P3D Re: NTSF/FAT

[michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Kersenbrock)]

> Relevance of the analogy: You stated that the two computers are *networked*
> together, which introduces some considerable number of transmission/translation
> protocols between the two machines. When you access the NT computer's files
> over the network from the Win95 computer, it's really the NT computer that's
> accessing the files and passing them on.

As opposed to "translations" being done by file system code instead
of networking code?  One is "proper" and the other "doesn't count"?

> >My NT hard drives ARE NTFS and my Win95 computer can access all files
> >without a problem!
> 
> As I said, that's no test. Try taking an NTFS disk out of your NT computer

Test of what?

> and physically installing it as a slave drive in your Win95 machine, turn the
> network off, and see if you can still access those files on the NTFS
> disk using Win95. If it were a disk from another Win95 machine, you *would*
> be able to access those files, but I suspect you won't be able to
> access the NTFS disk. (No, I don't suggest you really try it, but I did
> that exact thing one time to try to recover some files a guest researcher
> had left behind, and it indeed did not work. We had to put the disk in an
> NT machine to get the files.)

Yes, an NTFS disk physically mounted on a DOS or Windows95 Machine won't
work other than under NT.  But that only means what was said.  It doesn't mean 
that an NTFS disk isn't readable under Window95.  Only under the circumstances
mentioned, is that true. Under some other circumstances it is indeed
accessable (and logically "mounted" as to seem to be a local disk
to the user).  NFS is one way of doing that with Unix Machines mixed
with DOS (and other) machines, etc.  

> It still ain't true if you're talking about two machines, connected by a
> network, running different operating systems simultaneously, but that's
> *not* what these other guys are talking about. Around here some people have
> network mounting of disks between Win95 machines with only IDE interface,
> and Sun machines running Unix (SunOS) on SCSI disks. Are you suggesting a 
> person could pop a SCSI/Unix formatted disk from a Sun into Win95 / IDE 
> machine, and expect to access the files without an intermediary? :-)  :-)  :-)

If one said "an NTFS disk is exactly equivalent to a FAT16 disk in all
ways, and they are interchangeable", then that would be blatantly false.

The original assertion was that an NTFS disk is NOT accessable by
Windows95 (as a filesystem disk).  The examples showed an instance 
where that is not true.  This is sufficient to prove show the original
assertion false as stated.

If the original assertion is constrained to the single-CPU single-machine
scenario, then it *is* true, but it wasn't originally put that way
as I understand it.

LAN's once were rare, but they're becoming common even in
homes now when people get a second (or third...) PC.  Even
FastEthernet cards (100Mhz) are only $30 now (for the PC).

All of this depends somewhat on point of view.  If one has a
CPU-centric point of view and looks "up" at the system
hierarchy, then what was originally said is "true", but
if one looks at the system as a whole and sees CPU-boxes
as pieces of a system that's been built and/or being used
then what I've said is how one would see it (I think).

Mike  K.


P.S. -  I default to "thinking network".  I do it all day every
        day working for the #1 company in Wide Area Network Access
        equipment (CSU/DSU's, ATM Access Data Concentrators, etc).  :-)
 
     


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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 2659
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