IIS on Win2000

[aharrisreid]

My HDD contains W2K installed on a C: partition (FAT32), and a logical partition E: (also FAT32). I am about to install IIS on my E: drive and I note on the installation notes state "For security purposes, Microsoft recommends that all drives used with IIS be formatted with NTFS".

I have heard that before W2K came along, using IIS on anything but NTFS was a waste of time, but is the same still true with W2K? From a security point-of-view I can see why NTFS is preferable, but how critical is it on a machine which is purely used for development purposes? Is NTFS under W2K still the only viable solution?

Currently there is no other software that I use that requires NTFS exclusively.

If I had one FAT32 partition and one NTFS partition, would I require a dual boot? If c: is FAT32 and e: is NTFS, will c: be visible from e:, and vice-versa?

As an aside, onne of the main reasons why I moved over to W2K was that I could run my business apps (esp. IIS) under the same operating system as my kids can run their games (W2K supports DirectX 7 whereas NT didn't). Can these games still run under NTFS - ie. is it the operating system that's important, or the file format? If the games could run ok under NTFS I may be tempted to format the whole drive as NTFS.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Alan Harris-Reid

 

[AnonGod]

Let's see if I can hit all of your questions.
1. I do not have much experience with NT4 IIS, but from what I've seen, it is very similar to Windows 2000 IIS-5. IIS does not require NTFS, as there are some basic permissions built into the prog, obviously not near as robust as NTFS does, but still workable if needed.

2. Windows 2000 can recognize FAT, FAT32, NTFS4, and NTFS5. Unless you have any other OS, or software that specifically states that it cannot handle NTFS, I would make the switch (is there software that is a no-no for NTFS? haven't heard of any). Obviously, if you are running a win9x platform, they will not see NTFS partitions.

3. I would say 90% of games run fine under 2000. I know that every game i have played runs great, but I have heard from other posts that this game or another did not load. Check with the software vendor to be sure. If you are looking for a pure gaming console though, the vote so far has been Windows 98se all the way.

Hey, if you are still not sure, grab that computer geek that lives on every block of the U.S.(yes, we are everywhere....), and get them to test your game on a windows 2000 box. Buy them lunch, and you will have a techy friend for at least a couple of hours.

Good Luck! [TAG]
anongod@hotmail.com
"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."

 

[aharrisreid]

AnonGod (whoever you are!)
Many thanks for the reply.

>Obviously, if you are running a win9x platform, they will not see NTFS partitions.<

Does this mean that (unlike Win98) if I have W2K booting-up on a FAT32 C: drive, it will see my NTFS E:drive ok?

>Hey, if you are still not sure, grab that computer geek that lives on every block of the U.S.(yes, we are everywhere....), and get them to test your game on a windows 2000 box. Buy them lunch, and you will have a techy friend for at least a couple of hours.<

Great idea! Though where I'll find time for lunch I'll never know!

Regards,
Alan

 

[AnonGod]

>Does this mean that (unlike Win98) if I have W2K booting-up on a FAT32 C: drive, it will see my NTFS E:drive ok?<
Yes, Windows 2000 will be able to see the E: drive just fine.

*sigh* how true, it seems there is never enough time for the fun stuff. I can sum up my schedule pretty easily:
|-II|-II|-II|-I
If I'm lucky, I can talk my way into a free lunch every once in a while.

Good Luck To Ya! >:O>
[TAG]
anongod@hotmail.com
&quot;Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.&quot;

 

[aharrisreid]

>>Does this mean that (unlike Win98) if I have W2K booting-up on a FAT32 C: drive, it will see my NTFS E:drive ok?<<

>Yes, Windows 2000 will be able to see the E: drive just fine.<

Looks like I should take the plunge and move the entire hdd over to NTFS - can't see any reason not to. Any problems that I should look out for before taking this (big) step?

Regards,
Alan

 

[bookouri]

realize that once you are on ntfs you wont be able to boot to dos and do any troubleshooting. If the system crashes and you cant get it to run you are locked out. Most of our machines have a small dos partition where the operating system resides and the remainder of the disk is ntfs. That way if the system crashes you can boot to dos and edit configuration files etc. to try to get the system to reboot.. or you can even reinstall the operating system if necessary and your ntfs partition is still safe

 

[aharrisreid]

Bookouri - thanks for the reply.

>realize that once you are on ntfs you wont be able to boot to dos and do any troubleshooting. If the system crashes and you cant get it to run you are locked out. Most of our machines have a small dos partition where the operating system resides and the remainder of the disk is ntfs. That way if the system crashes you can boot to dos and edit configuration files etc. to try to get the system to reboot.. or you can even reinstall the operating system if necessary and your ntfs partition is still safe<

You raise some very good points - I'll bear them in mind.

Regards,
Alan