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Windows 2000 File System: NTFS

One of the first choices you have to make when you install (or upgrade to) Windows 2000 is the file system. FAT(32) or NTFS.

This is really an easy choice. There's only one reason not to choose NTFS; if you need to have an operating system which can't read NTFS (Win9x, MS-DOS etc.) to be able to access the partition. This limitation only applies to the local machine. If you want to access an NTFS drive across a network, any OS can access the NTFS partition.

NTFS?

NTFS stands for New Technology File System. Microsoft created NTFS to compensate for the features it felt FAT was lacking. These features include increased fault tolerance and enhanced security.

Fault Tolerance

NTFS repairs hard disk errors automatically without displaying an error message. When Windows 2000 writes a file to an NTFS partition, it keeps a copy of the file in memory. It then checks the file to make sure it matches the copy stored in memory. If the copies don't match, Windows marks that section of the hard disk as bad and won't use it again (Cluster Remapping). Windows then uses the copy of the file stored in memory to rewrite the file to an alternate location on the hard disk. If the error occurred during a read, NTFS returns a read error to the calling program, and the data is lost.

Security

NTFS has many security options. You can grant various permissions to directories and to individual files. These permissions protect files and directories locally and remotely.

NTFS also includes the Encrypting File System (EFS). EFS uses public key security to encrypt files on an NTFS volume, preventing unauthorized users from accessing those files. This feature comes in quite handy on a portable compute, for example. Lose a portable, and the files on its disk are fair game to anyone who knows how to get to them. EFS uses 128-bit (40-bit internationally) Data Encryption Standard (DES) encryption to encrypt individual files and folders. Encryption keys are implemented on a Windows 2000 domain or-in the case of a standalone computer-locally. The operating system generates a recovery key so administrators can recover encrypted data in the event that users lose their encryption key.

File Compression

Another advantage to NTFS is native support for file compression. The NTFS compression offers you the chance to compress individual files and folders of your choice.

Disk Quotas

Disk quotas allow administrators to manage the amount of disk space allotted to individual users, charging users only for the files they own. Windows 2000 enforces quotas on a per-user and per-volume basis.

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Last Updated: October 24, 2000