NTFS advanced applications for Windows 7

Microsoft introduced the NTFS file system from Windows 2000, but at this point the user can choose to install the system in a non-NTFS-formatted partition. At this moment, Windows 7 can only be installed in NTFS format. We can see that Microsoft has a high regard for NTFS, of course, compared to its features and functions have greatly expanded and improved. However, for NTFS features such as compression, encryption, security authorization, and so on, this article will take a Windows 7 system as an example, to discuss the NTFS advanced features and applications. NTFS Management in Vista please refer to the article "get through NTFS Permissions file Share" (http://winsystem.ctocio.com.cn/windows2003/389/8211889.shtml)

1, efficient, save the hard link

Normally, we need to display the same file in a different location. For example, sometimes you need to make a document that resides on a network share available to all users, but some applications may have to go from another specific location to open the document for normal read and write operations. At this point, we do not need to move the file to the directory requested by the application or assign access to a protected directory to a particular user, simply by using the Windows 7 NTFS feature to create a hard link to the document through the "Fsutilhardlink" command, So that it can be accessed individually by users and applications.

(1). The convenience of hard links for administrators

Obviously, the way the document is accessed through hard links in Windows 7 is undoubtedly very efficient. A command can be easily handled and eliminates the hassle of copying files. In addition, there is also a point that we Shushi. Regardless of how many hard links a file has, the associated directory entry points to the same file that exists on a volume, and this formal hard link differs from the copy of the file. We know the copy of the file, and the data actually exists in multiple locations. On this basis, using hard links undoubtedly saves us disk space.

And one thing we're happy to see, by using a hard link, the file appears to exist in more than one location, but it only exists in a single location, so if you use one of these hard links to modify and save the file, and the other person opens the file through a different hard link, the modified content can be displayed as well. Also, because a file with multiple hard links actually has only one copy, hard links do not have multiple security descriptions, and only the source file has a security description. So if you want to change the access rights for any one of the hard links of a file, you simply make changes to the physical copy of the actual source file that the hard link points to, so that all of the hard links that are associated with the file copy are used for the new security settings.

In addition, hard links improve the security of files. For example, if we create multiple hard links for a file, then the file cannot be removed from the volume unless all the hard links are deleted. In this case, if someone accidentally deletes a file with multiple hard links, the file itself is not deleted, only the hard links that are affected are deleted, and the other hard links and the text itself are unaffected.

(2). Create a hard link

To create a hard link, you need to use the "fsutil hardlink" command. Its command format is "fsutil hardlink create Newfilepath currentFilePath". Where Newfilepath is the path to the hard link you want to create for the file, and currentFilePath is the name of the existing file that you want to link to. For example, to create a new hard link C:\ctocio\ctocio.doc for the Test.doc file in the C:\Test directory, you need to execute the command "fsutil hardlink create C:\ctocio\ctocio.doc c:\test \test.doc ". When the command completes, the hard link is created successfully. At this point, when we double-click C:\ctocio\ctocio.doc to open the C:\test\test.doc file. (Figure 1)

(3). Lack of hard links

In the process of using hard links, I also found some of them unchanged or inadequate. The first is that hard links can only be created on NTFS volumes, and you cannot create hard links to another volume on one volume at a time. In other words, we cannot create a hard link on the C disk that points to the D disk file. The second is that hard links are not suitable for multiple users needing to modify the same file environment, such as collaborative office. Specifically, suppose user A uses a hard link to open the file and modifies the file, while User B opens the same file with another hard link and modifies it, if two people try to save the changes at the same time, the problem occurs.

2, record the data flow of file information

Unlike Vista,windows 7, which can only be installed in NTFS partitions, this should be due to its security and reliability considerations. Each file on an NTFS volume has its associated data flow that records the details of the file, equivalent to the "business card" of the file. In fact, the so-called data flow, is contained in the contents of the file a series of bytes of content, data flow is divided into the main data stream and can command data flow. The primary data stream is unnamed and can only be viewed by the file system. The named data stream contains additional information about the file, such as custom properties and summary information. In this way, we can associate additional information with the file, but the files and information will remain as a whole.

After you create a named data stream and associate it with a file, any application that knows how to handle the named data stream can read the data stream by name and read additional information. For example, Microsoft Office that we are familiar with can read data streams. This allows us to set up summary information for Word documents, such as title, subject, author, and save the information with the file.

Typically, we want to view the data flow information for a file, right-click any file in the NTFS partition, select Properties, and switch to the Details tab to see the data flow information associated with the file. In general, a named data flow associated with a file can be used to set the name of its properties tab and to generate the information displayed under these tabs. Because some types of documents may contain additional tabs, for example, we can see that a file thumbnail is saved in a file. Of course, under the Details tab of the File Properties dialog box, we can selectively delete the attributes that are associated with the file and their personal information. Simply click the "Remove attributes and personal information" link and select the appropriate deletion method, and the system will achieve our goal by deleting the corresponding value from the file-related data stream. (Figure 2)

I'm sure you notice that when we move or copy a file that protects a named data stream to a FAT partition, we see a warning dialog box called "Confirm Data flow loss," which means that the FAT partition does not support data flow. I suggest that everyone's Windows 7 system in addition to the system partition is NTFS, the other partitions are best to use NTFS partitions, which can improve the security stability of the system, and the characteristics of NTFS in our system management is very useful.