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Can NT3.51 and 2K/XP coexist? aka NTFS upgrade shenanigans


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I'd like to build a system where NT3.51 can coexist peacefully with higher NT versions.

Is it possible to stop Windows 2K/XP (and VISTA?) from upgrading a mounted NTFS volume from version 1.1 to 3.0? A registry hack or a patch, perhaps? Any ideas?

I don't want to have to use FAT for NT3.51 as I'm limited to just 2GB (or 4GB if I use that unholy FAT cluster size), nor do I want to deal with partition hiding.

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14 minutes ago, Destro said:

what if it's on a separate disk that means not having 2-3 operating systems on the same disk with partitions but 2 physical disks.

I don't think that's going to to it. I found this:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-xp/bb457112(v=technet.10)

Quote

Converting NTFS Volumes Formatted by Using Windows NT 4.0 and Earlier

When you upgrade from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows XP Professional, all local volumes formatted by using the version of NTFS used in Windows NT 4.0 and earlier are upgraded to NTFS 3.1. The upgrade occurs when Windows XP Professional mounts the volume for the first time after Windows XP Professional Setup is completed. (The upgrade does not take place during Setup.) Any NTFS volumes that are removed or turned off during Setup, or added after Setup, are converted when Windows XP Professional mounts the volumes.

Edited by diovanti
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Well,

in NT 3.51 times a "large" end user disk was around 300-500 MB

in NT 4.00 times a "large" end user disk was around  2 GB

so it is curious that you *need* much more than 2 GB for NT 3.51 use, and you can anyway have multiple (logical) partitions/volumes.

There is NO way to prevent the NTFS update (which just for the record already happened with Windows 2000) and while a given service pack level (SP4 if I recall correctly) allows NT 4.00 to use the new NTFS version[1], I don' t think that the ame can be done for NT 3.51, basically because there is not the equivalent of a SP4 for it. 

 

jaclaz

 

 

[1] and a couple tricks to have also chkdisk work:

https://msfn.org/board/topic/169500-chkdsk-refuses-to-check-ntfs-volume-under-windows-nt-40/

 

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