I've seen that Mac Drive 7 adds HFS+ and HFS support to windows for both hard-drives and CDs, which includes handling problems like the mac partition format. Clearly that must mean that file system support in windows is extensible somehow, even if it is slow. So where could someone start to write a simple (or not) file system driver for windows? I'm having a lot of trouble googling for this because these are commonly used words.
+3
A:
You need the Windows Driver Kit (WDK). The Installable File System Kit which is part of the WDK should get you started.
Good luck!
Sean
2009-03-21 08:16:56
+1
A:
The IFS actually primarily permits you to write file system filter drivers. It does not directly contain support for new file systems. It is necessary for doing so, but you will need to obtain a large amount of additional, complex, hard to find information about Windows File Systems from third parties.
Please be aware that a File System driver is the most complex, undocumented thing you can do in the Windows kernel. If you have no prior kernel experience but you have say ten years experience programming operating systems in C, you are looking at two to three years full time work to produce a file system driver.
Blank Xavier
2009-03-29 06:43:28
I assumed the "not simple" part. On the other hand someone did it for ext2 fs as a final project in school. Some of the "not done" parts smack of those final integration issues you hinted about.
dlamblin
2009-03-30 09:42:04
Actually, IFS supports new file systems. There are several examples, like ext2 drivers for Windows. The WDK comes with examples of working implemenetations of FAT and ISO9660 file systems.Windows does not have a purely abstracted VFS layer, like other operating systems, therefore it is more difficult to write file system drivers for Windows then for other operating systems.
Terminus
2009-06-04 09:53:35