New technology file system (NTFS) is a file system which was developed by Microsoft to store computer files. This file system was used to replace the old file system which was used by earlier windows version e.g. Windows 95 and Windows 98 SE. NTFS is a recent innovation which was introduced with Windows NT operating system to improve performance and reliability.
NTFS is packed with modern features which makes it very dependable and advanced in disk use space in this modern era. Some of these important features include:
- Security: Each file or folder in NTFS system has a security descriptor which determines the owner. The descriptor has two access control lists (ACLs) which determines the kind of interactions allowed or restricted by the users. Therefore, ACLs allows folders to be read and get executed by all users but can only be modified by the user having administration privileges.
- Change journal: This feature uses NTFS Log to record large amount of data in the system volume. This is important because it enables quick data recovery if your computer crashes unexpectedly. Therefore, this feature provides alternative data back up plans in NTFS systems and it’s not found in FAT systems.
- Disk Quota limits: They allow an administrator that runs windows that supports NTFS to be able to set a threshold of disk space that users may utilise. In addition, it also allows the administrator to know the amount of disk space used by each user.
- Shadow copies for backups: This feature is also known as volume shadow copy and it is responsible in keeping historical versions of either folders or files on NTFS volumes. The users may later request the old copies to be recovered or use data back up programs to archive files.
These features makes NTFS outstanding especially in file permissions and operations. However, your windows system should be NTFS partitioned to enable the features operate optimally. Alternatively, if you’ve a secondary drive which you are planning to install programs on, you should make it NTFS too to enhance compatibility.
Compatibility of NTFS with other systems
- a) You should know that NTFS is not compatible with other operating systems available. However, it works with recently released window versions as well as the older versions of windows e.g. Windows XP.
- b) Mac OS X operating systems can only read NTFS drives but cannot be able to write them whatsoever.
- c) Also, you should understand that some Linux distributions may enable NTFS writing but others maybe read-only formats only.
- d) NTFS systems are not compatible with any of Sony’s PlayStation and hence be very cautious when buying either of them to avoid being frustrated.
- e) You should also consider buying the new Xbox one because the earlier Microsoft’s Xbox 360 cannot be able to read NTFS drives.
Although they are not easily compatible with other devices, having NTFS system has a lot of advantages which include:
- They have faster access speeds since NTFS minimises the number of disks required to access a file.
- NTFS functionality can easily be extended using re-parse points to enable new features in the system.
- NTFS boot sector is always backed up at the end of system volume.
- The system supports encrypting file system that prevent unauthorised users to access file contents.
NTFS technology has really revolutionised data back up and storage in recent past. This technology is very reliable with its performance exceeding any other system in the market today.