I have finished developing an archive format in managed C# that is way too flexible to be just an archive. I wish to use it as a file system.
It is well organized, very fast, and has both low-level and high-level API functions. It supports on-the-fly encryption and compression, password protection, Windows Explorer-specific file metadata (such as creation/modification/access time and attributes), 2^63 – 1 size HDDs, etc.
If it is possible to make Windows recognize and use my filesystem, I would learn Visual C++ just for the sake of implementing it. Are custom file systems even supported in Windows? (7 is a must, others are optional.) If they are, how do I make/implement them?
If I have to use some 3rd party library, it must be free. I don’t want to use CallbackFileSystem because it’s not free.
Maybe some readers are curious why I chose not to make my own driver.
The reason is signing. Drivers, to work well on 64bit systems (at least my Windows 7) must be signed.
Now, I don’t have the money to buy digital certificates from trusted sources… So no drivers for me… I use x64 Windows 7 on most of my machines so it would be an enormous waste to write the driver for x86…
Well, it is possible, once I have tried this approach. I’ve based on these samples: http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/
p.s. Also you don’t need file system, you need a driver