NTFS

NTFS or New Technology File System was introduced as the standard file system structure of Microsoft's Windows NT system. This file system has remained the standard for all subsequent file systems after the release of Windows NT including the newest, Windows Vista.

NTFS replaced the aging FAT32 file system common to the MS-DOS based Windows operating systems. What the file system gained in its replacement was improved disk space utilization, improved performance, reliability and support for metadata. In addition, the file system was given additonal security through its built in access control lists.

NTFS has undergone several revisions with versions 1.0 and 1.1 reserved as test file systems, the first version which was deployed in Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 was NTFS v1.2. The file system saw major upgrades and 2 full version numbers to 3.0 in its Windows 2000 integration, while NTFS 3.1 is currently being used in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

NTFS as a whole focuses on everything to do with the files themselves. How data is stored on the hard drive is goverened by the NTFS file system. NTFS prefers to store data as metadata. Metadata in its most simplistic definition is extra data associated with a file that tells the operating system and/or user what attributes are inherant to a specific file. For example, if a digital picture is stored on your hard drive it could contain data that tells the resolution, time taken, time altered, last viewed etc. This data is not essential to the function of the file, however in other forms, can be absolutely essential for indexing of files within the hard drive.

Some of the key features of NTFS are as follows:

• Alternative Data Streams (ADS) - which allows files to be associated with more than one data stream which aids in keeping files hidden from users who do not know the specific ADS name of the hidden file.
• Disk Quota - which allows administrators of NTFS systems to allocate specific amounts of disk space for users to have access to.
• Volume Mount Points - similar to Unix, this allows multiple file systems to be attached to a single partition without the need for an additional drive letter.
• Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) - transfers files that are not used for some time to a non-essential storage area and reparses the files when called upon. This practice helps minimize defragmentation of the hard drive as well as speeds up indexing.
• Volume Shadow Copy (VSC) - allows old data to be overlaid updated data in the event a user needs to revert a file back to a specific revision. This also helps in data recovery efforts where important data may have been lost.
• File Compression - the ability to compress files into smaller chunks to streamline disk space.
• Encrypting File System (EFS) - works in conjunction with the Microsoft service, CryptoAPI to create a symetrical key and public key to encrypt a file, directory or entire parition so that data can only be retrieved by the user who holds the public key.

• Maximum File Size - NTFS was first developed when it was thought that a Gigabyte (Gb) of information was an incredible amount of data potential. As a result, the NTFS master boot record is only capable of indexing 2 Terabyte (Tb) of information. For systems larger than 2Tb, dynamic volumes must be created. With the default 4Kb clustering, an NTFS dynamic volume can hold a maximum of 16Tb of data. If the clustering size is changed to 64Kb, the maximum size of an NTFS dynamic volume can hold a maximum of 256Tb of data.
• Maximum File Size - Theoretically a file on NTFS cannot exceed 16Tb.

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pinecloud 8 October, 2008 1:50
If anyone know and would share the knowledge if there is an utility so that I and hundred of others can preserve original NTFS1.0 or 1.1 or 1.2 without hand edit on $MFT or version control scheme for XP to use older NTFS.sys. Any advise will be much appreciated. I find NTFS 3.0 and after are very invasive. File system automatic modification by XP and Vista to more recent NTFS is not for everyone. Certainly not for me – I want to keep invasive XP or Vista in a “cage” (single primary partition) without it knowing the realm. In my case, XP would have been only used to run modern browser. I have been receiving complaints from my bank, eBay and PayPal about outdated OS and browser to perform online transaction. I bought an old XP cheap on eBay but I do not trust it to be in my computer. I unplugged second SCSI bus before trying out XP so that it would only install inside it’s 8 GB “cage” between other hidden partition with older OS. Near 4GB XP soon reduced to 950MB minimalist installation. With is such reducrion, of course all new features would not work including .NET Framework and many others. I am rather happy with it getting rid of over-weight problem of XP. Preliminary file system preparation to the pre-existing partitions for future accommodation of .NET Framework, Quota, EFS, Alternative Data Stream, Hidden Fork Files are not something everyone desires. There may be ulterior motives behind these. You can disable respective daemons linked to automount and system restore prior to mounting partitions created by old NT without killing XP’s ability to enumerate memory card or USB drive because they are not under INT13. NTFS itself has not changed nor improved in term of speed since early 1990s. Microsoft has been adding metafiles since turn of the century as patches so to speak. Since I do not need security and my system does not have actual physical security metafile. Security and many other file being zero byte in length over ten years and dormant just as names of file in $MFT. System never had any user except root by default because I setup AutoAdminLogon before script has had a chance to pop up with dialogue about user account. All the system runs fat free and faster this way. If I do not need security then why do I need quotas? Even in Unix, I always nullify Kerberos or Pam from asking for a password or user account by swapping library files linked thereto. Because like simple straight forward OS line OS/2 and Win3.1. I do not like OS to become overweight nor something tries to outsmart me. I own the computer so why computer has to create me an extra job to enter password etc? Once damage (insertion of undesired metafile $ObjId, $quota and $Reparse entries in $MFT) is done you can still manually edit $MFT and $MFTMirrr with a hex editor to revert back to more tameable NTFS 1.2 but you can risk data loss if you make even a single mistake. I have not continued further research to find out most effective code to overwrite these new metafile entries 344 byte long inside$MFT. Since I have decided to use Solaris and Mozilla for eBay and bank whilst preserving old NTFS intact with it’s modest even shy personality. I protected NTFS from some unix OS from corrupting them when running out neighbouring swap slice and kept without any data loss to this date. By the way Win9x and ME also are invasive. If they co-exist with some distribution of Unix or Linux that support logical partitions, then Win98 tries to mount logical partitions and assigns drive letters and complain. Then starts scan disk on them and crushes itself. All OSes should learn to BEHAVE and not to gain root access to every disks in the system. All OSes hould mount disks from mtab rather than autoprobing.

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