File System Forensic Analysis

11. NTFS Concepts

The New Technologies File System (NTFS) was designed by Microsoft and is the default file system for Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server. At the time of this writing, Microsoft has discontinued the sale of the Windows 98 and ME lines, and the home version of Windows XP is standard among new consumer systems. FAT will still exist in mobile and small storage devices, but NTFS will likely be the most common file system for Windows investigations. NTFS is a much more complex file system than FAT because it has many features and is very scalable. Because of the complexity of NTFS, we will need three chapters to discuss it. This chapter discusses the core concepts of NTFS that apply to all the five categories ...