What is NTFS

What is NTFS?
–>>A) Definition:-NTFS (New Technology File System) is a file system used by the Windows NT operating system.” NTFS is a file system introduced by Microsoft with Windows NT and is supported by subsequent versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP. (The file system is how the operating system organizes and accesses files on the hard drive.)
—>>>NTFS has a number of advantages over the older file system, named FAT, or file allocation table. One major advantage of NTFS is that it incorporates features to improve reliablity. For exmaple, the new technology file system includes fault tolerance, which repairs hard drive errors without displaying error messages.It keeps detailed transaction logs, which tracks hard drive errors. This can help prevent hard disk failure as well as make it possible to recover files if the hard drive does fail.
—>>>There are currently two versions of NTFS being used in Microsoft operating systems. NTFS 4.0 is the file system used with Windows NT 4.0. NTFS 5.0 was released with Windows 2000, and is also being used in Windows XP. NTFS 5.0 provides some additional capabilities which were not included in NTFS 4.0. Both versions of NTFS share the following features:

• NTFS supports compression of individual files and folders which can be read and written to while they are compressed.
• NTFS is a recoverable file system, meaning it has the ability to undo or redo operations that failed due to such problems as system failure or power loss.
• NTFS supports Macintosh files.
• Regarding the performance of FAT and NTFS, FAT performs better on smaller volumes, but NTFS out-performs FAT on larger volumes, beginning around 500MB.

—>>>If you are attempting to set up a dual-boot between Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 or XP, you must have at least Service Pack 4 for Windows NT installed. When installing Windows 2000 or XP, all NTFS partitions are converted to NTFS 5.0. Without Service Pack 4, Windows NT cannot recognize NTFS 5.0, and therefore the computer would be unable to boot to Windows NT. You should also note that the additional capabilities of NTFS 5.0 are available only in Windows 2000 and XP, and these features will not work in Windows NT.

—>>>Advantages of NTFS:-

• NTFS is the best file system for large drives. Unlike FAT and FAT32, performance with NTFS isn’t corrupted as drive size increases.
• One of the major security features in NTFS is encryption or, in other words, the process of disguising a message or data in such a way as to hide its substance.
• Another feature in NTFS is disk quotas. It gives you the ability to monitor and control the amount of disk space used by each user.
• Using NTFS, you can keep access control on files and folders and support limited accounts. In FAT and FAT32, all files and folders are accessible by all users no matter what their account type is.
• Domains can be used to tweak security options while keeping administration simple.
• Compression available in NTFS enables you to compress files, folders, or whole drives when you’re running out of disk space.
• Removable media (such as tapes) are made more accessible through the Remote Storage feature.
• Recovery logging helps you restore information quickly if power failures or other system problems occur.
• NFS or FAT can be converted to NTFS File system but NTFS can’t be converted into NFS ot FAT File system.

—>>>Disadvantages:-There are 2 drawbacks for NTFS. Old software might not run on NTFS properly. Secondly, if you’re going to run an earlier version of Windows along with Windows XP, you’ll need to have a FAT or FAT32 as the start-up partition. The reason is that most earlier versions of Windows can’t access a partition with the latest version of NTFS.