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NTFS Architecture and Structures

In order to achieve the many goals that Microsoft had for its new file system, it was necessary to be very diligent in the way that NTFS was designed, starting with the fundamentals. The term architecture is often used to refer to the basic structures and concepts used to organize a complex system, be it a file system, operating system, microprocessor or what have you. To ensure that NTFS meets the needs of its many demanding users, it incorporates a very specific set of structures and techniques.

In this section, I provide a description of the architecture of NTFS volumes, and the key structures that make up an NTFS partition. This includes an overview of NTFS architecture and an explanation of how NTFS uses certain key file system structures to store information. I also discuss NTFS partition size and cluster size considerations, and contrast these to the way FAT partitions work.

Next: NTFS Architecture Overview

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