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

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

Hi Ashish,

I have given training to 2 couple of guys who were doing final year
engg. in comp. sci. in Bangalore. First you must start of with
something which you can do. This project which you have said does not
comply with that.

Next start of with a subject like which compiler you are going to use.
Suddenly you cannot work with 2 Operating systems. File system is like
an operating system, even operating system relies on them the most of
the time. You can see if you are happy with my utilities in
codeguru.com -> List of Gurus and select V in that. I have developed a
list of 14 utilities for students and professionals. The projects were
written using MFC.

Now I have around 15 years of experience and the project which you have
request is impossible even for Mark Russinovich. As an Indian I
understand you as being youngsters and your blood just screams for
achievements but dont lose hope about the previous messages about
developing file system driver.

Try out my web site: http://geocities.com/vinoj_kumar_s/
CLick on my photo and you can enter it. It will consists of free cool
stuff in the coming days.

I can help you in understand the utilities that I have featured in
codeguru.com. BTB where are you located. You can join in our
organization after your college studies if you are in Chennai.

Thanks, Regards,
Vinoj

Uv wrote:
First off, sorry for my previous double post.

@Ashish:
Production code is code that will run on live production machines. This
means that if ANYTHING goes wrong, then its the fault of your driver.
As an example, the Google servers are production servers. If you write
code that is not tortured in a test envionment before it is put on a
Google server, then what happens when your code crashes? Google servers
lose functionality, Google loses money. You lose your job.
Production machines = Make sure nothing goes wrong (in triplicate).

On the other hand, the code you are writing right now need not be
production code, because you are writing it to prove - first to your
selves and next to your examiners - that you are capable enough to
begin, design and complete a software engineering project.
If you are able to write good production quality code in your first
attempt, then it is a BIG plus to your skills - I salute your l33tness
;)

Regarding Don's comment about the 6 month deadline:
He's absolutely correct. There is no way you can do everything within 6
months.
If you do it and do it well, it is an exceptional occurence. However,
it is NOT impossible, just improbable.

If you do the file system thing:
Since it is January right now, either you are very early in starting
your project or you have only 3 months remaining.

My suggestion would therefore be that if you know ext2, then start
reading up the ext2 driver and plug in your code as well as you can
into it.
Make it first work in the "best case situation", then work to clear up
corner cases, then concurrency issues and then the cache manager's
intricate details.

Please note of course that this is not the way to do a software
project. This is what I call patchwork hacking. Its to be done only as
a last resort. Once you get your grades, throw away the code you have
patched and re-write it.

Links to places to learn :
1. http://www.osronline.com/
2. Read this ng's archives.
3. http://www.codeproject.com/ has some interesting kmode samples. Not
strictly relevant.
4. http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ext2.html has sources for an EXT2
driver. This is again advanced enough to be classified as "only after
studying books"

Books to pick up:
1. Viscarola & Mason: This is available in all leading comp sci book
stores.
2. Rajeev Nagar: Had gone out of print. Currently not available in book
stores. Available by ordering at osronline $65 (?). Older versions may
be available on Amazon. This is _the_ book to read if you want to start
learning file systems for windows.

Hopefully your college dept should have these books. If they dont, see
if you can coax them into buying it. It will be worth it for you as
well as anyone else who might be doing Windows drivers.

If you just want to show that your ReiserFS implementation works:
Read MSDN about Shell extensions as Maxim said, and try implementing
that. It will considerably reduce your work. The concept is that your
reiserfs code will work only as a part of a single application:
explorer. So browsing using explorer will work. however any other
application that wants to access the reiserfs partition will not be
able to, because your code is not linked with that application.
Since this work is entirely in user mode, it should reduce your
learning curve and increase your chances of completion.

Its time to chose.

Best of luck

Uv

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