Unbootable NT4 partition

[Venery]

I needed to copy some files in a NT4 system to a Windows 2000 system. So I connected the NT4 system disk, which was partitioned into 2 partitions, to a 2000 server to get the files from the second partition of it which was D:. (I did not even access the system partiton). I only copied the files from NT4 disk and pasted them into the windows 2000 disk. Every thing was fine until then. When I plugged the NT disk back to server I got a blue screen saying the disk was unbootable. Does anyone have an idea what the problem may be ? The server had serious info which I cannot recover with out booting from this disk. I'd appreciate any idea. Thanks

[Venery]

I think I should be giving more details. I tried to view the disk in an other NT4 after this and the partion was not seen as NTFS but unknown. So I wanted to test if this problem was cronical and cloned an other NT4 disk and connected to a windows 2000 server, guess what ? after removing it from 2000, it was not booting as a NT4 anymore. I just learned that windows 2000 had NTFS 5.0 and NT4 had 1.1 and windows 2000 would, without any warning, change an old NTFS to new 5.0 version. This may be the problem in my case.

Here comes a new question then, can I downgrade a partition from NTFS 5.0 to 1.1 or another solution may be changing the ntfs drivers of the NT4 to NTFS 5.0. I know that SP4 does this but how can I apply a service pack to a nonbooting system. May there be another way ?

[Daemonforce]

I just learned that windows 2000 had NTFS 5.0 and NT4 had 1.1 and windows 2000 would, without any warning, change an old NTFS to new 5.0 version.

JUST figuring this out makes you look like a dumb admin(along with millions of others). It happened a lot more often than you would think let alone believe. =/

My suggestion to you is before ever doing anything like that ever again you install SP6(you didn't have it installed did you?). Right now I don't know why you need to boot the system. If it were me at the console I would boot the computer with WinPE. If you have encryption(God forbid), use Knoppix to move stuff over the network. What kind of information do you need to recover that is so critical that you need to boot NT4?

[nmX.Memnoch]

This is just a suggestion and I do not know for sure if this will work. I claim no responsibility if it makes things any worse.

• Download NT4 SP6a.
  
• Extract it to an empty folder.
  
• Expand ntfs.sy_
  
• Put the expanded file on a floppy (or burn to the BartPE disk you'll make in the next step)
  
• Make yourself a BartPE disk.
  
• Boot the NT4 system with the BartPE disk
  
• Make a backup copy of the current copy of ntfs.sys (should be located in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers, but may be in a different location on NT4...I don't remember because I haven't used NT4 for years).
  
• Copy the SP6a version of ntfs.sys onto the NT4 drive
  
• Attempt to boot the system
  

This file may not be (and probably isn't) the only file involved. You may have to update the kernel files as well...which may also require other files be updated. SP6a has been out for years so there really is no reason you shouldn't have already had it on the system.

[Daemonforce]

It is for this reason I have actually considered forcing a slipstreamed SP6 into NT4 by overwriting old files, injecting new files into txtsetup and dosnet but it still doesn't take. For once I don't know why. Anyone trying to do this too, don't do it. Also, an onboard unattend file (WINNT.SIF) still crashes unattended setups.

Edited February 14, 2006 by Daemonforce

[nmX.Memnoch]

"Injecting a slipstreamed SP6"? I have no idea how you would apply SP6a onto a drive without being able to boot into the OS.

Also, IIRC NT4 wants the WINNT.SIF on a floppy and not on the CD. Doing unattended setups with NT4 was a bit of a pain. For one system I really wouldn't waste time creating an unattended CD.

Here's another option you can try. If you have an NT4 SP6a CD laying around you can try to do a repair install. Again, your mileage may vary...

[os2fan2]

While you can install Windows NT4 after Windows 2k, you should not boot 2k until you install sp6a.

There are some details on how you can add some SP6a files to 2k, to get past the 8G hard disk issue, this requires replacing the default NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, ATAPI.SYS and a few other files.

You can replace the SP6a NTLDR with a more recent version (eg Windows 2k or XP or 2k3), in SP6a. but not in NT4.

Really, it is a commercial decision of microsoft not to issue either a sp7 or to do slipstreaming of the service pack. You can indeed run a scheduled batch to upgrade the guff.

Try http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/index.htm for some info.

W

[jaclaz]

@venery

Yep, unfortunately the Win2k (silently and without warning ) "updates" the NTFS filesystem:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=198904

Files from NT 4.00 SP4 are enough to re-access the partition.

I would try to bluntly copy the NTFS.SYS from SP4 over the existing one and see what happens....

....but cannot say if it will work.

jaclaz