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Q129038: Summary of Windows NT NTFS and FTDisk Data Recovery

Article: Q129038
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 08-AUG-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5 
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SUMMARY
=======

FtDisk, the Windows NT fault tolerant driver, provides the mechanisms for
redundant data storage, volume management, and dynamic data recovery.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Dynamic data recovery is only available on SCSI drives. FtDisk works between the
physical disk drivers and the file system drivers, and works with all the
supported files systems (FAT, HPFS, and NTFS). Windows NT file system (NTFS) is
the only file system with built-in data recovery mechanisms.

The table below lists the data recovery options available when you have FtDisk
installed on an NTFS drive.

         SCSI Drive with       Non-SCSI drive or      Any type of
         spare sectors         no spare sectors       disk drive

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Fault     1. FtDisk can         1. FtDisk can          N/A
Tolerant     recover data          recover data
Volume    2. FtDisk uses        2. FtDisk sends data
            sector sparing        and a bad-sector
            (replaces sector)     error to the file
                                  system
         3. File system is     3. NTFS performs
            unaware of            cluster remapping
            the error

Non-Fault 1. FtDisk cannot      1. FtDisk cannot       1. Disk driver
Tolerant     recover data          recover data           returns bad
Volume                                                    sector error
                                                         to file system

         2. FtDisk sends       2. FtDisk sends        2. NTFS performs
            bad-sector error      bad-sector error       cluster remapping
            to file system        to file system
         3. NTFS performs      3. NTFS performs
            cluster remapping     cluster remapping
            DATA IS LOST          DATA IS LOST        DATA IS LOST
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Fault tolerant volumes include mirror sets (RAID 1) and stripe sets with parity
(RAID 5).

Note: If FtDisk finds a bad sector on a fault tolerant volume, and the physical
disk supports spare sectors, and has spare sectors available, FtDisk replaces
the sector. This is true for all tree supported file systems (FAT, HPFS, and
NTFS); the file system remains unaware of this mechanism.

For more information on NTFS, see "Inside the Windows NT File System" by Helen
Custer.

Additional query words: prodnt ft ntfaqset

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNTWsearch kbWinNT350search kbWinNTW350 kbWinNTW350search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTS350 kbWinNTS350search

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