X-no-Archive:yes
It was discussed on the Windows NT list, that having a FAT boot partition
is not the optimum method. FAT is a primitive file system, at best, and
prone to all sorts of errors. NTFS is far more robust and clearly
indicated as the desirable file system for NT.
Steve's recommendation of having an alternate NT partition is an excellent
one, and clearly the way to go for NT servers. I invite those who may be
interested to read our white paper on how to set up NT for a single floppy
recovery, this without having to buy software. Find it at
http://www.hicomp.com/disaster.htm.
I submit that Stan's problems, unless they were self-inflicted or due to
bad software, would have been avoided had he been using NTFS.
Kind regards,
Denys. . .
Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP America, Inc.
(800) 323-8863 (281) 288-7438 Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com www.hicomp.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Dirickson Steve [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 1998 2:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: NT Boots from Floppy
<<Hmm...I can boot my NT 4.0 server (SP3) from just about any old
DOS boot disk ... I kept the drives in FAT format for that reason, and was
that ever valuable! (It allowed me to recover when NT screwed up and
wouldn't boot about 6 months ago.)>>
This is something that is frequently overlooked. A FAT-format system
partition for an NT box allows all sorts of recovery options that are not
available if NTFS is used: you can replace broken pieces from a boot
floppy,
you can replace the registry with a known-good copy, and you can change NT
boot options by directly editing BOOT.INI.
<<(Yes, I know the advantages (*and* the disadvantages) of using
the
other file system formats)>>
I guess many people think a system is more secure if the system partition
is
NTFS. Generally, that's not the case; if the box is physically accessible,
an intruder can get the data off of it anyway.
If you aren't going to use FAT for your system partition, at least arrange
to have another bootable partition on the machine with a second copy of NT
on it. That way, if the "real" system becomes unbootable, you can boot the
standby NT installation and try to do your surgery from there.
Steve
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