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NTFS Conversion problem, Terminal Server

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by tyates

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Using Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition w/SP5, Citrix MetaFrame 1.8. Boot partition was a 2GB FAT partition. Due to the addition of more user accounts/ associated disk usage, free space on the boot partition was becoming as issue and affecting performace. Decided to convert to NTFS and get the benefit of reduced wasted space from better cluster/file management. After conversion, the administrator account works fine. However, user accounts login and a number of things they use won't work anymore; i.e. instead of NT Explorer launching as usual, they are presented with a login window (as though accessing a protected share) and the only way the application will run is if they login as administrator. In addition, the conversion causedseveral shortcuts to have their path changed from "C:\WTSRV\explorer.exe" to "\\%SystemDrive%\explorer.exe", and now they won't work.
Any insights appreciated!
Tom

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by mckaytech

Since a FAT partition does not provide security of the type that NTFS does, when you convert from one to the other, NT assigns default permissions to the folders and files.

Normally, you do the conversion as part of the initial install and at that point, the only account is the Administrator account so all the permissions are set to reflect that. Then as you add new items, NT uses defaults of Everyone/Full Control unless you specify otherwise. But when folders and files already exist, setting the permissions correctly presents an insurmountable problem for the OS because it doesn't know quite what to do.

Since you already had pre-existing file structures and data, you will most likely have to sort out the permissions issues manually. Same sort of thing with the file paths, unfortunately.

The saving grace is that it's only one server. If each of your Terminal clients was a workstation instead, it would be a much bigger problem.

paul

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