PARAGON Software GmbH Heinrich-von-Stephan-Str. 5c 79100 Freiburg, Germany Tel. +49 (0) 761 59018201 Fax +49 (0) 761 59018130 Internet www.paragon-software.com Email sales@paragon-software.com Paragon ExtFS for Windows Quick User Guide
Contents Product Concept... 3 Key Features... 3 Key Use Cases... 3 Getting Started... 3 Target Environment... 3 Installing the Driver... 4 Working with the Driver... 5 Creating ExtFS Volumes... 6 Formatting ExtFS Volumes... 9 Setting up from Command Prompt... 12
Product Concept Paragon ExtFS for Windows is a file system driver that can offer full read/write access to Linux-native Ext 2 / Ext 3 / Ext 4 volumes under Microsoft Windows. With our driver onboard, you can plug in Ext FS storages to your PC to get access to their contents for reading, copying, or modification. Paragon ExtFS for Windows doesn t work in the kernel mode, but uses the Dokan library, which is similar to FUSE (Linux user mode file system), but for Windows OS. In short, Dokan enables to easily create a fully functional file system driver in a userspace program. For more information, please visit: http://dokan-dev.net/en/. Key Features Let us list some of the key features: Provides fast and transparent read/write access to Linux Ext 2 / Ext 3 / Ext 4 under Windows Gets ready to work in a couple of minutes Supports the latest Windows 8.1 Managed through Windows system tray Managed from Windows CMD Supports Linux LVM (Logical Volume Manager) disks Includes Runs at startup and Automount features Safe eject ready Key Use Cases Import/Export data from/to ExtFS volumes. Let s assume that a hard drive has been taken out from NAS storage based on Linux and you need to copy files to or from this disk under Windows OS. Just install our driver, connect this disk via esata connector or USB-to-SATA adapter to your PC and here you go all files on Linux-native volumes are available to work with under Windows. Open documents and multimedia directly from ExtFS volumes. If you want to watch movies or open large documents contained on a Linux-native volume from your PC, simply install our driver, connect this disk directly to your PC and enjoy the show. Getting Started In this chapter you will find all the information necessary to get the product ready to use. Target Environment Paragon ExtFS for Windows can operate smoothly on different computer configurations. Below you can find versions of Windows OS it currently supports: Windows XP (32 bits) Windows Vista (32 or 64 bits) Windows 7 (32 or 64 bits) Windows 8 (32 or 64 bits) Windows 8.1 (32 or 64 bits)
Windows Server 2003 (32 or 64 bits) Windows Server 2008 (32 or 64 bits) Windows Server 2012 (32 or 64 bits) Installing the Driver 1. Click on the supplied setup file to initiate the installation. 2. Provide your registration info, i.e. product key and serial number. 3. Please Read Paragon License Agreement carefully and then select the appropriate option to accept. Otherwise you won t be able to proceed with the installation. 4. By default, you will be prompted to install all necessary components according to your system configuration. If you d like to add/remove a component, please mark/unmark a checkbox next to it. 5. By default, our driver will be configured to run automatically at Windows startup. Unmark the corresponding checkbox if you don t need that. Click Install to roll out the installation.
6. Once the installation procedure is over, click Close to complete the wizard. Working with the Driver By default Windows will automatically mount (assign drive letters to) all found ExtFS volumes, which you can see in the main window of the driver,
or by clicking on the driver icon in the Windows system tray. Creating ExtFS Volumes To create an ExtFS volume, please do the following: 1. Click on the driver icon in the Windows system tray, then select Tools > Create new ExtFS partition 2. You will be informed that the driver should be stopped if you d like to create a new ExtFS volume. Please agree to proceed.
3. The first page of the wizard informs on the upcoming operation. By default, the program allows you to create a new partition only as the last primary or as the last logical drive within the extended partition. However, by activating the advance mode on this page you can remove this restriction that in its turn might result in some boot problems. 4. Select a hard disk (if the computer has several hard disks) and then choose position for the future partition on the disk (if the advance mode is active): at the end (preferable), at the beginning or somewhere in the middle between other partitions.
5. There is no restriction on size of the future partition, merely depending on space available on the hard disk. If there is not enough free space in one block, the wizard enables to redistribute free space, joining all free space blocks together into one united block and moving partitions when necessary. If the total amount of free space is still not enough, it is possible to split a fragment of space from one of the existing partitions, thus resizing it. You can also choose whether the future partition will be primary or logical by marking the appropriate checkbox. 6. On the next page of the wizard you can set a number of additional parameters: - Partition type. From the pull-down list select a file system the newly created partition will be formatted to (Ext 2, Ext 3, Ext 4), otherwise the partition will remain unformatted (so that it will not be ready to use). - Volume label. Enter a label for the selected partition in this textual field. It is an irrelevant parameter usually used for drive identification. - Assign the following drive letter. The pull-down list contains vacant drive letters that can be associated with the newly formatted partition. 7. Confirm the operation.
8. In the Progress window you can see in real-time a detailed report on all actions carried out at the moment. 9. You will be prompted to reinitialize a Linux boot loader once the operation is over, if you ve got one. 10. After the operation is completed you receive a fully functional Linux ExtFS volume. Formatting ExtFS Volumes To format a partition to ExtFS, please do the following: 1. Click on the driver icon in the Windows system tray, then select Tools > Format partition to ExtFS
2. You will be informed that the driver should be stopped if you d like to format a volume to ExtFS. Please agree to proceed. 3. All mounted ExtFS volumes will be unmounted if you d like to format a volume to ExtFS. Please agree to proceed. 4. The first page of the wizard informs on the upcoming operation. 5. Select a hard disk (if the computer has several hard disks) and then the required partition to format. As a result of this operation contents of the selected partition will be lost. 6. On the next page of the wizard you can set the following partition parameters:
- Partition type. From the pull-down list select the desired file system type (Ext 2, Ext 3, Ext 4). In fact, the program displays only those file systems that can correctly be placed to the selected partition, taking its capacity into account. - Volume label. Enter a label for the selected partition in this textual field. It is an irrelevant parameter usually used for drive identification. - Drive letter assignment. The pull-down list contains vacant drive letters that can be associated with the newly formatted partition. To activate the advance mode, you need to mark the appropriate option at the foot of the page. When it is marked, the next page enables to define the number of sectors per cluster with a spinner control. 7. Confirm the operation. 8. In the Progress window you can see in real-time a detailed report on all actions carried out at the moment.
9. After the operation is completed you receive a fully functional Linux ExtFS volume. Setting up from Command Prompt Paragon ExtFS for Windows can well be set up from Windows Command Prompt: Installing the driver. Configuring the driver. Please note that only from Windows CMD you can mount ExtFS volumes in RO (read only) mode. As an example, you can see output of the list command: