[rgodart]

If i'm not mistaken win2k uses ntfs 5 and xp uses ntfs 5.1. I had xp installed for a while with my 2 drives in ntfs. But i switched back to 2k => drive1 = ntfs 5 and drive 2= ntfs 5.1
2k seems to be able to use the second drive normally. Can any damage be caused to the data on drive 2 because it's ntfs 5.1? Should i reformat it?
Thanks

[Vampy]

Hi

I did almost the same thing a while back, although im now back on xp, and everything has been fine. The changes that ms have made would appear to be slight. The only problems ive heard of are that some utils treat them differently but ive had no problems at all.

NTFS never the f*****g same

[Brian Frank]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Vampy]

There is that as well

[Brian Frank]

AFAIK, the variations between the versions of NTFS aren't huge, so Win2k can read/write to it w/o a problem. If it's workfine, just leave it be. No sense in doing work if you don't have to;)

[insaNity]

They are different. Maybe SP2 upgrades win2k to handle the new NTFS?

[DosFreak]

1. NT4 SP4+ reads ALL NTFS 5 partitions just fine. (dunno about dynamic)
2. NT5 reads ALL NTFS 5 partitions just fine.
3. Installing NT5 on an NT4 dual-boot upgrades the NTFS on all NTFS drives to NTFS v5. That's why you need to update to SP4 on NT4 before you do...otherwise NT4 will go bye bye.
4. I am unsure if XP upgrades the NTFS ver or not. Most likely it does but even so the last 2 OS's can read it fine.

[insaNity]

thats interesting because the versions of these programs that worked with Win2K'a NTFS don't work with XP's NTFS. You have to update these programs:

Symantec/Norton Ghost 6
Partition Magic 6
NTFSDOS

and I'm sure others.

[clutch]

The programs you mention I believe use their own APIs, and they might have to be updated even if Win2K can read WinXP's partitions.

[Brian Frank]

I ran a dual-boot with XP RC1 and Win2k for a while and Win2k was fine with the XP NTFS version.

[DosFreak]

Low level system utilities such as the ones you listed are not Microsoft programs and as such their usage of NTFS is pretty well experiemental. Microsoft doesn't really give away much information about NTFS so any third-party tool you see DO NOT TRUST.....EVER.

[Pikey]

Absolutely right.

Norton Speedisk, for instance, throws a wobbly if you try and run it from Windows 2000 with XP on a dual boot.

Having said that, there were always problems running Check Disk from NT 4 when dual booting with 2000, so it's not always 3rd party software that causes problems with the many different shades of NTFS. (In fact, 3rd party stuff sometimes "corrects" these anomalies. I recall Sysinternals having a neat little freeware fix.)

I wonder if chkdsk does the same with 2000/XP? I'd expect so, but I never tried it when I was dual booting.

Cheers

[Cynan]

I thought you were a fan DosFreak... ? ?

[DosFreak]

Not after usimg Diskeeper 7. Symantec has gone downhillsince NU for the DOS/8x line. Their NU have always been terrible for NT OS's.

[Brian Frank]

Yup. I haven't used them under 2k/XP, save one time and never did it again.

[Cynan]

I've never been a fan of Diskeeper.. perhaps I'll take your word on version 7 though and take a look at it at some point. As for SpeedDisk, I'm using that happily. The first version for NT that came out was a bit dodgy, but it seems okay now, and in my opinion, a lot better them most of the others out there.