Hi, I have the following computer configuration... Two hard-disks in two drawers... one old 10 GB hard-disk divided to two partitions; c->1GB(FAT16) WinNT 4 workstation sp6a installed d->9GB(NTFS) one new 80GB hard-disk divided to two partitions; c->2GB(FAT16) Win2000 sp3 installed d->78GB(NTFS) the problem... every time that I switch the drawers and boot from Win2000 HD I get an startup Chkdsk errors such as... Deleting orphan file record segment... file xxx corrupted... the result, is that in Win2000 NTFS partition I got... 1. missing files that completely deleted. 2. Files that their content is missing 0 file size. 3. Files that the data is corrupted, I looked in one HTM file; some of it is the original data and some of garbage data. I manage to pin down the cause of the problem, it’s happen when I’m working on WinNT4 and copying file to the Win2000 NTFS partition! Most of the time I’m working on the WinNT4, and I want to use the 78GB space... I tried to find info how to fix it, or why it’s happen but no luck :-( Maybe there is some one that can help me? Thanks, Dror

I'd be willing to bet cash money that your problem stems from swapping your HDD's around. Why don't you dual boot your PC and then you can leave the HDD's alone.

I should have mentioned that you can install the OS's in the same configuration as you have now, only with a dual boot install, you'll be able to choose which OS to load via the bootloader on bootup without having to swap your HDD's.

I'm wondering a little (a lot?) if part of the problem is the issue of W2K being ntfs5 (based) and NT4 being an ntfs4 based OS. NT4 can read ntfs5 (via SP4 or later), but NT4 chdsk and a couple of other items won't work... (on ntfs5). I have seen occasional reports/comments around the www that some folks have found problems 'writing' to ntfs5 partitions from nt4 (even with sp4 or later installed) in a conventional dual/multi-boot environment - but I've no comments of my own in that regard. M$ did not want or allow for folks really 'wanting a dual-boot NT4 and NT5 (W2K)', and basically provided a means to run both (in a dual-boot) with some restrictions for NT4... http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8824 (a link the Summer 2000 edition of Windows 2000 Magazine) discusses the some of the pitfalls of NT4 and W2K co-existence. (The January 2001 edition has some updated info too.) You may need to be a subsciber to access these articles; they seem to have changed the access rules recently? You are NOT running a dual-boot (via W2K boot-loader) but are attempting to write to an ntfs5 area from NT4 (even if you do have the ntfs5.sys driver required and provided via sp4 and later). I'm musing here - not quite sure how to put it - but if the state of the W2K (ntfs5) partition changes - i.e. you write to/delete parts of it... how does W2K know what happend? I'm thinking around the issue of master file tables etc? You make a change to partition that is ntfs5 on a W2K drive, but is the mft info (master file table - the NT/W2K "equivalent" of the 'dos' fat) for the ntfs5 volume properly updated? And if the mft is changed/'updated', is W2K able to know about it? You see what I'm muddling around? Logically a dual-boot arrangement would be preferable/easier? But then you may have reasons for not wanting that - and prefer to use either OS on its own (which why you switch drives in the tray that in essence is the boot-drive area)? That you manage to access the other (W2K) drive from NT4 drive implies that you have the W2K drive in a Slave mode to NT4 (as Master) at that time? If this is so - then why not go a conventional dual-boot arrangement? If you can live with a conventional dual-boot arrangement... Set W2K as Master to NT4 slave; run W2K repair routine (CD or 4 floppies boot - not from withn NT4) to pick up the NT drive, add it to the boot.ini/menu and you should be away OK? (Incidentally do you have the jumpers set correctly for the W2K drive in Slave mode to the NT4 Master in your present mode of operation?)