Set the inode size?

**Cyan_Fire** · March 10th, 2009

As far as I know, increasing the inode size is a bit of future-proofing to allow for extra data fields for files (such as nanosecond timestamps, etc.). It does seem a little silly to me, but who am I to stand in the way of the future...

For all the folks that are reformating their partitions, you might want to make sure your drive UUIDs haven't changed or you might get weird symptoms when trying to hibernate, for example. (See /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume)

**ollebolle** · March 20th, 2009

I ran into the same broblem!

I use grub for dualboot with Ubuntu 8.10 and Windows XP.
On windows I want to access the ext3 linux file system.
My inode is 256 since I used the partition manager on the latest installation CD.

This program can handle inode 256!!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd

It works fine!

These didn't work:
http://www.fs-driver.org/
http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

**wersdaluv** · April 20th, 2009

Originally Posted by ollebolle

I ran into the same broblem!

I use grub for dualboot with Ubuntu 8.10 and Windows XP.
On windows I want to access the ext3 linux file system.
My inode is 256 since I used the partition manager on the latest installation CD.

This program can handle inode 256!!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd

It works fine!

These didn't work:
http://www.fs-driver.org/
http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

Does it read and write? It just reads for me.

**leftos** · May 2nd, 2009

Ext2FSD is quite buggy really. I know Ext2IFS is picky about the inode size but it's much more stable.

Ext2FSD corrupted the Linux partition on my friend's laptop on which Vista was pre-installed, and causes BSODs on my netbook when doing NTFS to EXT3 transfers over the network.

I myself wanted to give Ext2FSD a chance before reformatting, but now I'm only left with the latter option.

**kiff** · May 5th, 2009

Originally Posted by leftos

Ext2FSD is quite buggy really. I know Ext2IFS is picky about the inode size but it's much more stable.

Ext2FSD corrupted the Linux partition on my friend's laptop on which Vista was pre-installed, and causes BSODs on my netbook when doing NTFS to EXT3 transfers over the network.

I myself wanted to give Ext2FSD a chance before reformatting, but now I'm only left with the latter option.

That's really interesting, because I have been using it for a while now, and it works fine for me.

**user2037** · June 9th, 2009

I used Ext2-IFS on a Dm-crypted partition with 8.10. It appeared to work well enough, but upgrading to 9.04 made Ubuntu inaccessible. There were also issues with some garbage Windows files appearing in the Windows home folder; although, that may have been due to some combination of Truecrypt and the lack of any swap space (and memory ran out from time to time [causing crashes]).

**Mike090830** · August 30th, 2009

I had problems with the inode size of 256 bytes instead of the usual 128 bytes in ubuntu 9.04. My ext2 ifs and Acronis tools didn't recognize this partition anymore.

Since I didn't want to reinstall the system, I backed up the system with tar, reformatted the partition with mke2fs and restored the files. Here's how it can be done:

Boot another linux, e.g. from another partition (I have 5 linux partitions 8)) or from a live CD.

1) Become root:

Code:

$ sudo -i

2) Check the inode size of the partition (I assume /dev/sda9 here) and note the UUID:

Code:

# dumpe2fs -h /dev/sda9

3) Mount the partition (if not done already):

Code:

# mount -v /dev/sda9 /media/sda9

4) Save all files of the partition in a tar archive on another partition, e.g.:

Code:

# tar -c -z -f /home/ubuntu904.tgz -C /media/sda9 ./

5) Unmount the partition:

Code:

# umount -v /dev/sda9

6) Reformat the partition (check /etc/mke2fs.conf and man mke2fs):

Code:

# mke2fs -v -I 128 -j -L ubuntu904 -U <original UUID> /dev/sda9

7) Mount the partition again:

Code:

# mount -v /dev/sda9 /media/sda9

8] Restore the data:

Code:

# tar -x -z -f /home/ubuntu904.tgz -C /media/sda9

9) Unmount the partition:

Code:

# umount -v /dev/sda9

10) If you had installed a grub boot loader in the partition, restore it:

Code:

# grub
grub> setup (hd0,8) (hd0,8)
grub> quit

Regards
Mike

Keywords:
ubuntu 8.10, ubuntu 9.04, file system, unreadable, ext2, ext3, ext2 ifs, Acronis, partition, image, inode size, 128 bytes, 256 bytes, change, reformat

**ceefour** · November 1st, 2009

If you want to dual boot Ubuntu with Windows 7 and read ext3 filesystem, you can use Ext2FSD.

I’ve successfully used Ext2fsd on Windows 7 to read my ext4 (!) filesystem.

For those interested, the how-to is here: Read ext3/ext4 Partition from Windows 7

Hope this helps!

**sEssGambino** · January 27th, 2010

Hi All, i have the same problem. I was trying to access my ext3 (256) partition on Ubuntu from my Windows 7 (Dual-Boot). I tested all programs mentioned here and only have success on Virtual Volumes from http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs
all the other software ask me to format the partition or simple doesn't show partition content. On Virtual Volumes´s Page they say that Vista version is still on development, but at this point only thing i cant do is to copy files to ext3 partition but my needs was to copy files from ext3 so this works perfect for me. Thanks for the help

**ultranalog** · April 27th, 2010

Just another quick vote for ext2ifs and inode size of 128 bits.

I tried ext2fsd but it completely hosed my windows xp and repeatedly bluescreened my work laptop that I wanted to rsync to.

Explore2fs was not an option as I couldn't access it from Cygwin (my last hope for sanity under windows) and I wanted to script an rsync job.

So after a reformat to 128 bit inodes ext2ifs is working perfectly and I can finally rsync from home to my backup drive that I keep at work.

Thanks!