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Background
To protect from conflicts between Windows NT, 2000,
XP, 2003 and Vista, System Commander automatically hides all NTFS partitions
except the one you boot to. This may or may not be what you
desire.
If you
store data in a non-booting NTFS primary partition, the partition
will be hidden by default.
You can
control partition hiding from the Settings, Specific
OS options menu.
Why
does SC default to hiding NTFS partitions?
There
are 3 different NTFS formats currently in use, as follows:
| |
NTFS
Version |
|
Understood
by Windows |
| |
3.1 |
|
XP
and 2000 SP4 and later |
| |
3.0 |
|
2000
and NT SP4 and later |
| |
1.1 |
|
NT
4.0 and older |
This means
older OSes (NT and 2000 SP3 and older) do not understand the
latest NTFS format. Similarly, Windows XP, 2000, 2003 and Vista use a
version that Windows NT does not understand.
New OSes like Windows
XP will convert any NTFS partition it finds into the latest
NTFS format. If you have either Windows NT or Windows 2000
SP3 or older installed into a NTFS partition, XP will destroy
the ability to boot those older OSes. The operation is not
reversible, but the partition can be read or written by Windows
XP.
When you
run Windows 2000, it automatically converts any NTFS partition
it sees to its NTFS style. Should you have Windows NT installed
in a NTFS partition, this will destroy the ability to boot
NT, and the operation is not reversible. You can still read
or write the partition from Windows 2000, and in some cases
NT.
Unfortunately,
Windows will not warn you of the conversion, nor are there
any options in Windows to prevent this. System Commander hides
these partitions in a special way that prevents newer Windows
from changing version of NTFS partitions. This allows you
to safely have Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista all on the same system.
What
if I only have one Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista?
If only
have one NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista and do not plan to add another, it is
safe (and maybe even necessary) to unhide all NTFS partitions.
To do this, at boot time, select Settings, Specific
OS options, and move down to the Partitions/Visible control.
The choice "Auto" indicates all NTFS partitions
will be hidden (except for the one you boot from). You can
change which partitions on which drives you would like visible.
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