Implementing ReFS VS NTFS.

Article
1/17/2024

Summary

In this article we will see some benefits and properties of implementing ReFS file system. We will also see why Microsoft implemented this file system, to meet the requirements for larger volumes increase due to the current trend in virtualization technologies and the issues that prevent NTFS file systems from managing very large volumes when the file system does not provide sufficient error-tracking and self-repairing mechanisms, especially for multi-terabyte (TB) volumes.

ReFS has Number of Advantages Over NTFS

There are some advantages in ReFS as compare to NFTS as below:-

Metadata integrity with checksums
Expanded protection against data corruption
Maximizes reliability Large volume, file and directory sizes
Storage pooling and virtualization
Redundancy for fault tolerance
Disk scrubbing for protection against disk errors
Resiliency to corruptions
Shared storage pools across machines

ReFS is a file system that is based on the NTFS

It provides the following advantages over NTFS: ·
Metadata integrity with checksums ·
Expanded protection against data corruption ·
Maximizes reliability, especially during a loss of power (while NTFS has been known to experience corruption in similar circumstances) ·
Large volume, file, and directory sizes ·
Storage pooling and virtualization, which makes creating and managing file systems easier ·
Redundancy for fault tolerance ·
Disk scrubbing for protection against latent disk errors ·
Resiliency to corruptions with recovery for maximum volume availability ·
Shared storage pools across machines for additional failure tolerance and load balancing

ReFS inherits some features from NTFS

Following are the featured inherited by NTFS

BitLocker Drive Encryption ·
ACLs for security ·
Update sequence number (USN) journal ·
Change notifications ·
Symbolic links, junction points, mount points and reparse points ·
Volume snapshots ·
File IDs

Conclusions

ReFS uses a subset of NTFS features, so it maintains backward compatibility with NTFS. Programs that run on Windows Server 2016 can access files on ReFS just as they would on NTFS. However, an ReFS-formatted drive is not recognized when placed in computers that are running Windows Server operating systems that were released before Windows Server 2012. You can use ReFS drives with Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, but not with Windows 8. NTFS enables you to change a volume’s allocation unit size, but with ReFS, each volume has a fixed size of 64 KB, which you cannot change. ReFS does not support Encrypted File System (EFS) for files. As its name implies, the new file system offers greater resiliency, meaning better data verification, error correction, and scalability.

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