For some time now, I've been using the NTFS code in GENERIC. Lately I've been subjected to an ever increasing number of Windows Sheep who have infected themselves. My proceedure these days is to take the disk out of the machine and stuff it into mine, mount it and extract data before scrubbing the mindless thing and starting over...
From my experience NTFS read-only access to disks has been flawless. I think the largest amount of data I've extracted has been about 70G. Given that XP systems essentially demand NTFS, having the ability to read it is crucial when dealing with the hapless. I'd like to suggest that NTFS be enabled by default in GENERIC; I realize that it can't be in the boot media because of size, but for general work not having to compile a non-standard kernel would be a win for a lot of people. Making it read-only as the default would be the way to do it. If anyone has had a disaster reading NTFS data I'd like to hear it. --STeve Andre'
