NTFS/FAT_/LINUX drive data access in WIN95

[bonaire]

Hello
I am recovering data from a catastrophic event on my laptop.I am offloading data from the laptop hard drive to a pc runnning 95 by connecting it with a laptop to desktop IDE adapter. 95 detects the drive which is running as a secondary master but it assigns it no drive letter--I realize that because the laptop drive partitions are NTFS formatted I will need to use NTFS Reader or other freeware that can read NTFS from 95 to copy my data onto the 95 PC.
However, I will then format the laptop drive and repartition it with 3 partitions:
[ul]1) NTFS for win2k re-install
2) unformatted partition for red hat install(w/in 1st 1024)
3) FAT32 for shared data and other junk[/ul]
Now for the question part:
I will need to get the data off the 95 PC and back onto the repartitioned laptop drive's fat32 partition. I am wondering when I plug the repartitioned laptop drive into the 95 PC will I be able to see the FAT32 partition of the drive or will the presence of NTFS in the win2k partition cause it to not get assigned a drive letter again?
The freeware I mention above is read only. I will need to write data from the 95 PC to the laptop disk at this point.
I have not tried it yet, but hoping someone can show me the way.
As an aside, 95 claims that it has the proper driver for the laptop disk-- should I try to update with its win2k driver?
thanks
bonaire

 

[wolluf]

you should be able to see the fat32 partition. I don't know about NTFS reader, but if you have

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfswin98.shtml

installed in 95 to read ntfs partitions, you'll still be able to see the ntfs partition too.

Don't understand the aside. when running disk in 95, 95 will obviously use its own drivers. when running it in 2k, 2k will use its own drivers - there should be nothing for you to do (unless operating system HASN'T got driver for it).

 

[jrbarnett]

Quick point: If you use ext2 partitions under Linux, you can use the following software to copy the data off from there:

http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

(although you will obviously need to chmod it properly when you copy it back into Linux.

John

 

[TopHat2]

I am not an expert on this so take what I say with a large grain of salt. It's my understanding theat there are a number of Win95 versions, and that not all are compatable with FAT32, I think Win95 OSR2 is the compatable version. Given that your Win95 is FAT32 compatable, I see no reason why it would not see the FAT32 partition on your laptop, and assign it a drive letter. The drives may not be assigned the same letters under Win95 as they are in your laptop.

You may find some usefull software at the link below.

http://www.sysinternals.com/

 

[jrbarnett]

TopHat2 is right - the original Windows 95 didn't support FAT32 and therefore has a maximum partition size of 2Gb.

If your NTFS partitions are over this size, you will need to use a FAT32 aware version of Windows 95 (or 98/98SE) with the NTFSWin98 software to allow you to access any partition over this size.

Sorry for not mentioning it before.

John

 

[bonaire]

thanks for all the replies
The PC has a FAT32 partition on it as it has been upgraded from 95 to 98--but alas, the floppy drive is broken, and I won't be able to use the "NTFS reader" freeware because you need to boot from the floppy to use it. Oh well, I guess I will have to get a cd burner after all.
Thanks for your help.

 

[wolluf]

bonaire

Where did you get the idea you need to boot from floppy? It installs as a normal app in 95 or 98 - it just needs a few NT files to support it. Once installed, all ntfs partitions are mounted with drive letters like fat/fat32 ones (but read only) in 95/98.

There is also a dos version (ntfsdos) for use with a boot floppy - this is not that.

Suggest you visit that link again!
(

http://www.sysinternals.com/files/ntfs98ro.exe

is the actual app).