NTFS to FAT32?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anomaly
  • Start date Start date
Curious George said:
If you have programs that you NEED to use and you CAN'T get updates
that allow them to use NTFS, then you don't really have a choice in
the matter- although I'd still recommend limiting your use of Fat via
partitioning.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your detailed input. I suppose my hesitance is due to the fact
that I've used FAT 32 for many years without issue, and that NTFS is
inaccessible from DOS without 3rd party utilities. I guess I will have to
bite the bullet sooner or later. What programs do you use, should a
"backdoor" method of access be required, and how does it work?

Thanks again,
Anom
 
Peter said:
Just a small comment on Ghost. You can still image one machine's hard disk
to an image file located on another's PC share. It doesn't matter if it is
a
FAT32 or NTFS.
Click to expand...

Well, the reason I converted my Ghost image drive to NTFS in the first place
was because my image files went beyond 2 GB, and Ghost and DI 2002 were
splitting the file. I had hoped that converting to NTFS would allow Ghost
and DI to increase the image size to 4GB, but that hasn't happened. It still
splits the file. Is this to be expected? I am writing the image files to the
same partition that I have the imaging programs installed to (not a boot
partition).

Thanks,
Anom
 
Thanks for your detailed input. I suppose my hesitance is due to the fact
that I've used FAT 32 for many years without issue,
Click to expand...

That's quite an achievement ;)
and that NTFS is
inaccessible from DOS without 3rd party utilities.
Click to expand...

But not linux or network share and I there are programs that can make
NTFS accessible (read or read/write) from the DOS prompt.
I guess I will have to
bite the bullet sooner or later. What programs do you use, should a
"backdoor" method of access be required, and how does it work?
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by a "backdoor." I only meant to keep the
FAT dependant software and data on a Fat partition and do everything
else on NTFS partitions until you no longer use these programs. Some
disk programs like Ghost and partition magic can work with NTFS
partitions even though they run on dos. Others like truimage use
linux (recovery disk) so have greater flexibility.

I think this is what I used to use to read NTFS from dos, I can't
remember though as I haven't touched (native) dos in many years:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsdos.shtml

If you mean something else, let me know.
 
Curious said:
That's quite an achievement ;)


But not linux or network share and I there are programs that can make
NTFS accessible (read or read/write) from the DOS prompt.


I don't know what you mean by a "backdoor." I only meant to keep the
FAT dependant software and data on a Fat partition and do everything
else on NTFS partitions until you no longer use these programs.
Click to expand...

The only "FAT dependent software" out there would be disk utilities.
 
Anomaly said:
Thanks for your detailed input. I suppose my hesitance is due to the fact
that I've used FAT 32 for many years without issue, and that NTFS is
inaccessible from DOS without 3rd party utilities.
Click to expand...

And FAT is inaccessible from CP/M without 3rd party utilities. So what?
I guess I will have to
bite the bullet sooner or later. What programs do you use, should a
"backdoor" method of access be required, and how does it work?
Click to expand...

Personally, if I need to access an NTFS partition I use Windows NT, 2000, or
XP. I don't see why people have a problem with this.
 
Anomaly said:
Well, the reason I converted my Ghost image drive to NTFS in the first place
was because my image files went beyond 2 GB, and Ghost and DI 2002 were
splitting the file. I had hoped that converting to NTFS would allow Ghost
and DI to increase the image size to 4GB, but that hasn't happened. It still
splits the file. Is this to be expected? I am writing the image files to the
same partition that I have the imaging programs installed to (not a boot
partition).

Thanks,
Anom
Click to expand...

Yes, Ghost will create image file in segments up to 2GB size. It does not
matter if the file system has 2, 4GB or almost no limit (NTFS). That is by
Ghost design. In general it does not matter if your image is in one or many
chunks. Actually splitting with 700MB or 1430MB has some advantage (burn to
CD or DVD).
 
Anomaly said:
Thanks for your detailed input. I suppose my hesitance is due to the fact
that I've used FAT 32 for many years without issue, and that NTFS is
inaccessible from DOS without 3rd party utilities. I guess I will have to
bite the bullet sooner or later. What programs do you use, should a
"backdoor" method of access be required, and how does it work?
Click to expand...
Why would you need to access "from DOS"? The easiest way of accessing NTFS
currently can be done through WinPE booted from CD.
 
Why would you need to access "from DOS"?
Click to expand...

Basically just some multiboot scenarios.
The easiest way of accessing NTFS
currently can be done through WinPE booted from CD.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If the only OS is NT based than messing with DOS is silly.
The MS Recovery Console and Winternals CDs are some other good
alternatives.
 
The only "FAT dependent software" out there would be disk utilities.
Click to expand...

Huh? If you are running Win2k/XP you are accomplishing nothing using
a disk tool which is not completely compatible. Just stick to the
bundled tools or freeware.

If you are referring to your old version of Ghost- The older Ghost
boot disks can make an image of a NTFS partition, it just can't put
that image file on a _LOCAL_NTFS_ partition. If you send it to a
network share it doesn't matter what filesystem the other computer
uses.
 
Curious said:
Huh? If you are running Win2k/XP you are accomplishing nothing using
a disk tool which is not completely compatible. Just stick to the
bundled tools or freeware.
Click to expand...

Precisely. Or current payware, not the copy of Norton that you got back in
'87.
If you are referring to your old version of Ghost- The older Ghost
boot disks can make an image of a NTFS partition, it just can't put
that image file on a _LOCAL_NTFS_ partition. If you send it to a
network share it doesn't matter what filesystem the other computer
uses.
Click to expand...

Yep. Drive Image can too. They tell you it won't do a lot of things that
it does just fine as long as you just make a raw copy without doing any
tricks.
 
Peter said:
Actually splitting with 700MB or 1430MB has some advantage (burn to
CD or DVD).
Click to expand...

Why would you want to split at 1430 MB for DVD? Isn't the capacity of
DVD about 4.3 GB? Is there an advantage to writing three files to DVD
instead of two or one?
 
Peter said:
Why would you need to access "from DOS"? The easiest way of accessing NTFS
currently can be done through WinPE booted from CD.
Click to expand...

Since WinPE is not available to the consumer, other than perhaps built via
Barts PE builder, what do you recommend? BartPE? Or is there some other
utility that works better?

Thanks again,
Anom
 
Curious George said:
That's quite an achievement ;)


But not linux or network share and I there are programs that can make
NTFS accessible (read or read/write) from the DOS prompt.


I don't know what you mean by a "backdoor." I only meant to keep the
FAT dependant software and data on a Fat partition and do everything
else on NTFS partitions until you no longer use these programs. Some
disk programs like Ghost and partition magic can work with NTFS
partitions even though they run on dos. Others like truimage use
linux (recovery disk) so have greater flexibility.

I think this is what I used to use to read NTFS from dos, I can't
remember though as I haven't touched (native) dos in many years:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsdos.shtml

If you mean something else, let me know.
Click to expand...

Not being very experienced with NTFS, I suppose my misgivings are due to the
fact that I could always rely on DOS as a way to deal with any system
problems, restore images, copy files, etc., but I'm starting to get the idea
that the NTFS resources are available to accomplish anything that I could do
in DOS (correct me if I
I'm wrong). Any other recommendations or info that you feel could be helpful
would be appreciated. If not, thanks for the info you've dispensed thus
far...

Thanks,
Anom
 
Peter said:
Yes, Ghost will create image file in segments up to 2GB size. It does not
matter if the file system has 2, 4GB or almost no limit (NTFS). That is by
Ghost design. In general it does not matter if your image is in one or
many
chunks. Actually splitting with 700MB or 1430MB has some advantage (burn
to
CD or DVD).
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I follow your reasoning, given that one can burn 4.3 actual GBs
to a DVD? I would prefer just one file per base image, rather than
multiples, but I gather that's not possible.

Thanks.
 
I would love to write one or two files to DVD, but Ghost cannot produce
segments of 4.3 or 2.15GB size, so 1.43GB (1/3 DVD capacity) was the next
obvious choice.
 
Yes, Ghost will create image file in segments up to 2GB size. It does
not
I'm not sure I follow your reasoning, given that one can burn 4.3 actual GBs
to a DVD? I would prefer just one file per base image, rather than
multiples, but I gather that's not possible.
Click to expand...

I would love to write one or two files to DVD, but Ghost cannot produce
segments of 4.3 or 2.15GB size, so 1.43GB (1/3 DVD capacity) was the next
obvious choice.
 
BartPE is not a bad start. Ghost 9.0 uses also customized WinPE, but I like
Bart's better.
 
Peter said:
I would love to write one or two files to DVD, but Ghost cannot produce
segments of 4.3 or 2.15GB size, so 1.43GB (1/3 DVD capacity) was the next
obvious choice.
Click to expand...

Not sure about Ghost 9, but all other versions can write 2GB files.
 
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