PC Pro - UK 2021-12)

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO NTFS

Y

ouprobablydon’ts
alotoftimethinking
abouthowfilesand
areorganisedonyour
harddisk.Youdon’t
needto:whenyoubuyanewPC,its
systemdrivewillinvariablycome
formattedasNTFS.ThisisWindows’
nativefilesystem,andusingit
ensuresthatyougetthefull
performanceandstoragefeatures
supportedbytheplatform.
NTFSisn’tyouronlyoption,
however.Forexample,ifyoubuya
secondharddiskforyourdesktopPC,
oranexternalSSDtoconnecttoa
laptop,youhaveseveraloptionsfor
formattingit.Thatalsoapplieswhen
youdivideaharddiskintoseparate
partitions,perhapssoyoucan
dual-bootaPCintoLinux.NTFSmay
bethedefaultchoice,butitcouldbe
thata different filesystemsuitsyour
needs– or youmightfindthatNTFS
worksevenbetterthan yourealised.

WHYDOWENEEDNTFS?
NTFSwasintroducedaspartof
Windows NT 3.1back in 1993.This
wasthefirsteditionofWindowstobe
designedspecificallyforbusinesses;
ineverydayuseitlookedand worked
almostidenticallyto Windows3.1
(theversionnumberwaschosento
emphasisethat),butbeneaththe
surfaceNTofferedpowerfulnew
security andmanagementfeatures.
Thefilesystemwasa bigpartof
that.Windows3.1hadinheritedthe
MS-DOSfilesystem,knownas“FAT”
aftertheFileAllocationTablethatit
usedto divideupyourharddisk.FAT
supportedbasicfeatureslikenested
foldersandcustomfileattributes,but
itofferedzerointhewayofaccess
security:anyone whosatdownatthe
keyboardcouldreadandchangeany
filestheywanted.TheNTFileSystem
introduceda UNIX-likesystemoffile
ownershipandpermissions,which
helpedbusinessestoprotectand
managetheirdata.
AnothershortcomingofFATwas
thatitdidn’tsupportpartitions large
than2GB,anditdidn’ttakelongfor
thetypicalPCharddisktogrow
beyondthissize. Users were
increasinglyforcedtosplittheir
intomultiplevolumes.Theupgraded
FAT32system,releasedin1996,
extendedthemaximum disk sizeto
32GB,butthistoosoonbecame
restrictive.NTFS,meanwhile, had
supportedharddisk sizesupto
fromdayone,growingto8PBin
subsequentreleasesofWindowsNT.
Andso,whenMicrosoftdecided
tomergetheconsumer andNT

platformsintoa single OS version

calledWindowsXP,itwasaneasy

decisiontopickNTFSasthesingle

standard filesystem.

NTFSCANSAVE

DISKSPACE

Aswellasimprovingfilesecurityand

diskcapacities,NTFSincludesmany

otherfeaturesthatwereoriginally

designed forbusinesses,butwhich

canalsobeusefulona home

computer. Somehavebeen present

fromtheverystart,whileotherswere

addedinWindowsNT4 andWindows

2000;allofthemremainavailablein

thelatestversions of theOS.

Oneisnativecompression,which

canhelpyousqueezemoredataonto

a harddiskof limitedsize.Thisis

disabledbydefault,butenablingit

couldn’tbeeasier:simplyright-click

onanNTFSvolumeintheWindows

Explorer, thenopentheProperties

idowandtick“Compressthis

rie to savediskspace”.HittheOK

utonandWindowswillsetabout

o pressingtheentire contentsof

or drive,whileyoucancarryon

orkingasbefore.Fromnow on,

idowswilltransparentlytakecare

fompressinganddecompressing

or filesasyouaccessthem,withno

ed to changeanyothersettingsor

pateyourapplications.Indeed,the

ny wayyou’llknowyourfilesare

o pressedisthatanimageoftwo

rrows appearsoverlaidontheir

xlorer icons.

Inevitably,NTFScompression

co eswitha certainimpacton

sytemperformance:compressing

andecompressingfilestakestime

anCPUpower. To minimisethe

imact,NTFSusesa lightweight

co pressionsystemcalledLZW,

whichworksby identifyingrepeated

sequences of datainside a file and

replacing theminthestoredcopy

withmuchshorter references(fora

moredetailedoverview,seepcpro.

link/ 326 LZW).This doesn’tsaveas

muchspaceasmoresophisticated

ABOVENative

compressionhelps

squeezemoredata

ontoyourharddisk

NTFSincludesfeatures

thatweredesignedfor

business,butcanbeuseful

onahomecomputer

compressionalgorithms,butits

effectonperformanceisnormally

unnoticeableintypicaldesktop

tasks,andit stillproduces

worthwhilespacesavings– a typical

systemdrivemightgetaneffective

capacityboostofaround15%.

Ifyou’restillwary,onegreatthing

abutNTFScompressionisthatit

dosn’thavetobeanall-or-nothing

seting:youcanleave yourWindows

OSandapplicationsuntouched,for

mximumperformance,andapply

o pressiononlytoyourdatafiles.

Just open theProperties windowfor

hfolderyouwanttoshrink,clickthe

danced buttonandtick “Compress

cotentstosavediskspace”.

NTFSCANPROTECT

YOURDATASECURITY

Thaccesscontrolsbuiltinto

idowsmakeithardforintruders

torowseor manipulateyourdata,

buifsomeone circumventstheOS

anbootsintotheRecoveryConsole

(ora third-partyrecovery

enironment),theycanstillbrowse

thcontentsofyourharddisk.

BELOWNTFSlets

youencryptfiles

andfolderswitha

coupleofclicks