[SOLVED] Vista & Ext 3 HD Readable/Non-Readable

[hcour]

Hope this is the proper place to post this.

My computer is running Vista. I've formatted an external hd w/EXT3 using Acronis, and I installed EXT2IFS program/driver and assigned letter Z to the drive. Vista read it fine and I copied media files to Z: from my internal drives. I then uplugged it and plugged it into my media player (Popcorn Hour A-110) which uses Linux and it played the files fine. However, when I reconnected Z: back to my computer later, Vista would no longer read the drive. It sees it, but it won't access it. I tired re-installing the EXT2IFS driver, didn't help.

So I installed Wubi, which I'd read about it. I booted into it and tried to copy files from my Vista drive to the EXT3 external drive. Ubuntu told me I didn't have permission. So, I booted back into Vista to come here and ask how to get permission when I noticed I could access the Z: drive. I copied some files, worked fine.

But when I disconnected it from my computer, used it on the media player again, and then reconnected, Vista would not access it again. So I assume the media player is doing something to the drive to make it unreadable in Vista? Thinking Ubuntu had done something to make it work before, I booted into Ubuntu, exited, booted back into Vista, but it didn't work this time. I still can't access Z: in Vista.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Thanks,
Harold

PS - If anyone could tell me how to give myself permission to copy files from my internal drives (NTFS) to the Z: drive while in Ubuntu I'd appreciate it. I can at least do that until I get this figured out. I looked under System/Authorizations, but I couldn't figure out which I needed. Thanks.

[HROAdmin26]

Windows does not play nice with non-MSFT filesystems. If you plan on moving this between Windows/Linux machines, the path of least headache is to put FAT32 or NTFS on the external drive.

Ext3 is essentially an ext2 filesystem with a journal "tacked on." I don't see anything about the Windows EXT2 driver that says it supports ext3??? That by itself may be causing problems/corrupting the journal.

EXT2IFS:

It provides Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes (read access and write access). This may be useful if you have installed both Windows and Linux as a dual boot environment on your computer.

[hcour]

Ok, I fixed it by changing to another Ext2/3 driver. Thanks!