Okay here goes...
Firstly, I must point out that I used WinXP SP2 as my OS, and I have no idea how Vista might handle the EXT2/EXT3 driver.
I am also assumming that you will be using the WHOLE drive for your NMT, just one big par***on for your media files.
After introducing myself to Linux forums and jargon (nakakahilo at first
), I figured out that you first have to download these two:
Gparted Live CD ISO -- 90+ MB iso file that you burn to a cd. This is a handy par***oning program that you have to boot up instead of your OS. This will be doing the actual format to EXT3.
You can find it here:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php*** If you don't have a program that can access and burn iso files, I would recommend
ImgBurn, found here:
http://www.imgburn.com/The second item to be downloaded is
EXT2FSD, a free driver that lets Windows recognize EXT2/EXT3 files with read/write capability. This is very important as without it, you will have to boot up a linux based OS to copy to and from your newly formatted drive. It is a very small file that can be found here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/Okay, now we're all set
1. Load the your newly-burnt Gparted Live CD into your PC. Also Connect your drive to be formatted.
2. REBOOT.
3. Access your PC/Laptop's boot up menu during the Bios boot up screen (usually by pressing F8, F12 or DEL)
4. Pick your CD/DVD drive as the first boot device. This will load Gparted Live.
*** you will be asked to confirm some configuration options (keymapping, language, etc). Just leave everything as default.
5.
VERY IMPORTANT! -- Initially, Gparted will detect ALL hdd's, including your PC's. Please be careful to select the drive you intend to format. The GUI of Gparted is almost idiot-proof, and it will be very easy to find that option.
***
Gparted also names the drives differently, with a prefix of /dev/ followed by a drive name. (dev/sdXx/ for sata drives, where X is the drive letter, and x is the par***on number. So it might look something like /dev/sdb1/) Please remember the drive and par***on name (/dev/sdb1/ in my example) as we will have to use the command line interface even though it is much easier to use the graphic interface.6.
You will find a terminal/command line button on the upper part of the screen (icon looks like a pc monitor) double click that icon. You will then have access to the command line prompt of Gparted (looks like DOS)
You will have to enter this command: "mkfs.ext3 -I 128 /dev/the drive name I asked you to remember" (without the quotation marks.) mkfs.ext3 is the command to format a par***on into EXT3, the -I 128 is to set the inode setting to 128 (for compatibility with the Windows driver I think, as Gparted formats with an inode setting of 256 by default. This is why we have to use the command line interface and not the very much easier GUI.) . So in my example, that would be:
mkfs.ext3 -I 128 /dev/sdb1 (again, this is just an example, your drive may be named differently!!!)press enter
if you typed it correctly, it should start to format your drive
doesn't really take that long.
7. Once it's done, double click the exit icon. It will eject the CD, and ask you to press enter.
8. The PC will reboot, and it will now load your OS (WinXP in my case). Don't worry if you still can't see your drive, you have to install EXT2FSD first.
9. Once you have installed EXT2FSD, it will ask you for some configurations, I think it's important to select launching EXT@Mgr at bootup as you won't be able to access the drive if it isn't running, plus the 2 options regarding EXT2 and force-writing to EXT3. It will then ask you if you want to launch the manager. Do so.
10. You will notice that the manager will show all drives but the EXT3 drive still has no drive letter assigned to it.
To fix this, first find the option to start EXT2FSD as a service.
Once you do that, right-click the drive, and click ext2 management. DO NOT tick the Mount volume in readonly mode only. Tick Automatically mount via EXT2Mgr and select a drive letter. Click Apply. There, you're done!
Windows should be able to detect, read and write to and from your newly-formatted disk drive.
My sources:
http://batleth.sapienti-sat.org/projects/FAQs/ext3-faq.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mkfshttp://linux.die.net/man/8/mkfshttp://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=1903http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-979523.html