NTFSDOS

It is highly unlikely that you need it today, but NTFSDOS was quite something back in the days, when NTFS was at the beginning and FAT32 (File Allocation Table) file system ruled. The application was designed to bridge the incompatibility gap between older OSs, such as Windows 95, and the new file system.

NTFSDOS would provide read-only access to NTFS formatted drives from a DOS or Windows 95 environment. Given the fact that the number of DOS or Windows 9X users nowadays is virtually nonexistent, the application has extremely limited practical usage. So this is actually a tool for the nostalgic.

When run under DOS, it scans the system's partition tables looking for partitions that have the NTFS attribute. After identifying them it proceeds to assigning drive letters, thus allowing you access to their content.

The NTFS drives are displayed in the same manner as the FAT32 ones so you can browse or execute applications from them. Under DOS 7.0, the application can even enable support for long file names and automatically transfer this feature to Windows 95 using the included NTFSHLP.VXD VxD device driver. This way you can access the contents of a NTFS partition using Windows Explorer.

The application supports a series of commands designed to increase user control over its functionality. You can specify the drive letters NTFSDOS should use for mounting NTFS volumes, adjust the size of XMS cache it uses in order to leave the system memory intact, tolerate Unicode file names or disable support for compression.

Although it offers you access to the data on a NTFS partition, the application still has its setbacks, one of them being that writing operation is restricted. Today it is no longer practical, but back then it would be okay to compromise some system resources just to see NTFS drives mounted on your system, despite occasional risks such as failing to provide compatibility for long file names.