What is NTFS and How Does It Work?

[Ryaan J.]

As a beginner in file systems, I'm seeking a simple explanation of NTFS and its workings. Could someone kindly provide an easy-to-understand description of what NTFS is and how it functions?

[Rex Maughan]

NTFS is an NT file system, also known as New Technology File System.

It is a method that the Windows NT operating system employs to efficiently store, arrange, and locate files on a hard disc. NTFS focuses on Performance, Security access control, Reliability, Disk space utilization, and File system journaling.

How does it work:

The operating system splits the drive into various partitions and assigns a separate drive letter to each partition after you format a hard disc or storage media using the NTFS file system. The smallest blocks of space which can be assigned to a file are clusters, which are how the file system organizes the disc space. The clusters in NTFS can be anything from 512 bytes and 64 kilobytes in size.

According to the file size, an NTFS drive typically assigns each saved file one or more clusters of equal size. The file allocation table (FAT), kept on the disc, controls how many clusters are assigned to each file. The FAT keeps track of which clusters are available and which are being used by files.

Depending on how evenly disc space is used and how many disc accesses are necessary, the cluster's size can be changed. A larger cluster capacity can improve performance by lowering the number of disc accesses necessary to read or write a single file, but if the file size is less than the cluster size, it may also waste space. However, a reduced cluster size may result in better space utilization at the expense of performance because of the additional disc accesses needed.

For better performance, a bigger hard disc comes standard with an even bigger default cluster size. When you format the disc or modify the file system settings, you may, however, change the cluster size. While utilizing the NTFS file system, understanding the ideal cluster size will allow you to balance performance and space usage.