New Technology File System (NTFS)

What is NTFS (New Technology File System)?

The New Technology File System (NTFS) is the standard file structure for the Windows NT operating system. It is used for retrieving and storing files on the hard disk.

Understanding NTFS (New Technology File System)

Understanding NTFS (New Technology File System)

NTFS or NT File System, also referred to as New Technology File System sometimes, refers to a particular type of file organization system.

It is designed to support a diverse range of operating systems and offer much better ways to protect data while storing it on or retrieving it from a storage medium much more efficiently in comparison to the FAT file system versions.

NTFS replaces the OS/2 High Performance File System (HPFS) and the Windows 95 File Allocation Table (FAT).

These were used in the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) and earlier operating system versions.

Versions

Different versions of NTSF are available and can be identified by their version numbers. For example:

Structure

It is the design and architecture of the NTFS that makes it so efficient. The file system is also made up of different components, such as:

It includes metadata in the MFT, which enables easy addition of features to the file system with the development of Windows NT. This metadata data includes:

It also includes B-trees to index the data in the file system. There are meta files structured just like any other files but they are not of much interest to the clients.

Apart from defining the files, these meta files also help in several other aspects, such as:

However, all of these contents are in an anonymous data stream, unless it is indicated otherwise.

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Features

The NTFS comes with a number of improved features such as:

There is also a fault tolerance system included in its design. This helps in repairing the errors on the hard drives automatically and without any error messages.

It can also retain a detailed transaction record for keeping proper track of hard drive errors. This feature helps in recovering files in the event of a hard disk crash, in addition to preventing hard disk failures.

It also allows authorizations for read, write, or execute operations for specifically set files and directories.

These files and directories can be located on different hard drives, but they appear as a single volume, often called a spanned volume.

In Windows NT, this spanned volume is, however, called the volume set, and the volumes can extend up to 32 hard disks.

Working Process

The technical aspects of NTFS make it work as follows:

Usually, the size of a cluster ranges from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes, but you can control it depending on your needs and the number of accesses needed to access a file for more efficient use of the disk space.

Permissions

You will need NTFS permissions to access and control files, folders, containers, and objects on shared systems such as a Network Attached Storage (NAS). Typically, there are five fundamental NTFS permissions, such as:

Formatting Requirements

When you want to use large files on NTFS, you will need it to allow proper extensions for the large .vhdx files for formatting volumes, according to the new requirement.

In this case, while formatting volumes that will host very large files up to 1 TB or be used with data deduplication, you can use the Format-Volume cmdlet in Windows PowerShell.

There are different parameters to use for it, such as:

As for the formats, you can use the following commands on Format-Volume:

Alternatively, on a system command prompt, you can use the format command: format /L /A:64k

Here, /L indicates formatting a large FRS volume, and /A:64k will set an allocation unit size of 64 KB.

Creating NTFS

There are two ways in which you can create an NTFS partition on your computer, namely, by using the built-in Disk Management utility in Windows or by using a reliable third-party software.

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To use Disk Management, the processes to follow are:

To use a third-party Partition Master software is the best thing to do if you are a beginner. The steps to follow are:

Is NTFS Open Source?

No, the implementation of NTFS within Windows NT is closed source, with it ideally being an abstract description for a file system.

It is actually a partition within the hard drive, which is designed to be more secure and efficient than File Allocation Table (FAT) or FAT32 file systems.

However, there are a few open-source imitations or versions of it available as well that work quite well, such as NTFS-3G.

This open-source, cross-platform version of the Microsoft Windows NTFS comes with read and write support and uses the Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) file system interface often. This allows it to run unchanged on several diverse operating systems.

Can Windows 10 Run on NTFS?

Yes, Windows 10 can run on the NT File System. In fact, this particular file system is designed and created to support a wide range of Windows Server line of operating systems.

Ideally, NTFS supports the following Windows operating systems:

In addition to the above, the file system also supports other operating systems depending on its version such as:

However, only read-only support is offered when this file system is used on OpenBSD, ReactOS, Mac operating system and Mac OS X.

Is NTFS Safe?

Yes, NTFS is designed to be quite a safe and secure file system to use. It typically does not have any known security vulnerabilities and there are no back-door permissions into this file system.

Ideally, Windows NT File System offers several notable system security improvements and options within its architecture such as:

In fact, these additional enhancements in security make NTFS a far more capable file system in comparison to FAT32.

What is NTFS Used for?

The New Technology File System is typically used by the Windows NT operating system for finding files, storing and organizing them on a hard disk more efficiently, as well as encrypting and decrypting files, folders and data.

Apart from Microsoft Windows, it is also used by different removable storage devices for formatting such as:

Ideally, you should use NTFS for the following:

You may also use it while installing programs, Windows operating systems, and games on an NTFS partition using a Globally Unique Identifier Partition Table (GPT) or Master Boot Record (MBR) disk type.

What is the Maximum Size of NTFS?

The NT File System is designed to support large volumes. Though the older versions of the file system can support volumes as large as 256 terabytes, the newer versions can support volumes as large as 8 petabytes on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, or newer.

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However, the volume sizes supported by this file system will typically depend on the number and size of the clusters as well as the type and version of the operating system used. For example:

The different partition sizes supported by NTFS facilitate supporting such large file sizes and volumes. Ideally, with a maximum number of (232 – 1) clusters supported, the NTFS supports the following maximum cluster size limit:

You must note here that if you want to use a volume with a larger cluster size than the maximum limit supported by the Windows version you are using, you will get a STATUS_UNRECOGNIZED_VOLUME error.

Also, remember that the apps and services may enforce extra limits on the sizes of files and volumes.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Should You Use NTFS for USB?

Yes, you may use NTFS for USB drives, provided that you are using it on Windows operating systems only.

Otherwise, you should ideally use the exFAT or Extensible File Allocation Table file system if you work in both Windows and Mac environments.

Conclusion

So, from this article, you now surely know that the NT File System is very helpful in storing and organizing data on a hard drive.

It will support almost all operating systems and boost the overall performance of the system and your productivity.

Available in different versions, NTFS is very easy to set up and manage.