New in File Systems

Windows XP Professional provides improved file system performance and features. Table 13-1 summarizes the enhancements made from Microsoft Windows 2000 to Windows XP Professional.

Table 13-1: Enhancements Since Windows 2000

Enhancement	Description
NTFS performance is improved.	Some data structures on newly formatted NTFS volumes have been moved to a different location on the physical disk. This new location improves performance from 5 to 8 percent, making NTFS performance similar to FAT.
A quick-format option is available during Windows XP Professional Setup.	If the volume is already formatted and you are sure the disk is not damaged, you can use this option during Setup to decrease the time necessary to format the volume.
Variable cluster sizes are now available on volumes converted to NTFS.	The format command in Windows XP Professional now aligns FAT data clusters at the cluster size boundary. This alignment improves the conversion of FAT volumes to NTFS because the convert command can now use a variable cluster size, up to a maximum of 4 kilobytes (KB), for converted volumes, instead of a fixed 512-byte cluster size as used in Windows 2000.
Default permissions are applied to volumes converted to NTFS.	Convert.exe now applies default permissions on volumes converted to NTFS. This change ensures that converted NTFS volumes receive the same access control lists (ACLs) as natively formatted NTFS volumes.
A new parameter prevents the master file table (MFT) from becoming fragmented during the conversion to NTFS.	To prevent the MFT from becoming fragmented during the conversion to NTFS, the /cvtarea parameter in Convert.exe allows you to specify a contiguous placeholder file at the root folder to be used for the MFT. Using this parameter improves NTFS performance after the conversion by ensuring that the MFT occupies a contiguous space on the hard disk.
More options are available for defragmenting volumes.	Windows XP Professional offers two choices for defragmenting volumes: the Disk Defragmenter snap-in and a new command-line tool called Defrag.exe. Both tools can defragment NTFS volumes that use any cluster size and files smaller than 16 clusters. Both tools can also defragment the MFT on NTFS volumes.
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) support is provided by Windows Interix 2.2.	The POSIX subsystem included with Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 is not included with Windows XP Professional. The broad functionality found on most UNIX systems beyond the POSIX.1 standard is included as part of Microsoft Windows Interix 2.2.
Format DVD-RAM discs.	Windows XP Professional supports formatting DVD-RAM discs as FAT32 volumes.
Perform file system tasks at the command line by using Fsutil.exe.	Use Fsutil.exe to perform file system tasks such as disabling long file names, checking whether a volume is flagged as dirty, viewing NTFS-related information about a volume, creating hard links, and managing quotas and sparse files.
Create a Microsoft MS DOS startup floppy disk.	When you format a floppy disk by using My Computer, you can select the Create an MS-DOS startup disk option. An MS-DOS startup disk is useful when you need to update a computer s BIOS.

If you are migrating from Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0, the enhancements in Table 13-2 apply in addition to those outlined in Table 13-1.

Table 13-2: Enhancements Since Windows NT 4.0

New Feature	Feature Description
An updated version of NTFS provides new features exclusive to NTFS volumes.	NTFS the recommended native file system for Windows XP Professional is more functional, robust, and secure than the FAT file systems. The version of NTFS included with Windows 2000 introduced features such as encryption, disk quotas, mounted drives, distributed link tracking, sparse files, and so on. These improvements are also available in Windows XP Professional.
FAT32 support allows greater flexibility for computers that start other versions of Windows.	FAT32 was a new option in Windows 2000 and continues to be supported by Windows XP Professional. FAT32 formats much larger volumes than FAT16 and stores files on large volumes more efficiently than FAT16.