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Free DOS Boot Floppy Reads NTFS
By Stephen Bucaro
NTFS Reader for DOS is a free utility that creates a DOS boot floppy that can
read NTFS formatted drives. This is something that you could use if you were
unable to start Windows, not even in Safe mode, and you don't have access to,
or don't care to deal with the Windows Recovery Console. In this type of crash
situation, this might allow you to recover your data from an NTFS formatted drive.
To use NTFS Reader for DOS:
Your computer must have a working floppy drive installed, and the BIOS must
be configured with the floppy as the first device in the boot order.
1. Download NtfsFloppySetup.exe from ntfs.com
to a working computer's hard disk. (The 658 KB download fits on a floppy disk.)
2. Insert a blank formatted floppy disk in the drive and double-click on the downloaded file's name.
3. In the dialog box that appears, click on the [Start] button.
The NTFS Reader utility will write some DOS files to the floppy disk, including
COMMAND.COM, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and READNTFS.EXE.
4. In the dialog box, click on the [Close] button.
5. With the floppy disk in the drive, restart the computer.
NTFS Reader for DOS works similar to the old DOS file managers. Use the
[Tab], [Shift] + [Tab], and Arrow keys to navigate. It allows you to get a
directory / file listing of an NTFS formatted drive (in DOS 8 + 3 character
file name format) and copy files from the NTFS drive to a FAT formatted drive.
This free utility could be a life saver in a crash situation where you need
to recover your data from NTFS formatted drive. If the NTFS drive is in such
bad shape that you can read it with NTFS Reader for DOS, visit the
ntfs.com web site for more information
about data recovery, including how to fix a damaged Master Boot Record.
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