Editing NTFS (section)

== History ==
In the mid-1980s, [[Microsoft]] and [[IBM]] formed a joint project to create the next generation of graphical [[operating system]]; the result was [[OS/2]] and [[High Performance File System|HPFS]]. Because Microsoft disagreed with IBM on many important issues, they eventually separated; OS/2 remained an IBM project and Microsoft worked to develop [[Windows NT]] and NTFS.

The [[High Performance File System|HPFS]] file system for OS/2 contained several important new features. When Microsoft created their new operating system, they borrowed many of these concepts for NTFS.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.karlstechnology.com/blog/history-of-ntfs/  |title= Overview and History of NTFS |publisher= The PC Guide |last=Kozierok |first=Charles  |date= 14 February 2018 |access-date=May 30, 2019}}</ref> The original NTFS developers were [[Tom Miller (computer programmer)|Tom Miller]], Gary Kimura, Brian Andrew, and David Goebel.<ref>{{cite book |last= Custer |first= Helen |title= Inside the Windows NT File System |year= 1994 |publisher= [[Microsoft Press]] |isbn= 978-1-55615-660-1 |page= vii |url= https://archive.org/details/insidewindowsntf00cust}}</ref>

Probably as a result of this common ancestry, HPFS and NTFS use the same [[disk partitioning|disk partition]] identification type code (07). Using the same Partition ID Record Number is highly unusual, since there were dozens of unused code numbers available, and other major file systems have their own codes. For example, FAT has more than nine (one each for [[FAT12]], [[FAT16]], [[FAT32]], etc.). Algorithms identifying the file system in a partition type 07 must perform additional checks to distinguish between HPFS and NTFS.

=== Versions ===
Microsoft has released five versions of NTFS:
{| class="wikitable"
! NTFS version number
! First operating system
! Release date
! New features
! Remarks
|-
|{{rh}}| 1.0
| [[Windows NT 3.1]]
| 1993<ref name="Custer, Helen" />
| Initial version
| NTFS 1.0 is incompatible with 1.1 and newer: volumes written by Windows NT 3.5x cannot be read by Windows NT 3.1 until an update (available on the NT 3.5x installation media) is installed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q129102/|title=Recovering Windows NT After a Boot Failure on an NTFS Drive|date=November 1, 2006|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref>
|-
|{{rh}}| 1.1
| [[Windows NT 3.5]]
| 1994
| Named streams and [[access control list]]s<ref name="insidewin2kntfs">{{cite web |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/ms995846(v=msdn.10) |title=Inside Win2K NTFS, Part 1 |last=Russinovich |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Russinovich |website=[[Microsoft Learn]] |date=30 June 2006 |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |access-date=2008-04-18}}</ref>
| NTFS compression support was added in [[Windows NT 3.51]]
|-
|{{rh}}| 1.2
| [[Windows NT 4.0]]
| 1996
| [[Security descriptor]]s
| Commonly called NTFS 4.0 after the OS release
|-
|{{rh}}| 3.0
| [[Windows 2000]]
| 2000
| Disk quotas,  file-level encryption in a form of [[Encrypting File System]], [[sparse file]]s, [[NTFS reparse point|reparse points]], [[USN Journal|update sequence number (USN) journaling]], distributed link tracking, the <code>$Extend</code> folder and its files
| Compatibility was also made available for Windows NT 4.0 with the Service Pack 4 update. Commonly called NTFS 5.0 after the OS release.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/exec/overview/NT4SP4whatnew.asp |title=What's New in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4? |date=12 January 1999 |website=Microsoft.com |access-date=17 August 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990117055557/http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/exec/overview/NT4SP4whatnew.asp |archive-date=17 January 1999}}</ref>
|-
|{{rh}}| 3.1
| [[Windows XP]]
| October 2001
| Expanded the [[#Master File Table|Master File Table]] (MFT) entries with redundant MFT record number (useful for recovering damaged MFT files)
| Commonly called NTFS 5.1 after the OS release. LFS version 1.1 was replaced by version 2.0 as of Windows 8 to improve performance.
|}

The {{code|NTFS.sys}} version number (e.g. v5.0 in Windows 2000) is based on the operating system version; it should not be confused with the NTFS version number (v3.1 since Windows XP).<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116110405/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310749 |url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310749 |title=New Capabilities and Features of the NTFS 3.1 File System |publisher=Microsoft |date=1 December 2007 |archive-date=Nov 16, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_basics.htm |title=NTFS Overview |publisher=LSoft Technologies Inc.}}</ref>

Although subsequent versions of Windows added new file system-related features, they did not change NTFS itself. For example, [[Windows Vista]] implemented [[NTFS symbolic link]]s, [[Transactional NTFS]], partition shrinking, and self-healing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-174cf47d23cd/STO123_WH06.ppt |title=Storage improvements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=2007-09-04 |format=PowerPoint |pages=14–20 |last=Loveall |first=John |year=2006}}</ref> NTFS symbolic links are a new feature in the file system; all the others are new operating system features that make use of NTFS features already in place.