Thanks for the link, it's a nice definition of free software is. :)

I assume many professionals like me use NTFS based partitons with Windows 2000, XP (Home) or soon Vista.
Like with past Windows "upgrades", I believe that many people initially will be using dual boot systems (till ReactOS has proof to be reliable) and will need NTFS to access existing data.

E.g. would you write your thesis on ReactOS "immediately" after it's release?

I personal think NTFS is one of features that will initially push ReactOS as a mainstream OS, but on the contrary I believe that when ReactOS has a firm base, the need for NTFS will diminish and NTFS could even be replaced by another (better, faster, fill in your desired fature) file systems.

Assuming ReactOS is a project to make a Windows 99,99% compatible OS, I would categorize NTFS as very important initial feature.

I tend to have practical instead of theoretical user views on the development Reactos... :twisted: (even the most known free OS (Linux) has a hardtime being accepted as a mainstream desktop OS)
tuft
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:38 pm

Post by tuft »

IMHO ntfs support isn't most importan feature. In case of dual boot it will be quite easy to load ntfs driver from windows (as captive does) and without dual boot you just don't need ntfs support, there are many other good and open source file systems. Ntfs change with every service pack, it's almost impossible to make 100% compatible driver.
Matthias
Posts: 496
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:43 am

Post by Matthias »

tuft wrote:IMHO ntfs support isn't most importan feature. In case of dual boot it will be quite easy to load ntfs driver from windows (as captive does) and without dual boot you just don't need ntfs support, there are many other good and open source file systems. Ntfs change with every service pack, it's almost impossible to make 100% compatible driver.
Ghandi said that sometimes you have to use poison to kill poison, so i say that sometimes you have to use non-free Software to kill non-free Software :o)
This is why i think that first of all ReactOS should be made capable of loading the Windows NTFS driver, since this will help people to get rid of NTFS alltogether. Maybee it would even be useful to ship a tool with ReactOS which converts NTFS partitions to something else (though the development of such a tool would certainly be beyond the scope of ReactOS)
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