R
RWhite
Well-known member
If you use Windows NT, 2000, or XP, you probably already know there are two different disk file systems to choose from. FAT32, introcuced in Windows 95 "C", is an enhancement of the old DOS FAT file system. It has the advantage of being widely supported, but it also has a greater chance of being corrupted.
NTFS, first introduced in Windows NT, is a newer system which is less prone to crashing. While Windows XP will read FAT32 partitions Microsoft encourages people to use NTFS, to the extent that XP will not create FAT32 partitions greater than 32 gig.
One drawback on NTFS is that boot floppies typically won't read it. If you have a "startup" disk from older Windows versions you will find that NTFS drives can't be read by them. Since XP does not really have an option to create a bootable disk, this can be a big pain if you have a hard drive crash. If you say loose your system drive, you may have data remaining on a second hard drive with no way to get to it. Or if for example you get infected with a Funlove virus, the only way to get rid of the virus is to boot the system from a clean floppy and run a virus scan - something that is usually not possible with NTFS.
Anyway, I have heard of utilites that allow you read NTFS from a boot floppy, but have not needed one until now (I use FAT32 on my home systems). Now having the need I downloaded a little freeware utility called NTFSDOS. It actually comes in three versions, and each version comes in either a freeware read-only or a purchase read/write edition. For running a virus scan on a NTFS volumne I've found the the freeware DOS edition works fine and easiliy fits on a boot/utility floppy
So anyway here it is, have fun...
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/NTFSDOS.shtml
NTFS, first introduced in Windows NT, is a newer system which is less prone to crashing. While Windows XP will read FAT32 partitions Microsoft encourages people to use NTFS, to the extent that XP will not create FAT32 partitions greater than 32 gig.
One drawback on NTFS is that boot floppies typically won't read it. If you have a "startup" disk from older Windows versions you will find that NTFS drives can't be read by them. Since XP does not really have an option to create a bootable disk, this can be a big pain if you have a hard drive crash. If you say loose your system drive, you may have data remaining on a second hard drive with no way to get to it. Or if for example you get infected with a Funlove virus, the only way to get rid of the virus is to boot the system from a clean floppy and run a virus scan - something that is usually not possible with NTFS.
Anyway, I have heard of utilites that allow you read NTFS from a boot floppy, but have not needed one until now (I use FAT32 on my home systems). Now having the need I downloaded a little freeware utility called NTFSDOS. It actually comes in three versions, and each version comes in either a freeware read-only or a purchase read/write edition. For running a virus scan on a NTFS volumne I've found the the freeware DOS edition works fine and easiliy fits on a boot/utility floppy
So anyway here it is, have fun...
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/NTFSDOS.shtml