by @Macarlo, Team OS/2 Registered

The old and good Pinball.Sys from NT 3.51 has been repacked and uploaded on Hobbes...

 Hi All.

Incredible, but is the reality: I'm here inside Windows NT 4 Service Pack5 writing this report on ....HPFS partition called <P> , one of the several partitions of my OS/2 Warp 4.0 FP6. I'm using the drivers that exist inside the zipfile called hpfsnt.zip (574,84KB). Ifyou are interested you can download this zipfile from Hobbes <http://hobbes.nmsu.edu> (note you must be have a NT 3.51 license). In reality this pack is simply the famous Pinball.Sys from Windows NT 3.51 (that not included in the version above, NT 4.0). An OS/2 & NT user was repacked it and uplodaded it (hehehehe....). I downloaded this repacked bundle, tested it successfully and I'm using it here on NT 4 SP5. Is exactly the same driver I've on my NT 3.51 (I'm registered user). With this drivers I can update my entire web site mirror on OS/2 Warp from Windows NT simply using FAR, File Commander, Windows Commander or other file manager like Midnight Commander -exactly the file manager I use on Red Hat Linux (but from Linux I can only read and copy HPFS partions, don't write and from Windows NT now I can). But don't try access HPFS partions above 4GB (this is the limit) or you will crash the partition!

I remember that Bill Gates was created the HPFS and this file type was used by Windows NT but Microsoft was replaced it by NTFS because NTFS have the ability to compress in real time file-by-file. Using NTFS you can compress an ONLY file entire folber by a simply click of mouse (in Windows 95/98 the DriveSpace compresses the entire partition only). I personaly don't like NTFS because this type file generates terrific fragmentation and Diskeeper must be runs incessantly to optmize the partition. I prefer HPFS because this file type have low fragmentation and I need use GammaTech optimize only one time by each year (!!!!).

In old times I works only on OS/2 Warp but since 1998 I decided have not an only platform and I choice StarOffice because his ability to run fine on OS/2 Warp, Windows 95,98/NT, Linux and Solaris. With StarOffice I can works in the same Web IDE on all Operating System I need! The problem is the update of all site maps on the three platforms I'm using here: Warp, NT and Linux. Before this driver hpfsnt I was updated the Warp mirror site map generating a zipfile from my site map on Windows NT, in order to preserve longnames. Now, I works on NT 4 SP5 and when I jump Warp in order to make works about OS/2 I simple update my entire site map on OS/2 using FAR! See the photo below:

I installed the hpfsnt here without problems. This file have a fine, easy and smooth install setup (InstallSHIELD Resource DLL (c) Stirling Technologies Inc., 1990-1995) and in few minutes you have all HPFS partitions of your machine under control inside Windows NT. Currently I'm working with three EIDE HDDs (one with Windows NT/Windows 95, the second with Red Hat Linux and OS/2 Warp 3.0 and the third with OS/w Warp 4.0. To jump all operating systems I tried IBM Boot Manager, PowerBoot and System Commander. With the help of Steve Wendt and other members of the Hardware Mailing List from the OS/2 Supersite <http://www.os2ss.com>I adjusted this system to runs fine!

Comment

By Jim Dritsas
Toronto, Canada

Hi,

In reference to article
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/5423/nthpfs3006.htm, I was accessing my HPFS drive from NT 4 a while ago, using NT base, SP3, SP4 and SP5. I am glad you are thrilled about this discovery and letting your visitors know about it. It's good to hear that you installed the driver successfully and are using it to access your HPFS drives.  However, this ability to access HPFS from Windows NT has more or less already been established, so it's not late-breaking news. I downloaded this software almost a year ago from some European site. However, users should proceed with caution.  First off, you should only be using the pinball.sys driver if you have a license for Windows NT 3.51 (since pinball.sys is a component of that version which officially supports HPFS).  Second, Microsoft no longer supports accessing HPFS from Windows NT, and there have been no updates to the pinball.sys driver to support any fixes or new HPFS features. After using primarily NT to access my HPFS drive, it appears that the drive eventually became corrupted because I experienced major file system damage. It was so bad that when I initially booted OS/2 afterwards, it came up with a TRAPD. After fixing the problem with CHKDSK from OS/2, I had problems properly accessing and working with the HPFS drive from Windows NT. I reinstalled the HPFSNT.ZIP drivers, reformatted the HPFS drive, even reinstalled NT, but I could not properly access the HPFS drive using NT from that time on. Perhaps it was due to HPFS/CHKDSK changes or enhancements on the more recent OS/2 Fixpaks that had something to do with it, in effect altering the "face" of the HPFS drive which gave pinball.sys some problems. Perhaps it was a legitimate hard disk crash which had nothing to do with the fact that I was using NT to access the HPFS drives.  I'm not exactly sure.  All I do know is that prior to the crash, I was using NT exclusively for at least a few months, and accessed the HPFS drives quite often. Enjoy while you can, but don't get *too* dependant on accessing HPFS from NT.... use OS/2 instead!  If you really want to share a drive between NT and OS/2, the SAFEST method is to format it as FAT.  Anything else is truly unsupported.

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