NTFS Full Form - New Technology File System

A file system is a structure used by an operating system to organize and manage files on a storage device such as a hard drive or USB flash drive. NTFS stands for New Technology File System is one such file system. It is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft for Windows. It was introduced with Windows NT and is now the default file system for modern Windows versions.

It offers features like file compression, encryption, and advanced security through permissions. NTFS file system has many technical benefits over other file systems such as an improved version as compared to FAT (File Allocation Table ) and an improved support for metadata as compared to HPFS (High Performance File System).

History

• NTFS was introduced by Microsoft with the release of Windows NT 3.1 in 1993 as a successor to the FAT file systems (FAT12, FAT16).
• It was designed to be more reliable, secure, and scalable, supporting larger files and volumes than FAT.
• In 1995 Windows NT 3.51, NTFS version was introduced to Compressed files, named streams and access control lists.
• In 1996 Windows NT 4.0, NTFS version was introduced to Security descriptors.
• After that Windows 2000 in 2000, NTFS version was introduced to Disk quotas, Encrypting File System and many more.
• Windows XP and subsequent Windows versions (Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, etc.) continued to use NTFS as the default file system with some new features such as NTFS compression, symbolic links etc.
• Windows 7 introduced the ability to read and write to NTFS-formatted drives on Mac OS through third-party tools.
• NTFS remains the default file system for Windows operating systems, including Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Characteristics of NTFS

1. Compatibility : It supports compression of files and directories to optimize storage space.
2. Scalability : It introduced with improved performance, scalable in comparison to its precursor.
3. Efficiency : It utilizes the disk space efficiently by using smaller size of clusters.
4. Attributes : NTFS's attributes Read-only, hidden, system, archive, not content indexed, off-line, temporary, compressed.

Advantages of NTFS

• Easily recovers file system and supports long file names.
• Provides users with local security by protecting files and directories.
• NTFS is a journaling file system.
• It supports spanning volumes spread across several physical drives.
• Support larger sized hard drives with increasing general performance of the drive .

Disadvantages of NTFS

• NTFS performance does not decrease as FAT does.
• Removable devices such as Android smart phones, do not support NTFS.
• Doesn't include a system that guarantee file system performance.