NTFS : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

Advantages

• Increased reliability. Less likely to lose information in a crash.
• More efficient storage of small files.
• Option of compressing files and directories.
• Faster access to large random access files (e.g. databases)
• NTFS is only available with NT, W2K, XP, W2003, Vista, W2008, W7-32, W7-64, W8-32, W8-64, W2012, W10-32 and W10-64.

Disadvantages

• The main reason not to use NTFS is if you want to share data with some OS (Operating System) such as DOS (Disk Operating System) that does not support it. In that case you might use a small FAT partition for exchange and make your main partitions NTFS.
• NTFS has more overhead so is slightly slower, at least for small partitions.
• You can convert FAT to NTFS with CONVERT C: /FS: NTFS at the command line, but you can’t convert back.

Parts

The main pieces of the NTFS file system include:

• MFT (Master File Table) : index by file number to get 1024 bytes of information about that file. Small files fit right inside the MFT. For larger files, the MFT contains the runs/extents where the fragments of the file start and end.
• Directory : a B-tree, one per directory to look up the file by name.
• $bitmap: tracks which clusters are in-use/free.