The following is a brief description of the NT File System (NTFS), due to Rajkum
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The following is a brief description of the NT File System (NTFS), due to Rajkumar: "NTFS works with disk volumes. NTFS allocates the volume in clusters, where a cluster is one or more (generally, a power of two) contiguous sectors. The clusters size is defined when the disk is formatted. NTFS uses logical cluster numbers as disk addresses. Multiplying the cluster number by the cluster size yields a physical disk address. Each volume is organized into four regions. The first few sectors contain the partition boot sector. Next is the Master File Table (MFT), essentially a master directory. The MFT entries contain information on each file on the volume. Following the MFT is a system area that contains a duplicate of portions of the MFT (to provide redundancy), log files used for NTFS for recoverability, a cluster bit map, and an attribute definition table. The rest of the volume is data area. The master file table is the main object NTFS uses to access files. It consists of an array of variable length records. The first 16 records describe the MFT itself, followed by a record for each file or directory. If the file is small enough (less than 1500 bytes) it is written directly in the MFT entry. Otherwise, the MFT entry contains index pointers to the clusters that contain the actual data." What is the purpose of the cluster bit map? What type of allocation docs NTFS use (contiguous, linked, indexed, or something else?) What is the idea behind allowing small files to be written directly in the MFT? What is the purpose of using clusters rather than blocks as the unit of allocation?Explanation / Answer
Ans1>
It is a special file within the NTFS file system.
It is used to keep track of all of the used and unused clusters on an NTFS volume.
When a file takes up space on the NTFS volume the location is uses is marked out in the BitMap.
Ans2>
NTFS uses indexed allocation.
Ans3>
To make file access very fast, It allowing small files to be written directly in MFT.
If a file is very small(few bytes) example, a cookie, then there is no require for the the MFT entry to have a index directing the computer
to the location of the cookie (as the directions could be longer than the file), instead it can fit the small file
in the MFT entry – where the index or directions would normally be.
This type of data is called “resident” data, other entries, where the data is stored elsewhere on in the NTFS are called “non-resident”.
Ans4>
In order for FAT to manage files with some form of efficiency is to group sectors into larger blocks referred to as clusters, or allocation units.
Every cluster in use by a file has in its entry in the FAT a cluster number that links the current cluster to the next cluster that the same file is using.
Since clusters are linked one to another, they are referred to as being chained. And will result in high speed and efficiency.
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