file systems

Few topics spark as much debate among Windows power users as the merits and pitfalls of alternative filesystems such as Btrfs, ZFS, and Microsoft’s own ReFS. These technologies, once the exclusive realm of Linux and BSD servers or enterprise-scale applications, now tantalize even mainstream...

Windows users have long been accustomed to the robust, time-honored New Technology File System (NTFS), which has served as the backbone of the platform’s storage architecture for decades. With its broad compatibility, mature feature set, and proven reliability, NTFS has reigned unchallenged as...

Microsoft’s approach to file systems and accessibility features on Windows is evolving at a rapid pace, but not without friction and controversy. As power users scan the horizon for optimal storage technologies and voice input tools, two parallel tracks dominate discussion: the thorny...

For veteran Windows users and newcomers alike, the temptation to break away from NTFS and embrace file systems like Btrfs, ZFS, or even Microsoft’s own ReFS is almost irresistible — especially given the buzz around these technologies in the Linux world. The reality, however, is far more complex...

If you ever found yourself staring at your installation drive mid-Windows setup, wondering if there’s more to life than NTFS, congratulations: you are part of a very exclusive club—one that probably has meetings in dimly lit server rooms and speaks in disk sector hexadecimal. For over ten years...

Microsoft's New ReFS File System: What It Means for Windows Windows has long relied on the NTFS file system, a durable workhorse that has powered fixed drives on PCs for decades. However, Microsoft is now signaling a potential shift with the introduction of ReFS—the Resilient File...

Windows 11 is stirring the pot once again in its ongoing evolution, and this time the spotlight is on its ability to choose between two major file systems—NTFS and ReFS—during a clean installation. Early tests from Windows 11 Build 27823 (Canary) hint at an experimental toggle hidden in the...

Formatting a hard drive is a fundamental task that comes into play when setting up a new storage device or preparing an existing one for reallocation. Whether you’re installing Windows 11 or 10, formatting sets up the disk to store files in a format that the operating system can utilize. This...

I'll explain the situation. OneDrive had files and folders which were present from a previous Windows 11 installation ('Documents' libraries). Old 'Documents' and old 'Photos' were kept so that I could go through them over a period of time, removing any old files I did not need. Once I...

When one re-installs windows7 from scratch, what part of the hard drive does it write itself on? Will it overwrite old data, so to speak starting from the first place on the hard drive or will it rather first write in between un-used space? Would it make a difference if the old data had bean...

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Assume I have a certain huge (> 2 GB) file and a second backup version of it on an external hard disk. Both have exactly the same size and dates. However when I compare them binary at the cmdprompt simplified with fc /b D:\myfile123.enc H:\myfile123.enc Then there are somewhere differences...

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I am sick of defragmenting really. My largest free space extent is 234.4GB. Why cant Microsoft just improve NTFS to stop fragmentation instead of relying on defragmentation? look at HFS+ and ext4 they prevent fragmentation first!

Well, my nephew dropped his laptop with win 7 (Dell) and their software/recovery stuff is cr*p (you don't get an actual windows disk when you buy the product - thanks Dell!) and it won't boot so I tried to help him recover gigs of music etc from the "bad disk". Using win 8.1 I was able to buy...

Hi I am having an issue I use Windows 7 and I use WMP to listen to my music. Recently I noticed that sometimes when I download music in a Zip Drive or just a straight File Download that the Album, Artist, Year, All Meta-Data appears to be missing. If I add it to my library in WMP, I can edit...

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I had to clean install yesterday and rightfully so, i lost all of my date from drive (D). Now, i would like to know how to recover any of this data after formatting? (How do i make my internal HDD become a slave and therefore readable and able to recover data?)

Anytime I create a backup with True Image, and then analyze it with O&O Defrag, it always shows the entire backup as being fragmented. I have always let it remain that way, because long ago I asked about this somewhere (can't remember now), and was told it was better not to defrag it. However...