Misc. Ramblings

As many of you know, using the Windows NTFS file system has advantages and disadvantages. One characteristic that could be viewed as a disadvantage is the inability to boot from a DOS disk and have access to the NTFS volume(s) on your hard drive. Which, if you think about it, is logical. DOS does not support NTFS so if you boot from a DOS diskette you shouldn't expect to see any of your NTFS volumes.

As an alternative, you can boot from the install CD but it's setup to do either a repair or clean install. The repair install may be able to do what you want, but there is another way.

You can use something called Bart's PE Builder. It runs on Win2K, XP, and 2003 (what they heck is 2003? Are they talking about server editions? - Ed.) but not NT4 or, of course Win9x and ME. Among other things, the CD allows you to:

• Access very large (>2TB) NTFS volumes or access volumes that are not seen by the BIOS, like some fiber channel disks.

• Very reliable scanning and cleaning of viruses using a "clean boot".

• Active Directory support.

• Have remote control over other machines, using vnc or remote desktop.

In order to create the CD you will need your original Windows install CD and more than a passing understanding of Windows (which all of my 11 readers already have, right?). As always, use at your own risk and insert disclaimer here.