[help]access ntfs from dos boot

[pcandpc]

Hello?

How do I access XP's NTFS drive from

plain old DOS boot?

Thanks.

[jftuga]

It can be done.

Google for

ntfs dos

ntfs dos driver

ntfs dos boot disk

etc.

-John

[Andromeda43]

It can be done.

Google for

ntfs dos

ntfs dos driver

ntfs dos boot disk

etc.

-John

Since a generic DOS, like Dr Dos, or MS Dos or FREE Dos or even IBM Dos,

cannot see a NTFS partition, it gets tricky.

That DOS boot disk would have to have some pretty special software on it to see a NTFS partition.

A Ghost boot disk can do this, but only for it's own use,,,,not to give the operator access to the files on the HD.

I've been told there are disks that will do it, but so far I've never had one.

Presumably, a Linux boot disk can do it.

B)

[allen2]

Winternals NTFSDOS can do it but isn't free.

NTFS4DOS also exist but i didn't try it so i can't say if it working well or not.

[JohnS]

Ntfsdos is free.

Only NTFSDOS Professional Edition is not free.

Edited November 18, 2006 by JohnS

[jaclaz]

NTFS4DOS, here:

http://www.datapol.de/dpe/freeware/

Works very well, in my opinion much better than the Wininternals/Sysinternals NTFSDOS, and, besides being Read/Write instead of Read Only - comparing freewares, it also takes much less space....

jaclaz

Edited November 18, 2006 by jaclaz

[LLXX]

Supposedly the FreeDOS team is adding optional native NTFS support to their newer kernels, but I'm not too sure...

Currently NTFS4DOS is the best option. You can extract the actual driver from it and integrate it into e.g. your boot CD or USB drive

Edited November 18, 2006 by LLXX

[Jekill]

Why not, "ntfs reader".

[jaclaz]

Why not, "ntfs reader".

Because, as said just two posts above, there is a FREEWARE Read/Write capable driver, more efficient than the reader.

jaclaz

[JohnS]

NTFS4DOS, here:

http://www.datapol.de/dpe/freeware/

Works very well, in my opinion much better than the Wininternals/Sysinternals NTFSDOS, and, besides being Read/Write instead of Read Only - comparing freewares, it also takes much less space....

jaclaz

From my point of view, and if we are talking about recovering files, I like more NTFSDOS from Winternals, as it has support for long file names and NTFS4DOS hasn't.

It is much easier to find something in a hard disk if you can see the entire file or folder name, not just 8 characters.

By the way, the link to NTFS4DOS from datapol seems to be dead, but one can find it here.

[jaclaz]

@JohnS

You are right, TWO times.

For the recovery of the "occasional" file, Read only NTFSDOS is better due to longname support, though it is not a recommended solution if you need to copy a substantial amount of data.

To "access" a NTFS volume, NTFS4DOS is better because being Read/Write allows you for the, again, "occasional" fix/correction.

Both solutions are not fast or handy for fixing/copying huge amounts of data, in that case a PE build or putting the drive on another PC as slave is preferred.

About the Datapol link broken, it appears that Datapol has somehow been acquired or incorporated into AVIRA, relevant pages appear to be these ones:

http://www.avira.com/en/products/recovery.html

http://www.avira.com/en/products/avira_ntfs4dos.html

http://www.avira.com/en/products/avira_ntfs4dos_4.html

Although on last linked to page, the esistence of a personal version, free for private use is stated, the download appears nowhere to be found, maybe it is just a temporary problem....

However, it is available from another Avira website, here:

http://www.free-av.com/antivirus/allinonen.html

http://www.free-av.com/down/windows/ntfs_h.exe

Another link here:

http://wiki.fdos.org/DOS/Ntfs4dos

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rjbovitz/ntfs4dos.EXE

jaclaz