Synchronise / Compare file systems exFAT and Ext2/3 Linux?

Help & Support
1

Directory Opus I know has problems comparing and then synchronizing to a exFAT 1TB and 2TB USB 2.0 and 3.0 Flash Drive. Is it possible to address this issue please to see if there is a fix ?

As to the comparing and then synchronizing to a EXT2 or EXT3 Linux formatted 1TB and 2TB USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 Flash Drive seems to have solved the the problem of the 1TB and 2TB Flash Drives that are sold cheaply with a exFAT on the internet.
However for a Windows System to read the Linux file system I needed to install the Ext2 Volume Manager (Ext2 File System Driver for Windows - Ext2Fsd-0.69.exe)

This logic started as an experiment to test the exFAT formatted USB drives to see what other file system they could be formatted with in an attempt to create a stable file structure and wool-ah formatting them with the Linux EXT3 worked, better than the EXT2, however both created a stable environment.
Once formatted and installing the Ext2 File System Driver for Windows (works for FAT2 and FAT3) the file synchronization using Directory Opus did its job and there seems to be no problems doing so.

The question for Directory Opus, is there a method by which DO can read, compare and synchronize the Linux formatted USB Sticks without the need to have the Ext2 File System Driver for Windows installed on an MS OP system ?

I am still regularly loading the FAT3 USB sticks into the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports to test the 1TB and 2TB flash drives in order to test the reliability of the synchronization. Just as a note, the file structure I compare to synchronize is 26.0 GB (27,955,657,220 bytes) in size and contains 4,446 Files, in 1,034 Folders. No small feat I would say and a good test.

  • So don't just yet rush out to buy 1TB and 2TB USB 3,0 flash drives until I have fully tested the Linux FAT3 file system reliability when used with the synchronization of Directory Opus :slight_smile:

Regards
Roger H. / pcbugfixer / now located in Tanilba Bat 2319 Australia.

2

Can you give more detail? I don't think we're aware of any problems.

We don't access the raw filesystems so it shouldn't matter what they are, as long as they are behaving correctly, outside of features like NTFS ADS that some filesystems don't support (but that doesn't matter for syncing).

3

Synch will not map correctly to a exFAT folder and ends up corrupting the exFAT flash drive. then - If you have read my original message the remainder question was "The question for Directory Opus, is there a method by which DO can read, compare and synchronize the Linux formatted USB Sticks without the need to have the Ext2 File System Driver for Windows installed on an MS OP system ?"
Regards
pcbugfixer

4

There is no way sync could corrupt a flash drive. Opus simply does not work at that level. It could only copy, rename or delete files on the drive, not corrupt the device or filesystem.

If corruption is happening, something is wrong with the device or filesystem. (This is not unheard of with some poor USB devices, although most are fine.) Or the device is not being ejected ("safely remove" etc.) after finishing the operation, meaning data in Windows write cache was not saved to it yet.

As for Linux filesystems, Opus doesn't work at the raw filesystem level, unless someone wrote a VFS plugin to do it, which would be very complicated and risky, and replicate what was in the proper filesystem driver but with less functionality.

If you want to use a Linux filesystem you should mount it properly (so it appears as a normal drive to the whole OS) and then use it normally. Although note that mounting a case-sensitive filesystem will confuse most Windows software, including Opus. (We support case sensitive FTP/SFTP, and certain archive formats, but drives are assumed to follow the rules for Windows drives.)