Everything and ReFS (Windows Server 2012)

[tynopik]

Can someone with Windows Server 2012 check if Everything (voidtools.com) works with a ReFS partition?

Everything is an amazing file search tool that has become a critical part of my workflow, but it reaches deep into the NTFS structures so there is some doubt as to whether it will work with ReFS.

I would ask on the Everything forums, but they closed new user registration . . .

 

[Nothinman]

Unless ReFS also uses an MFT that's close enough to the NTFS layout that Everything can't tell the difference, no it almost certainly won't work.

 

[imagoon]

Unless ReFS also uses an MFT that's close enough to the NTFS layout that Everything can't tell the difference, no it almost certainly won't work.

It will depend on how well the NTFS "top layer" works. ReFS runs below the NTFS API so who knows. And yes I mean "API" not file system. ReFS runs with NTFS APIs on top that are not supposed to let apps know anything changed. Since ReFS is MS's version of ZFS, it might work in a similar fashion to how ZFS exports itself as a standard Linux Filesystem.

 

[Nothinman]

It will depend on how well the NTFS "top layer" works. ReFS runs below the NTFS API so who knows. And yes I mean "API" not file system. ReFS runs with NTFS APIs on top that are not supposed to let apps know anything changed. Since ReFS is MS's version of ZFS, it might work in a similar fashion to how ZFS exports itself as a standard Linux Filesystem.

But doesn't Everything bypass the normal filesystem APIs and read the MFT directly? Supposedly that's why it's so fast, it's not traversing the directory trees like a normal app.

 

[imagoon]

But doesn't Everything bypass the normal filesystem APIs and read the MFT directly? Supposedly that's why it's so fast, it's not traversing the directory trees like a normal app.

Well the compat doc mentions "MFT like fast enumeration" of course what the means waits to be seen. I also thought that reading the MFT (on windows at least) still required api access via ntfs.sys.

 

[Nothinman]

Well the compat doc mentions "MFT like fast enumeration" of course what the means waits to be seen. I also thought that reading the MFT (on windows at least) still required api access via ntfs.sys.

Not if you just open the raw block device via the \\?\Volume name and read the on-disk data directly which their FAQ implies, although it looks like it's non-free so I can't get the source to verify exactly what it does.