NTFS (New Technology File System)
In a Nutshell - CIW Course Section 3, Part A2, Chapter 7
NTFS Partitions
Windows 2000 supports the FAT and FAT32 file systems but there are many benefits to switching to the newer, more stable and more secure NTFS.
Converting a FAT32 partition to NTFS can be accomplished in one of two ways.
From the command prompt type "convert E: /fs:ntfs" replacing "E" with your drive letter as required. If the drive you are converting contains sytem files then the conversion will be scheduled for the next start-up.
From "Administrative Tools" select "Computer Management" which will display the following screen:
Under the Storage leaf, select "Disk Management" to see the current drive information. Both disks in the above example are NTFS so cannot be converted. If the disks were FAT or FAT32 right-clicking on the disk would give you an option to convert it to NTFS.
Benefits of NTFS
- Less Fragmentation
- Native Data Compression
- Larger Hard Disk Partitions (up to 2TB)
- Enhanced Security and Auditing
- A Separate Recycle Bin for each User
- Granular Control over Files inside a Directory
- Disk Quotas
Auditing
Auditing is the recording of activity on a computer system and the system administrator can elect to audit a number of such activities. Under "administrative Tools" click "Local Security Policy" to display a Management Console view of the available policies. Expand the "Local Policies" tree and click on "Audit Policy" to see a list of available settings in the right pane. Double-clicking on one of these policies will pop-up another dialog allowing you enable the policy fir auditing.
The audit results will be available in the "Event Viewer" under the "Security" leaf.
Windows Explorer Permissions
To manage permissions on an NTFS partition, in the Windows Explorer window, you right-click the folder or file you want to configure and click "Properties". The Properties dialog for the file or folder will be displayed. In the following example we see the properties of a directory named "Data":
The upper box contain a list of users and groups for this resource. The Add and Remove buttons allow you to add or remove users and group to this list. The lower box shows the permissions for the selected user or group, in this case Administrators. The allow check-boxes are greyed out as these are inherited permissions from the directory above this one.
Ownership
Any user who creates a file will, by default, be the owner of that file. It is possible to be the owner of a file but not have any other permissions on it. To change ownership, click the "Advanced" button ftom the Security tab of the file properties dialog box and then select the "Owner" tab.