Ntfs Support In Win98se Or Me?

[awergh]

i tried the avira ntfs4dos in a vm and when i ran the setup it wouldnt start if ntfs stuff was loaded

[jimmsta]

i tried the avira ntfs4dos in a vm and when i ran the setup it wouldnt start if ntfs stuff was loaded

You may have to check the amount of ram that's available. You'll need at least 400KB conventional memory available if you want to launch anything worthwhile...

In other words, autoexec and config.sys editing are in order. I've found that the majority of these ntfs4dos apps require a good chunk of memory to operate, which is sorta a problem. In testing ntfs4dos, I found that if you try to use emm386, you will not be able to launch most setup apps. In Config.sys, be sure to REM out the EMM386 line, if you have it. I started my install from a DOS 7.1 cd, which has a bunch of extra apps installed, which are somewhat useless when it comes to memory management. I had to remove a bunch of useless bloat in order to get any ntfs driver to load properly, and still have enough memory left over to load setup.

In my own experiments, I'm going to try again and see if I can get some 98SE on NTFS love going...

[LLXX]

Load in high/extended memory via himem.sys and emm386.exe.

[Marius '95]

The best NTFS driver I could find was Paragon Mount Everything, but it's not free.

[erpdude8]

The best NTFS driver I could find was Paragon Mount Everything, but it's not free.

no kidding Marius '95. Do you still use Win95b? BenoitRen also uses win95 sr2 though he's using osr2.5.

some of the best stuff you find come with a price. some others like ntfs4dos are free.

[Marius '95]

No, I don't use Win95 anymore. I have a Radeon card with no drivers for Win95.

Edited January 2, 2007 by Marius '95

[Max_04]

Ntfs reader for win9x by diskinternals:

http://www.diskinternals.com/products/ntfs-reader/

[jimmsta]

An NTFS read-only driver is fine for reading ntfs volumes. I went ahead and researched to see if it would be possible to run 9x on top of an NTFS filesystem. In short: maybe. Long version follows:

First and foremost, a lot of this research was conducted over a year ago, so I might be a bit rusty bringing all the things I learned together into a simple, easy-to-read post, but here goes... If we were to write an NTFS driver for Windows 9x, we'd have to be able to add it as a service (or VxD), at vmm32.vxd's load. This means that we'd have to write a simple DOS-based NTFS read/write driver (TSR application), and a corresponding 32-bit VxD to be loaded within Windows. The problem with this approach, however, is that you're still relying on DOS to handle loading the OS through NTFS. I got to thinking about this issue. I know that right when win.com is called by io.sys, Windows loads vmm32.vxd, which loads up a 32-bit dos layer on top of the 16-bit dos. From there, it loads up any remaining VxD files found in SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\, and loads user.exe/user32.dll, krnl386.exe/kernel32.dll. So, there's a space of time where the system is in 16-bit mode, then loads up VxD services, and enters protected mode. A hack to win.com would be preferable, possibly re-packing vmm32.vxd with an NTFS driver would work, but I haven't the time nor the patience (or know-how) to try that out. There's also the possibility to replace the io.sys DOS layer with a 32-bit DOS layer, created by taking certain files from a Windows 95/98 installation, and making the system to boot directly into 32-bit mode (DOS VM mode, to be precise). Then, from this 32-bit environment, patch win.com to load only the krnl386.exe file and all remaining startup items (as vmm32.vxd and all system services are loaded as part of the 32-bit dos layer.

So, to conclude, yes, there's probably a way to update Windows 9x to support NTFS. It's not probable to happen, though, especially since it's very complex to implement (and probably very very incorrect according to my post here).

[Offler]

i was researching this problem and i found "Winternals NTFS Driver for Win98". this application was developed by Winternals Software in 1999 to solve problems with dualboot systems. It offers NTFS access in GUI, read-only in trial version, and also writing in full version.

It uses original NTFS drivers from windows 2000/XP and throught them it can run at same level as normal NTFS disk. Only setback is that main Win98 system disk must be FAT32, but it is not a problem.

I tried it with TV tuner capturing but NTFS with this driver is causing some performance trouble in writing but rest is good.

Later was this sofware bought by Microsoft added to SysInternals pack and its price was 400 dollars. In year 2006 its distribution was stopped and the software is now in grey zone of abadonware. Trial Version is still available on certain sites.

link to trial:

http://www.ftp.planitbs.co.uk/Programs/Sys...%2098/index.htm

full version is still available somewhere on asian webs but its legality is questionable.

Law in our country is not solving distribution for abadonware. I have a copy of full version on ntfs98 1.07 here, but i want ask somebody how to access it to other users without violating any law. I think the only way how to do it is to pickup a support.

Microsoft Corporation is the owner of copyright for this software, and of those parts of win2k/xp which are not distributed with the package.

Edited November 9, 2007 by Offler

[NoNameNeeded]

I have Paragon NTFS for Win98 which works perfectly when it comes to reading files of an NTFS partition.

And the demo version is even for free:

http://www.paragon-software.com/demo.htm

But don't get the full version since it has some major bugs when it comes to saving files that already exist (i.e. you modify an existing file and try to save it). The problem is that it just doesn't work (error message).

I also told Paragon about it and they said that NTFS for WIn98 has been discontinued and therefore this bug won't be fixed.

[Tihiy]

I've used both, and they're both heavily buggy.

Paragon NTFS worked almost correctly, but completely hangs while initalizing on some systems (i dunno if it is related to SATA/RAID or LBA48 problems).

Sysinternals works for me, but writing feature once corrupted my files, and reading is slow and can completely hang system in some cases. It may work better with some other NT/2K/XP file versions, through...

[eidenk]

It's already nice to have tools that can read NTFS but sure that write would be even nicer.

Some time ago I had tried some Live Linux distros (can't remember which ones they were now) that could allegedly not only read but also write to FAT32 (and maybe NTFS, I can't recall) in a quest to find an easy to use and free replacement to a Bart PE Live XP CD for doing eventual repairs the easiest way on my system but none was actually writing anything to FAT32. Invariably the files that were overwritten by the Linux distros on my FAT32 were 0 bytes files.

I gave up looking into the Linux thing since then but I think a barebone and fast booting Linux distro, Live or not, with a working read/write to FAT32 and NTFS may be the sole realistic alternative if it does exist.

[icefireicefire]

but none was actually writing anything to FAT32. Invariably the files that were overwritten by the Linux distros on my FAT32 were 0 bytes files.

I use puppy linux to replace system files. It works with FAT32 and NFTS (plus is a live cd)

[eidenk]

but none was actually writing anything to FAT32. Invariably the files that were overwritten by the Linux distros on my FAT32 were 0 bytes files.

I use puppy linux to replace system files. It works with FAT32 and NFTS (plus is a live cd)

Thanks for the tip.

[Offler]

rigth now i havent found any way how to support some users with Winternals NTFS98.

but if we are talking about linux... is there a way how to use alternative file system? (not FAT32, not NTFS, but other if win98 or even dos are main systems)