Re: Writing File System Device Driver & Creating Virtual Disk Drive in Windows XP [Question by a Novice]

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Hi all,

Don Burn wrote:
I've known of newbies doing it in 6 months, but most take 18 months. This
is for a production level driver.

@Don:
From the general nature of the questions of the OP, as well as the
initial introduction, I am pretty certain that this is a student
project that is typically required in the last year of Comp Sci or Comp
Engg Degree courses.
The typical time limits set are a little less than a year, and
therefore the scope they have set is for "read only" assuming that this
would reduce the amount of work.
This means that the project does not qualify as production code at all,
but that doesnt mean we cut them any slack. ;)

@Ashish:
Creating a user mode application to test out the guts of your code is
an admirable idea. I hope it worked well enough for you. But now you
are going to need to keep that code aside for some time and concentrate
on learning about the windows file system framework.
Ordering the IFS Kit (it isnt that costly) or getting the Vista WDK
would be priority while you read Rajeev Nagar's book (available on
osronline).
Looking at the fastfat and the cdfs source samples in it should give
you all the details you want.
Remember to play with the fastfat / cdfs samples and have them
installed on a system to see how that works. Learn to use windbg to
break into fastfat and figure out the sequence of steps.
Do NOT go for the LUFS method of doing things. As Don has already
mentioned, its a hack. It is also ridiculously slow and messy for
anything more than one client. I believe some people have already
mentioned this fact about captive-ntfs (if you know about it).
Just as there is a vfs in Linux, there is a huge fs framework in
Windows. There are design similarities, but its best to ignore
everything you know about Linux and relearn from scratch.

---
Just in the remote case where you are actually doing this as a
production driver, please ask whoever gave you the 6 month deadline to
reconsider. Then seek professional coaching.

Read access for ReiserFS is possible in a years time - because it has
been done ;)

Best of luck.

Uv

PS: For heavens sake dont test your drivers on your development
machines.

.

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