How can I read an NTFS drive from DOS?

April 23, 2003 10:12 PM from

My dad's work computer decided to stop working for no apparent reason (virus maybe?). It has 1 HDD with 2 NTFS patitions. I put a boot disk in and I can get to DOS but I can't access anything other than the floppy and CD-ROM drives.

After a LOT of looking around on the net, I found that there is (but there may not be

) a program called NTFSPRO which is exactly what I'm looking for, but a search in google only found something written in arabic, a chineese website, a couple of russian pages, and some (english!) page with a shortcut to a russian page with a dead link on it.

Can anyone out there help me?

Thanks.

20,906 views 57 replies

Reply #1 April 23, 2003 10:24 PM from

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Ryan...I have one somewhere...I got it via shell city....can send it to you....but I'll see if I can dig up the URL

Reply #2 April 23, 2003 10:29 PM from

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It's called ReadNTFS.exe....and the zip is only 153k.
Freeware...but I don't have the URL, as yet....but a search on Shell City should find it.

Reply #3 April 23, 2003 10:32 PM from

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Get a CD-ROM based Linux distro called Knoppix. It can read NTFS file systems. Not only does it make a create rescue disc, but you it allows you to be productive while you don't have a working hard drive. It comes with tons of productivity software.

Reply #4 April 23, 2003 10:32 PM from

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shellcity.com?

I'll try that. Thanks

Reply #5 April 23, 2003 10:33 PM from

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Nope...search didn't work.

Reply #6 April 23, 2003 10:33 PM from

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http://download.com.com/3000-2094-10126096.html

download . com has this file for download

Reply #7 April 23, 2003 10:36 PM from

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I forgot to mention, Knoppix can olny read your hard drive. You can't write to it. If you need a rescue disc that can write then get something else. Anyways, Knoppix is a good rescue disc that allows you to get data off of your hard drive and be productive while your hard drive is out of order.

Reply #8 April 23, 2003 10:36 PM from

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You have mail...

Reply #9 April 23, 2003 10:37 PM from

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No luck there Jafo.

jj79_1999: I'd rather not mess around installing Linux distros since it's a work computer.

Reply #10 April 23, 2003 10:37 PM from

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Oh yeah, Knoppix can be found here http://www.knoppix.org/

Reply #11 April 23, 2003 10:38 PM from

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In your mail, or in Static's link...same proggy...

Reply #12 April 23, 2003 10:38 PM from

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You don't install Knoppix, it runs off your CD-ROM live. It's basically a rescue disc with a GUI and tons of software.

Reply #13 April 23, 2003 10:39 PM from

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hey ryan..
its not NTFSPRO... its NTFSDOS Pro...

...
& thats not a freeware/shareware... costs $300..

but heres a freeware... NTFSDOS (non pro

but works just fine..

)...

http://www.listsoft.com/?id=307

Reply #14 April 23, 2003 10:41 PM from

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Thanks §tatic, that's what I'm after.

Now I've only got to fix the computer. Right after I find out what the actual problem is.

Reply #15 April 23, 2003 10:42 PM from

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http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm

Reply #16 April 23, 2003 10:43 PM from

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one more thing ryan... make sure you create that boot disk with win98 or win95, my experience with XP creating system disks is they tend to not always boot.

Reply #17 April 24, 2003 12:10 AM from

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None of the programs seem to work. I'm guessing Dad has picked up a virus from somewhere that has destroyed part of the hard drive. >

Not good.

Thanks anyway everyone.

Reply #18 April 24, 2003 12:16 AM from

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Ryan...most anti-virus proggies have a boot-up disk for virus check. You might also try enabling virus check in boot log thru the bios...that's a long shot, but you never know

Reply #19 April 24, 2003 12:39 AM from

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Ryan...if it's XP...DL the 6 boot disks to get you back running...could be part of the ntldr or boot.ini or ntdetect.com that's fragged in the root.

I had to do that on a friend's comp....corrupted ntldr...couldn't find the drive.
Fixed it, though...

Reply #20 April 24, 2003 12:41 AM from

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Disk auto-creating file is 4+ meg...

Reply #21 April 24, 2003 12:46 AM from

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I think that for a log file to be effective, there actually has to be a place to log it to.

Since I don't have a hard drive (or so the computer is trying to convince me), there's nowhere to log it.

And there's no boot log option in the BIOS either

I know that Dad has a virus scanner on the computer, but it's probably different to the one on this computer.

Reply #22 April 24, 2003 12:49 AM from

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6 boot disks?

I don't think I even HAVE that many

That could help, but it seems you've neglected to tell me where to DL it (or at least it's name, so I know what to look for)

Reply #23 April 24, 2003 12:53 AM from

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ummmm.....try going back to the bios and set to 'Default" or if it has it 'Failsafe'. See if your Bios is showing a hard drive, if not put on auto detect. Make certain no one has messed with memory settings or speed. High states in memory settings can make a hard drive disappear.

Reply #24 April 24, 2003 12:58 AM from

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http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b315261

Reply #25 April 24, 2003 12:58 AM from

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http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=55820EDB-5039-4955-BCB7-4FED408EA73F

There you go...

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