Re: NTFS boot disk how to make one??

From: André Gulliksen (andre.gulliksen_at_start.no)
Date: 02/27/05 

Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 21:32:47 +0100

Paul M wrote:
> I was thinking of changing atleast my boot partition to NTFS. But no
> way in POO POO will i do it unless i have boot disk that allow me to
> get to the dospromt and load my cd rom driveres ect ect like my dos
> boot disk.

If you are really anal about having to do it from MS-DOS, look at
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsdos.shtml and download the
little NTFS driver presented to you. Throw it onto your favourite 3.5" and
you should be set. It should probably fit without problems, I believe my
copy is about 27 kB after packing it with UPX.

That being said, using MS-DOS and 3.5" floppies to access NTFS partitions is
an extremely backwards way to go. You should definitely look into some live
CDs powered by more modern operating systems. Knoppix (Linux-based,
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html) and BartPE (XP-based,
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) are good places to start. Also, you should
know about what you can (and can't) do with the recovery console on your XP
installation CD.

Generally, the day of the boot floppies are counted. As a matter of fact,
the day of floppies in general should be counted (Apple did the right thing
years ago, and the major obstacle for Windows users these days seems to be
installing XP on SATA systems). Most computers these days can boot a CD
without problems, and even really old ones (10 years +) can usually be
convinced to boot a CD using the right boot manager.

> PS/ Do i realy need to convert all my partions to NTFS to get the full
> benifit. or will my boot drive be enough.

OK, so I have got some cans of this great new paint which is supposed to
protect my house from the weather better than earlier versions. Should I
apply a layer to all my walls, or just the sunside one?

Converting your boot drive to NTFS means your boot partition benefits from
NTFS, the others don't. Converting them all would be the logical thing to
do, unless you have specific reasons not to. Personally I have 6 partitions:
4xNTFS, 1xUFS (OK, really one slice with multiple labels) and 1xFAT32. The
last one is to easily interchange data between Windows XP and FreeBSD, apart
from that it is not used.

> Also should i have my
> swapfile on a NTFS partiton to be a benfit in speed ect?

Probably, but I have no hard numbers to back that claim up. For one thing,
my guess is that NTFS is at least a good way to reduce possible
fragmentation of the pagefile.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: User access
    ... If one uses the built-in groups/accounts when setting NTFS permissions ... What I stated relative to Safe Mode ... The NTFS partition is the boot ... > DriveImage 7.0 off a boot CD for recovery and it recognizes NTFS. ...
    (microsoft.public.security)
  • Re: NTFS to FAT32?
    ... > partitioned in NTFS, it couldnt do the install - it needs to be changed ... > into the FAT32 format. ... I tried to use the fdisk utility on my 98 boot ... > partition from NTFS to FAT32 using either the 98 boot disk or CD, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Hide folders from different local users
    ... I feel I have to leave the XP partition Fat32 so both ... > if it was NTFS, 98SE would need it's own separate copy to run. ... plus security - if you care to convert your disk to NTFS. ... boot manager. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
  • Re: reinstall XP Home - Big, challenging problem here!
    ... if the HDD is set to boot before the ROM ... >partition to install on or delete the partitions one at ... She had switched over to NTFS ... >> rebooting and rebooting all by itself. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: FAT32 v.s NTFS
    ... With more and more systems being sold without floppies, making boot floppies ... above will not allow you to create a single 80 gig partition on an 80 gig ... A cluster is the MINIMUM ... NTFS provides cluster sizes closer to what the HDD is actually using ... ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.file_system)