read NTFS from DOS

[xbugsy]

Anyone know of a utility that wil allow me to read NTFS from DOS WITHOUT a gui. I want command line/scriptable capabilities.

 

[thatrenowned]

The free version will only let you read NTFS from DOS. The full version lets you write to is as well.

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

 

[jrbarnett]

It is worth pointing out that NTFSDOS uses facilities in the underling operating system in order to read partitions.
Therefore in order to access partitions over 2Gb in size, you must use a Windows 95OSR2/98/Me bootdisk with FAT32 support.

John

 

[xbugsy]

I'm not sure you understood my question......I know the free version can only "read" and I know that I have partition size limitations. What I am looking for is a DOS COMMAND LINE VERSION. NO GUI NO "WINDOWS" NO MENUS just white letters on a black screen with a c:> prompt.

 

[jrbarnett]

Xbugsy

This version of NTFSDOS is free and provides read only access:

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

My comment about needing a FAT32 aware bootdisk still applies however - any system that doesn't understand it won't mount any partition over 2Gb in size from the prompt.

John

 

[xbugsy]

Unless I am mistaken this program does NOT run at the command line. It opens a "GUI".

 

[jrbarnett]

It hasn't when I have used it (and that is several times).

It can be run under Win9x to allow access to dual boot systems with NTFS partitions, but this is not required. You can run it from a DOS bootdisk with no extra files.

John

 

[wolluf]

xbugsy - you might be thinking of

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

As John says - ntfsdos can be copied to a dos (win9x/ME) bootdisk and run from there - or from within win9x/ME (though its more difficult to run inside windows, because it takes up a fair slice of memory (640KB))

 

[xbugsy]

Unfortunately I think I am not stating my question in such a way as to invoke the right answer.

I don't mean can you copy it to a disk or run the command from the command line, I mean "can you type a command like 'copy' or 'cd' or anything like that". from what I see of this program it opens a blue "gui" and I can only navigate with the arrow keys. I cannot simply enter commands.

 

[thatrenowned]

One of the versions of NTFSDOS do what you're asking - you boot into DOS using some boot disk (e.g. a Windows 98 boot disk) and then run the NTFSDOS exe file. It then mounts the drives and you're able to access them.

This is all done through the normal DOS interface i.e. once its finished booting, you have a a:\> prompt. From here you could for example go c: and then cd winnt etc. When I used NTFSDOS, there was no blue GUI.

I can't remember if the one I used is the one on the link in my first post or the one jrbarnett suggests.

 

[wolluf]

xbugsy - thatrenowned is correct - use the link from jrbarnett's post

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

This does NOT open a GUI in Windows and can (is best) run from a boot floppy (just run ntfsdos from dos prompt & it mounts your NT partitions). I have used this many times.

 

[xbugsy]

Thanks alot everyone. It was very confusing that there are 2 versions of the software with the same name. I seemed to keep finding the gui version.

Any good tips on extracting a registry value from the dos prompt?

 

[wolluf]

http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/368/02/2.html

- includes switch to export a branch of registry - don't know if that's what you mean?