ͻ
  32 bits Windows NT NTFS file system driver for OS/2 WARP - Allows    
  OS/2 to access your Windows NT NTFS partitions as normal drive       
  letters.                                                             
  Copyright (C) 1997  Daniel Steiner (daniel.steiner@cch.cerberus.ch)  
                                                                       
  This program is free software                                        
                                                                       
  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,      
  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of       
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.                 
                                                                       
ͼ

              NTFS-OS2 VERSION 0.03 (32 BITS EDITION)


WHAT IS NTFS-OS2  ?
-------------------

NTFS-OS2 is CURRENTLY ONLY A COLLECTION OF TOOLS to access a Windows NT file
system (NTFS) in read-only mode.

If there is enough interest for a ntfs-IFS I'll port the original Linux ntfs
code from M. Loewis to OS/2 using mwdd32 device driver from M. Willm.

nts-os2.ifs will be a file system driver that allows OS/2 to seamlessly access
Windows NT ntfs partitions in both read and write (maybe) modes.
Once installed, NTFS partitions would appear as standard OS/2 drive letters, one
per NTFS partition.


Make sure you understand that this is alpha software. This means that the
implementation is neither complete nor well-tested. Still, it works for me
and others, so you can try it out. You should know how to restore the system
after a crash, and have a backup of any valuable data, just in case.


INSTALLATION AND USAGE INSTRUCTIONS :
------------------------------------

  Installing ntfs tools:

     Simply unzip ntfs_003.zip in a directory.

  Usage:

     findntfs
     ntdir <driveletter>:\<path>
     ntcat <driveletter>:\<path>\<file>
     ntcp  <driveletter>:\<path>\<file> file



   no relativ path are supported, eg. no '.' and no '..' as path
   no wildcards are supported

***********************************************
***** IMPORTANT WARNING - READ THIS FIRST *****
***********************************************

ntfs-os2 is a FILE SYSTEM DRIVER. Being a driver it runs at the most
privileged level of the OS/2 operating system, known as "kernel mode".  
IN KERNEL MODE THERE IS NO MORE CRASH PROTECTION.  It means that if a bug 
occurs in the driver IT CAN CAUSE A HANG OR A SYSTEM HALT, AND THUS CAN 
CAUSE LOSS OF DATA.

 - I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU TO MAKE A BACKUP OF ALL YOUR DATA (EVEN IF THEY 
   ARE NOT LOCATED ON A WINDOWS NT NTFS PARTITION) PRIOR TO USE THIS DRIVER.

 - DON'T USE THIS DRIVER ON A PRODUCTION MACHINE, OR IF YOU MANIPULATE
   CRITICAL DATA.

 - IF HUMAN LIFE DEPENDS ON YOUR SYSTEM, DON'T INSTALL THIS DRIVER ON IT.

 - USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISKS, AND ONLY ON A MACHINE YOU ACCEPT TO CRASH
   AND REINSTALL.

 - BE AWARE THAT THIS DRIVER WILL GIVE FULL UNRESTRICTED (ROOT) ACCESS TO 
   ALL YOUR WINDOWS NT NTFS PARTITIONS FROM OS/2.

Now experience tends to prove that ntfs-os2 is stable for normal use...
but doing regular backups is never a bad practice.


MAIN CHANGES SINCE PREVIOUS RELEASE :
-------------------------------------

- updated to newest version of Linux NTFS
- correction in some type cast


INCLUDED IN THIS PACKAGE :
--------------------------

Currently the package includes only some tools to access a NTFS partition.
If there's enough interest I'll port and include an ntfs IFS in the future
too.


FEATURES AND RESTRICTIONS OF THE 32 BITS VERSION OF NTFS-OS2 :
--------------------------------------------------------------

  OS/2 Requirements :
      - OS/2 WARP V4 : supported.
      - OS/2 WARP V3 : fixpack 17 or higher is required. Bare OS/2 
                       WARP (no fixpack) should be OK but I did not
                       test it.
      - OS/2 2.x  : not supported.
      - OS/2 1.x  : not supported.


WHERE TO FIND NTFS-OS2 :
------------------------

You can find the latest version of ntfs-os2 at the ntfs-os2 home page :

    http://npw.cgnet.de/dsteiner

You can also find it at the usual ftp sites (or in their incoming directory) :

    ftp://ftp-os2.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/system/drivers/filesys/ntfs_003.zip
    ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/drivers/ifs/ntfs_003.zip
    ftp://ftp-os2.cdrom.com/pub/os2/diskutil/ntfs_003.zip


FEEDBACK AND SUPPORT :
----------------------

Please feel free to contact me for any question on ntfs-os2. You are also
encouraged to give me some feedback on how it works on your system and what
new features you would like ... this helps me improve it ! Both success stories
and disasters interest me.


CREDITS :
---------

Thanks to M. Loewis for his Linux ntfs driver.
Thanks to M. Willm for his 32-Bit IFS kit.
Thanks to O. Stein, IBM Deutschland IHV Support for sponsoring VisualAge C++  3.0

DONATIONS :
-----------

Even this software is free, donations are welcome.


 
Daniel Steiner

e-mail: daniel.steiner@cch.cerberus.ch

mail:
  Daniel Steiner
  Meienbergstr. 81
  CH-8645 Jona
  (Switzerland)



