Network-drive is Case Sensitive??

P

patrickmast

Member
Hi,

I have a shared folder in my Parallels VM connected to my Apple Hard Drive. The resulting network-drive in Windows has a case sensitive file system which is very unusual in Windows. My apps that depend on finding files is not working anymore because it seeks for "test.txt" and does not find the "Test.txt" because the T is is UPPER case.

How can I set the filesystem of the network-drive in parallels to NON-Case-Sensitive?

I noticed Windows reports "PrlSF" as File System for the network-drive.

--
Sincerely,

Patrick Mast,
http://www.xHarbour.com
http://www.WinFakt.be
 
This is the way Windows deals with case sensitive network drives. Connecting up to a shared *nix file system from a real PC will yield the same results. FAT32 and NTFS are not case sensitive, HFS+ is (although it is a bizarre way which HFS+ implements case sensitivity).
 
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wingdo said:
This is the way Windows deals with case sensitive network drives. Connecting up to a shared *nix file system from a real PC will yield the same results. FAT32 and NTFS are not case sensitive, HFS+ is.
Click to expand...

You can format an HFS+ drive to be case-insensitive, but yes, this is not a Parallels issue, this is an issue with Windows trying to work with typical Unix filesystems. There is no way around this.
 
The default for HFS+ is case-insensitive. You can test this by opening a terminal window and creating a text file names TEST.TXT (all caps) using vi. you can then do a 'more TEST.TXT' and a 'more test.txt' or even a 'more TeXt.Txt' and see the same results.

HFS+ preserves the case of the file name, but it does not actually USE the case when dealing with the file.

You can also prove this out by creating any file (from text edit / excel / whatever) and saving a file, then try to 'save as' the file changing only the case of a couple of the letters. The application will respond with the standard "file already exists" warnings.
 
wingdo said:
The default for HFS+ is case-insensitive. You can test this by opening a terminal window and creating a text file names TEST.TXT (all caps) using vi. you can then do a 'more TEST.TXT' and a 'more test.txt' or even a 'more TeXt.Txt' and see the same results.

HFS+ preserves the case of the file name, but it does not actually USE the case when dealing with the file.

You can also prove this out by creating any file (from text edit / excel / whatever) and saving a file, then try to 'save as' the file changing only the case of a couple of the letters. The application will respond with the standard "file already exists" warnings.
Click to expand...

So, how does this explain why the file system of a networkdrive (host drive is apple drive) in Windows is case sensitive?

Now I'm lost.. :)

--
Sincerely,

Patrick Mast,
http://www.xHarbour.com
http://www.winfakt.be
 
patrickmast said:
So, how does this explain why the file system of a networkdrive (host drive is apple drive) in Windows is case sensitive?

Now I'm lost.. :)
Click to expand...

It can actually be quite confusing. The answers listed above are all correct, it is the questions which are different and perhaps I should have explained in more detail, but I just went for the fast answer to both questions.

I know I am going to word this poorly, but you can prove all of this out. :)

Technically HFS+ is case sensitive. OS X removes the case sensitivity, OS X itself strips out the case when dealing with file names. It preserves the case for the actual file name, but it does not use case in and of itself. This is why you cannot have a file named test.txt and TEST.txt in the same folder. When writing OS X Apple took steps to make Unix easy for the end user. One of the confusions they considered was that people would get confused seeing multiple files with what appear to be the same name (one letter may have a different case but otherwise the file name looks identical) so OS X was written to not allow files to be named the same except for case. A great example would be two files in the same folder named "my notes from the launch meeting.doc" and "My notes from the launch meeting.doc". Which is the correct one? OS X just prevents these two files from residing in the same folder space. Therefore the test above I gave you (creating the file and looking at it with different cases) works the way it does.

Now on to the windows part. Windows sees your shared folders as a Network Share. Windows sees the share as what it is .... a Unix FS. The rules of Unix tell you that case sensitivity must be preserved. And so Windows plays by the rules and does just that. You can prove that out by mapping your PSF share as a network drive and using a cmd window to migrate to the folder where you created the TEST.TXT file. You can 'more TEST.TXT' and get the expected results. Doing a 'more test.txt' will tell you the file does not exist (which it really doesn't).

To make all of that 'short' Windows is actually properly playing by the rules, OS X is making their own rules so as to make life easier on the end user to prevent confusion.

If I made a muddy situation even muddier with the above, my apologies.
 
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wingdo said:
It can actually be quite confusing. The answers listed above are all correct, it is the questions which are different and perhaps I should have explained in more detail, but I just went for the fast answer to both questions.

I know I am going to word this poorly, but you can prove all of this out. :)
...
If I made a muddy situation even muddier with the above, my apologies.
Click to expand...
Nope, you made it PERFECTLY clear. Many thanks for your explanation!

Now: How can I tell Windows to do the same as OSX does? How can I tell Windows to NOT see the network-drive as case sensitive? This would fixed it all :)

Thanks again

--
Sincerely,

Patrick Mast,
http://www.WinFakt.be
http://www.xHarbour.com
 
[ Updated ]

Hello,

Ok, I ordered a new hard drive, add it to my MacPro computer, formatted it with MS-DOS (FAT) file system, shared this drive in Parallels Virtual Machine, and STILL, the filesystem of te shared drive IN Parallels is PrlSF. Also STILL, the files system of the shared drive in the Parallels VM IS case sensitive.

So, it IS Parallels own filesystem (PrlSF) that is case sensitive??

Now I'm lost.. :(

--
Sincerely,

Patrick Mast,
http://www.WinFakt.be
http://www.xHarbour.com
 
PriFS is a "shared" Parallels drive. As in Shared through OS X. It's how Parallels deals with any shared folder.

In this particular instance, Windows is not actually mapping to a network drive. Parallels is bypassing that tedious process and letting you "share" from within their config editor. I suppose you could set up real shares on your OS X system, and then mount them natively in Windows. But I'm not going to try to attempt to walk anyone through that. I would suspect there are a few articles out there on how to set up OS X folder sharing and then connecting them vis a Windows PC on the same network (which is basically what you have).
 
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patrickmast said:
I'm very interested in this.

What I actualy try to do is having my Windows data files on a OX drive so Leopard's Time machine can handle them for backup purposes.
Click to expand...

Setting up a parallels share will accomplish the same thing. Otherwise I'd suggest google. I've never done an OS X share to XP, but I know it can be done, and google is where I'd start. :)
 
Possibly fixed

Hi, just a note to say that I believe Parallels has fixed this bug in 4.0 build 3810. They also fixed a bug where the DOS command xcopy was getting upset about file attribute handling on the shared drive, which may also have been upsetting other software.

Adrian
 
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