WINDOWS 2000
NTFS Essentials
With the initial release of Windows NT 3.1 back in 1993, a new file system was released along with it called NTFS (NT File System). NTFS was designed with a few key features in mind, namely security and scalability, however there are many others that make NTFS an excellent choice for Windows NT systems.
Scalability
The industry standard file system for PCs, FAT (File Allocation Table) only supports volumes up to 4 gigabytes in size. NTFS, on the other hand, can support volume sizes up to 16 exabytes. That's 16 billion gigabytes! The reason for this is because FAT uses a table 16 bits wide to record the allocation status of a disk volume, where NTFS uses 64 bits. This allows NTFS to address a much larger disk than FAT can.
NTFS also uses space more efficiently than FAT drives do, making your drives able to hold more data than they can under FAT. FAT volumes use a varying cluster size depending upon the size of the partition. Only one file can be allocated to a cluster, so if a 3KB file is allocated to a cluster that is 64 sectors (32KB), 29KB of actual space is wasted. NT always uses more efficient cluster sizes, generally ranging from 512 to 4096 bytes. This may reduce actual disk space usage by up to 30% (depending on the type of files on the volume). This more efficient cluster usage is what makes NTFS "write" a little slower than FAT "writes." Unlike write operations, disk "reads" are significantly faster with NTFS volumes.
Security
Security in NTFS is linked directly to the Windows NT object model. All files have a security descriptor attached to the file itself, that contains privilege information. Before a process can open a handle to any object, including a file object, the system checks that processes credentials against those defined in the file security descriptor. If they don't match, then access to the file is denied.
Reliability
NTFS is implemented based on a transaction-processing model. That is, all changes to the disk are logged in a transaction log so that if your system loses power in the middle of writing data to the disk, NTFS is able to "roll-back" that write back to what the data was before the write. This way, your data does not get corrupt.
NTFS also uses redundant storage for it's vital sectors. This way, if one location goes bad on the disk, NTFS can still access the volume's critical file system data. If this happens on a FAT disk, you lose the entire volume.
Efficiency
The NTFS architecture is designed to allow indexing of file attributes on a disk volume. This enables the file system to easily find files that match certain criteria. The FAT file system indexes file names but doesn't sort them, making look-ups in large directories slow.
Is NTFS for You?
NTFS as you can see, is an excellent file system for the serious Windows NT user. However it has its drawbacks as well. For example, NTFS volumes cannot be seen by any other operating system other than Windows NT. This is actually a security feature, but can be frustrating if you dual-boot your Windows NT system with DOS or Windows. This applies to floppy boot-disks as well, so if you have an NTFS-only system and your system fails to boot on it's own, an MS DOS boot-disk will do you no good.
The choice can be a difficult one if you want to maintain compatibility but take advantages of these great features. One recommendation is to go with a FAT volume for your boot drive with your system files on it and have another volume that is NTFS for your personal data. This gives you the best of both worlds!
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