CHKDSK refuses to check NTFS volume under Windows NT 4.0

[ppgrainbow]

Hello, everyone.

 

I recently did a fresh install of Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation inside Virtual PC 2004, allocated 64 MB memory to the VM, created a fixed 4 GB hard disk (4,095 MB) image, partitioned and formatted the hard disk as NTFS v1.2 file system. Windows NT 4.0 installed without a hitch.

 

However, when I used a disk mounting utility called IMDisk to view the contents of the partition formatted as NTFS, Windows 2000, the host OS upgraded the NTFS partition to version 3.0.

 

After I unmounted the hard disk image, I powered up the Windows NT 4.0 Workstation VM again and when I attempted to run the CHKDSK command, I get this error message:

 

This version of chkdsk cannot be run on this volume.

You must boot the version of NT that created/modified this volume and run

chkdsk from that installation.

This NTFS volume was created or modified by a later version of Windows NT.

 

I looked at this page regarding Windows NT 4.0 CHKDSK refusing to check NTFS v3.0/v3.1 volumes (KB196707) and it wasn't very much of a help at all.

 

What baffles me is that I looked at this forum thread, NT4 NTFS Versions by nt4-ever on 2007-07-19 and it mentioned hacks and workarounds including NTFSCHK, a utility to run the Windows 2000 version of CHKDSK from Windows NT 4.0 and another utility called Mark4NTFS, a Windows NT 4.0 utility to revert the partition from NTFS v3.0 down to NTFS v1.2.

 

I tried to download a utility called Mark4NTFS.zip and found that the site that was hosted on it was gone!

 

There was also mention of the KB872952 hotfix, but I can't seem to find the hotfix available for download at all either.

 

Are there any good utilities or disk hex editing hacks that will help fix this problem? I know that the consequences are that every time I attempt to mount a NTFS v1.2 formatted volume with IMDisk under Windows 2000 or Windows XP, it will upgrade the version of the file system on the mounted hard disk image.

 

Let me know what you can come up with.

[jaclaz]

Yep, this is a known issue.

When the 120 day trial of Windows 2000 came out, everyone tested it on their NT 4.00 machine and everyone had the filesystem changed silently.

At the time I had to help more people workaround the issue that I would have ever imagined (everyone that had not already updated to SP4).

See:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=11383

A NT 4.00 with SP 4 or later won't have issues with the volume if not for CHKDSK, and that needs to be worked around by using the 2K version through the Mark Russinovich mentioned tool NTFSCHK:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060819014420/www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsChk.html

I have never used the vamos.de tool, the page can be found through the Wayback Machine as well:

https://web.archive.org/web/20021102155538/http://vamos.de/english/bootman2.html#zu_w2

but the tool, having been hosted on ftp, is not.

Maybe if you make a thread asking for it, you can find someone that has a backup copy somewhere.

jaclaz

[ppgrainbow]

Yep, this is a known issue.

When the 120 day trial of Windows 2000 came out, everyone tested it on their NT 4.00 machine and everyone had the filesystem changed silently.

At the time I had to help more people workaround the issue that I would have ever imagined (everyone that had not already updated to SP4).

See:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=11383

A NT 4.00 with SP 4 or later won't have issues with the volume if not for CHKDSK, and that needs to be worked around by using the 2K version through the Mark Russinovich mentioned tool NTFSCHK:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060819014420/www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsChk.html

I have never used the vamos.de tool, the page can be found through the Wayback Machine as well:

https://web.archive.org/web/20021102155538/http://vamos.de/english/bootman2.html#zu_w2

but the tool, having been hosted on ftp, is not.

Maybe if you make a thread asking for it, you can find someone that has a backup copy somewhere.

jaclaz

Thanks for the help. This is obviously a known issue.

I don't know if anyone has a backup copy of Mark4NTFS.zip or not.

Now as for the NTFSCHK utility, I copied the 5 files from a Windows 2000 installation ISO (autochk.exe, ntdll.dll, c_437.nls, c_1252.nls and l_intl.nls) and placed them in C:\SYSTEM32 directory. When I attempted to run NTFSCHK, I get this error message:

Could not lock C: for NTFSCHK: Access is denied.

No NTFS drives recognized. Exiting.

I'll find some workarounds to correct this issue tomorrow. For now, I'm off to bed.

[dencorso]

Mark4NTFS.ZIP, afaik, has really tumbled itself down the memory hole (or jumped head-on into /dev/null ...), as far as the internet is concerned. jaclaz is right, the only chance to get it is if someone has a backup copy and kindly makes it available again.

[buyerninety]

Email sent to author defunct website vamos.de informing him of interest in MARK4NTFS.zip .

Email Reception time at destination, if no delays: ~0937 P.M. CET .
Will inform if any further info eventuates.

[MUCH LATER EDIT:

Just to clarify, the email address used was NOT the one shown on the now closed website.]

Edited October 31, 2013 by buyerninety

[ppgrainbow]

Email sent to author defunct website vamos.de informing him of interest in MARK4NTFS.zip .

Email Reception time at destination, if no delays: ~0937 P.M. CET .

Will inform if any further info eventuates.

I don't know if the author of the defunct website regarding MARK4NTFS.zip will respond as the e-mail account associated with it was disabled or discontinued.

[ppgrainbow]

Mark4NTFS.ZIP, afaik, has really tumbled itself down the memory hole (or jumped head-on into /dev/null ...), as far as the internet is concerned. jaclaz is right, the only chance to get it is if someone has a backup copy and kindly makes it available again.

That's what I've been thinking. I sure hope that someone has a backup copy of Mark4NTFS.zip as it is no longer available online...even via the Internet Archive.

[mtartsch]

I never thought that it was needed any more ...

I found it in the Archiv of the vamos domain.

Here is the link to the Mark4NTFS.ZIP

http://www.mt-apps.de/old-apps/

I don't know if it still works. It was a hack. There was no official documentation about the internal NTFS properties.

[dencorso]

Wow! Welcome to MSFN, Mike!

Thanks a whole lot! As for whether it still works, I'm sure we'll have news about it really soon.

[buyerninety]

Just to explain, mtartsch is actually THE author of the aforementioned now closed website;

https://web.archive.org/web/20021102155538/http://vamos.de/english/bootman2.html#zu_w2

(noted by jaclaz in Post#2)

and is owed a Double Thankyou for joining MSFN to bring this software within reach once again!

Thankyou mtartsch!

Edited October 31, 2013 by buyerninety

[ppgrainbow]

I never thought that it was needed any more ...

I found it in the Archiv of the vamos domain.

Here is the link to the Mark4NTFS.ZIP

http://www.mt-apps.de/old-apps/

I don't know if it still works. It was a hack. There was no official documentation about the internal NTFS properties.

Thank you so much for uploading the Mark4NTFS.zip utility! I deeply appreciate it.

Because I installed NT 4.0 on a NTFS v1.2 partition, Windows 2000 touched the partition when I mounted the hard disk image using IMDisk and it upgraded the filesystem to a point where CHKDSK refused to run.

I will need to revert to a NTFS v1.2 using this utility.

Edit: Thanks to everyone else for helping me resolve this issue. The Mark4NTFS.zip utility will need to be available for historic purposes!

By the way, I have a couple of questions regarding Mark4NTFS utility.

1. Has the utility been tested on NTFS formatted hard disks and other media larger than 7.84 GB?

2. Has Mark4NTFS been tested on Windows NT 3.51 as Windows NT 3.51 also uses the NTFS v1.2 filesystem to partition hard drives?

Edited November 1, 2013 by ppgrainbow

[dencorso]

There was also mention of the KB872952 hotfix, but I can't seem to find the hotfix available for download at all either.

Just for the record, both the KB872952 article, as well as the actual hotfix remain available from MS to this day...

[ppgrainbow]

There was also mention of the KB872952 hotfix, but I can't seem to find the hotfix available for download at all either.

Just for the record, both the KB872952 article, as well as the actual hotfix remain available from MS to this day...

 

Thank you for telling me!

 

Unfortunately, it's been more than a year since I had Windows NT 4.0 installed on Virtual PC and unfortunately, I removed the VM. If I have the time, I will recreate the Windows NT 4.0 VM and re-install the OS.

[Leolo]

I've tested the Mark4NTFS tool in a PC with WinNT 4.0 SP6a installed, but unfortunately it doesn't work with volumes formatted using NTFS version 3.1 (commonly called version 5.1). Michael Tartsch's utility gets confused and gives an error saying that it cannot detect the NTFS version :(

I had to manually fix the drive using DiskProbe from WinNT 4.0 Resource Kit (found it googling its filename "sp4rk_i386.exe")

I followed these instructions:

http://web.archive.org/web/20160505164434/http://www.nthelp.com/NT6/NTFS_version.htm

And changed the NTFS version bytes from "03 01" to "01 02". Then I unchecked the Read-Only option in DiskProbe, and closed the tool, answering "yes" to flush the changes to disk.

After doing that, chkdsk.exe will happily run again in the drive!

Edited September 22, 2018 by Leolo

[roytam1]

if you don't mind using non-free program, Paragon Partition Manager (DOS/Win versions) can downgrade NTFS version by some mouse clicks.