frank_n_2017 wrote:
On 2018/09/25 11:53, Shadow wrote:
No, I read them with 7-Zip without ext2fsd.
And they don't get a letter, they get the partition's location
(for want of a better name)
Ex
\\.\PhysicalDrive0\4.img\


Thanks, Shadow, first time ever I see this and it works indeed in
7zip.

It is something peculiar to 7zip, Windows Explorer refuses to take
seriously \\.\PhysicalDrive0\.

When you manage to assign a letter to a Linux partition via ext2fsd or
otherwise, you can access the ext-partition from any file manager under
Windows.

frank

That technology is called "Installable File System" or IFS.

It allows Windows to understand a foreign file system,
by installing a file system driver for it.

And because it "converts" the foreign file system to look
like a local file system, you can assign a drive letter,
do reads and writes and so on.

The 7ZIP capability still uses a file system driver (of
sorts), but the file system is not mounted and only
exists in the 7ZIP window. Since 7ZIP loves to set up
multi-layer streaming "extractions", it takes time to
collect the information it needs during its mounting/parsing
phase. When it opens regular archives, this operation can
be "fast" because the archive has a file table down at
the end.

Since source isn't available for the versions of 7ZIP we
use, it's hard to say what the code is doing when it takes
so long. But rest assured the developer keeps playing with
that code, because the behavior changes with release number.

Paul