NTFS versions

[gr8dude]

i was recently fixing some problems with an application i develop, and at the moment im stuck with the version of NTFS of the partition on which the application resides.

if you do a

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:

you will see which version of NTFS you have. i tested it on XP SP2, the version is 3.1

on ntfs.org they say that beginning with win2k, the OS supports NTFS 5. this version has a feature (sparse files) that probably interferes with my application.

the problem is that i havent seen a system with NTFS 5, or NTFS 5.1 [which is the latest, as far as i understood], so i cant test my program in that situation.

how can i convert from NTFS 3.1 to NTFS 5.1 ? and which OS really comes with NTFS 5?

[jaclaz]

As Micro$oft NEVER released ANY IN DEPTH details on the NTFS filesystem, the numbering is somewhat hectic.

So what happens is this (the following is of course UNOFFICIAL, and just gathered around):

Windows NT version 3.5 -> NTFS 1.1

Windows NT version 4.0 -> NTFS 1.2 (commonly called NTFS 4.0 after the OS release)

Windows 2000 aka NT version 5.0 -> NTFS 3.0 (commonly called NTFS 5.0 after the OS release)

Windows XP aka NT version 5.1 -> NTFS 3.1 (commonly called NTFS 5.1 after the OS release)

See here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...B;EN-US;Q310749

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/Win...amIrunning.html

The "best" move Microsoft made was when it gave away the free 120 days free trial of Windows 2000. LOTS of people which were running NT 4.0 without SP4 tried it, as a double boot option.

First time Win2k runs converts all NTFS filesystems it finds from 1.2 to 3.0, WITHOUT ASKING FOR CONFIRMATION.

The NT 4.0 drivers could not cope with it.

And you could not install SP4 later as the old NTFS.SYS could not access data!

Even after having the "right" NTFS.SYS, DEFRAG and CHKDSK won't work:

http://www.executive.com/diskeeper/faqs/faqs.asp#rt1

Luckily enough, the good guys at Sysinternals wrote a small app to run CHKDSK on the new filesystem:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfschk.shtml

jaclaz

[gr8dude]

yeah, i believe that when people say NTFS5 they actually mean NTFS3, and the same about 5.1 and 3.1

but see this: [by the way, its ntfs.com, not .org]

http://ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

according to that info, NTFS3 and NTFS5 are indeed different things.

i know about the issue you described. and i think i have the same problem with my program. from time to time i get reports from people saying that they cannot open the files created by the application... so i think the file is automatically changed by windows, and then when opened on a different machine - its 'unreadable'

does anybody know what's really going on here?

[SiMoNsAyS]

you can try the FREE version of partition magic 8 for DOS. it will let you format a partition on differents NTFS versions.

since partition magic was bought by symantec, you're going to have a headache searching for it so better look on "underground" sites.

[jaclaz]

so i think the file is automatically changed by windows, and then when opened on a different machine - its 'unreadable'

No, the problem I was talking about affects FileSystem, NOT single files.

jaclaz

[BlitzKrieg]

My 2003 Enterprise Server uses NTFS 3.1, so would it be better to use NTFS 5.x? If so...how to convert to it? And would it be even worth it?

[gr8dude]

well, i did continue my research, and i found it on a lot of places:

NTFS3=NTFS5

NTFS3.1=NTFS5.1

so we're talking about the same thing here. the end of the world has been postponed again :-)