NTFS versions 3.0, 3.1

[Damien McBain]

Hi,

I'm trying to (in Win2k using Partition Magic) to merge 2 partitions on one
drive. The primary partition is (accoring to Partition Magic) NTFS version
3.1. It had a Win2k3 installation on it which I removed in Win2k disk
management by formatting the partition. (this drive was the only drive in an
old machine I used as a home file server)
The other partition is (according to Partition magic) NTFS version 3.0.
Partition magic can't merge them due to the difference in the file systems.
My questions are:
- Which version of NTFS does Win2k use by default?
- Using Win2k, how can I change the NTFS version of the partitions short of
deleting them (one has 130GB of data on it) and re-partitioning?

Any help appreciated.

cheers

Damo

 

[George Hester]

I believe Win2K is NTFS 3.0 while XP is NTFS 3.1. Version info is inconsistent at Microsoft. Sometimes they just
call it the version of NT 5 for Win2K and 5.1 for XP. But the Win2K3 is 6 and it looks like NTFS is still saying 3.1
(5.1) so not sure there. Ask in the server.general newsgroup for more specifics.

Now file system does not depend on the type of Windows (Server or not) just on the major version of the operating
system. But PM (latest version) will balk if there is any Server OS installed. That is not because of the file system but
because of boneheaded engineering.

You cannot use Win2K to change the file system on a partition besides going from FAT 16 or 32 to NTFS. Once that
is done only 3rd party tools can go the other way. Assuming you want to keep your data. Similarly you cannot change
NTFS versions at all in Windows 2000 nor can you do this at all besides installing the Op sys that supports that version.

Here is a hidden statement of the versions in Windows 2000\XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;196707

You can tell this by reading this closely:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;198904

 

[Damien McBain]

I believe Win2K is NTFS 3.0 while XP is NTFS 3.1. Version info is
inconsistent at Microsoft. Sometimes they just
call it the version of NT 5 for Win2K and 5.1 for XP. But the Win2K3
is 6 and it looks like NTFS is still saying 3.1
(5.1) so not sure there. Ask in the server.general newsgroup for
more specifics.

Now file system does not depend on the type of Windows (Server or
not) just on the major version of the operating
system. But PM (latest version) will balk if there is any Server OS
installed. That is not because of the file system but
because of boneheaded engineering.

You cannot use Win2K to change the file system on a partition besides
going from FAT 16 or 32 to NTFS. Once that
is done only 3rd party tools can go the other way. Assuming you want
to keep your data. Similarly you cannot change
NTFS versions at all in Windows 2000 nor can you do this at all
besides installing the Op sys that supports that version.

Here is a hidden statement of the versions in Windows 2000\XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;196707

You can tell this by reading this closely:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;198904

Thanks George. I ended up deleting the 3.1 (2k3server) partition and
extending the other. PM made a massive mess of moving the data to the start
of the drive and I ended up having to use GetDataBack ntfs to recover my
files (127GB of them). I thankfully recovered 99% and lost nothing
important. Still, 4 hours of my leisure time wasted.

Won't try that again...

 

[George Hester]

Well I should have said "NEVER" use the GUI in PM. Use the emergemvy disks. There is nothing you cannot do with the emergency disks that any sane individual would try from the GUI.