Accessing NTFS from FAT32 Via 3rd Party Software

[SCSI]

This is a last ditch effort to get around having to reinstall W2k. Does anyone know of a third party software that can access NTFS via FAT32? I have exhausted every means to restoring a saved copy of my W2k registry onto my main system with no success.

I have done everything I know to do just to simply get into %systemroot%\System32\Config to restore a good copy of my backed up registry hive that I have copied out of Repair\Regback to another drive location.

When I trying booting into W2k the missing/corrupt hive being reported is: D:\Systemroot\System32\Config\Software. I will try and restore all hive if I can to avoid making matters worst. Not even my ERD was able to repair the error. Partition Magic checks the NTFS partition, only to report "No Errors". In Recovery Console not even Chkdsk could repair the error. All I need to do is restore a corrupt hive with a known good beackup.

So, this is what I have done via Recovery Console:

cd repair\regback

copy file_name D:\systemroot\system32\config

where file_name is the 5 registry hives I want to restore:

Default
SAM
Security
Software
System

NTFS said: "Access Denied"

So, I copied the 5 registry hive files to another drive on my system, and reattempted the procedure to copy/restore the registry in the %systemroot% directory, but keep getting the same message "Access Denied". **sigh** Something tells me that as an Administrator I should at least be able to defeat this security.

Someone told me the W2k is looking for the default Administrator and password and not a member of the admin group. Well, good ole wise me, changed the name of the default Administrator to something other that "Administrator". I guess this is why even though I can gain access to the partition, but get the access denied message because I am no longer the default Administrator. (I don't know what to think about that...sounds bogus to me) However, nevertheless I can't even copy my good registry back into the %systemroot% directory. *sigh*!! *sigh*!!

Everyone that I have talked to says the I'll have to reinstall W2k. Another thing that people are saying is that when I reinstall W2k it will not recognize any program that are installed. So, basically I'll be starting over from scratch.

Another thing I did was setup a NFFS/FAT32 dual boot on one of my other PC on my network in order to back door my main system to restore it's registry. This failed, because I had disabled file sharing on my main system before the crash. As you see, I have exhausted every means to restore without reinstalling.

Has anyone had to reinstall W2k on top of a botch registry and survived? Looking for some success stories now/second chance options. Any help most gladly appreciated.

 

[SaigonK]

www.sysinternals.com


Look for NTFS DOS, it is a great utility!

 

[Nothinman]

NTFS and FAT32 are filesystems, they have nothing to do with accessing the other.

If you don't have av very recent backup of the SOFTWARE hive you'll have to reinstall a lot of software, so a full reinstall might be less work.

 

[SCSI]

Wow! thanks for the info. At least I can move/copy most of the important things I need before doing a clean install of W2k. As I read it's capabilities, I will be able to copy from, but not sure if I can copy to. Oh well, I'll find out in a minute, but at least I feel better in not having to lose some important stuff in the process. Thanks again!

 

[SCSI]

I know the two file systems are different and have no relationship in accessing one another, except for NTFS capabilility to read and write to FAT32 but not vice-versa. I did mention that I do have a recent backup of my software hive, but was unable to access the %systemroot% directory. Maybe I won't be able to restore the hive, but at least with the NTFS DOS freeware I'm be able to retain some valuable stuff that I may have lost in the clean reinstall. However, thanks for your reply.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: SCSI
I know the two file systems are different and have no relationship in accessing one another, except for NTFS capabilility to read and write to FAT32 but not vice-versa.

You appear to be slightly confused. The file systems have nothing to do with accessing each other. I believe the kernel is what accesses each file system. The DOS based kernels (WinME and earlier) do not have the proper code to access NTFS based file systems. Windows 2000 and later can access various versions of FAT and various versions of NTFS. A file system is useless on its own, its the code in the kernel that helps it do the voodoo it is supposed to do. It is not an easy concept to fully understand, I know I dont, but the various file system FAQs in the FAQ repository (linked in my sig) can help. Read through them when you get a chance, not the greatest plot, but the characters are fairly fleshed out.

 

[Nothinman]

I know the two file systems are different and have no relationship in accessing one another, except for NTFS capabilility to read and write to FAT32 but not vice-versa

Apparently you don't know. NTFS and FAT32 have nothing to do with each other at all. NTFS can't read FAT32 because it's not a program, same for FAT32. Win2K can read NTFS and FAT32 because it has filesystem drivers for both. Win9X and DOS can't read NTFS because they don't have NTFS drivers.

Maybe I won't be able to restore the hive, but at least with the NTFS DOS freeware I'm be able to retain some valuable stuff that I may have lost in the clean reinstall

The free version of NTFS-4-DOS only allows read access, if you want to write you have to buy the commercial version.

 

[SCSI]

Thanks for the clarification, and I do appreciate your information. I just used the NFTS DOS program and copied all the small important non-program stuff I needed stored in some folders. Now I will do a clean install of W2k. Thanks again.