5 ms·

Why do I like NTFS? It just works.

by efn4t 4y ago

nix23 4y ago
What version of NTFS?
bombolo 4y ago
Let's hope you're not in a rush for your file to be created :)
speedgoose 4y ago
It’s super slow. If you deal with many small files on Windows, you will observe much better performances in WSL2/ext4 than windows with NTFS. Even though the ext4 filesystem is stored as a file inside a NTFS partition. If you use NodeJS for example, it’s a very obvious speed difference.
- somat 4y ago
  Are there any good analysis on what makes it slow?
  - Sevan777 4y ago
    Practical File System Design:The Be File System covers the designs of other file systems briefly and goes from FFS to XFS, NTFS, EXT2 (book was written in the late 90s)
    - wantoncl 4y ago
      PDF: http://www.nobius.org/dbg/practical-file-system-design.pdf http://www.nobius.org/dbg/practical-file-system-design.pdf From here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17468920 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17468920
      - virgulino 4y ago
        "We covered the grandfather of most modern file systems, BSD FFS; the fast and unsafe grandchild, ext2; the odd-ball cousin, HFS; the burly nephew, XFS; and the blue-suited distant relative, NTFS. Each of these file systems has its own characteristics and target audiences. BSD FFS set the standard for file systems for approximately 10 years. Linux ext2 broke all the rules regarding safety and also blew the doors off the performance of its predeces- sors. HFS addressed the needs of the GUI of the Macintosh although design decisions made in 1984 seem foolhardy in our current enlightened day. The aim of XFS is squarely on large systems offering huge disk arrays. NTFS is a good, solid modern design that offers many interesting and sophisticated features and fits well into the overall structure of Windows NT." Thanks for the link to the book!
  - fidgewidge 4y ago
    Yeah there's one from an ms dev here: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/873#issuecomment-425272829 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/873#issuecomment-425...
- mananaysiempre 4y ago
  Is it NTFS or is it the NT I/O stack? Because the latter is so impressively complex I’m not sure if it’s actually possible for it to do fast metadata operations. (I remember Raymond Chen writing there was a special metadata caching layer in the NT FAT driver because otherwise it would be unbearably slow. Linux has a general-purpose dentry cache playing a similar role—does modern Windows have anything similar for NTFS?)
hulitu 4y ago
On win 10 ? On win Nt it will happilly make your system unbootable after a power failure.

Why do I like NTFS? It just works.

by efn4t 4y ago

Why do I like NTFS? It just works.

nix23 4y ago

What version of NTFS?

bombolo 4y ago

Let's hope you're not in a rush for your file to be created :)

speedgoose 4y ago

It’s super slow. If you deal with many small files on Windows, you will observe much better performances in WSL2/ext4 than windows with NTFS. Even though the ext4 filesystem is stored as a file inside a NTFS partition. If you use NodeJS for example, it’s a very obvious speed difference.

somat 4y ago
Are there any good analysis on what makes it slow?
- Sevan777 4y ago
  Practical File System Design:The Be File System covers the designs of other file systems briefly and goes from FFS to XFS, NTFS, EXT2 (book was written in the late 90s)
  - wantoncl 4y ago
    PDF: http://www.nobius.org/dbg/practical-file-system-design.pdf http://www.nobius.org/dbg/practical-file-system-design.pdf From here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17468920 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17468920
    - virgulino 4y ago
      "We covered the grandfather of most modern file systems, BSD FFS; the fast and unsafe grandchild, ext2; the odd-ball cousin, HFS; the burly nephew, XFS; and the blue-suited distant relative, NTFS. Each of these file systems has its own characteristics and target audiences. BSD FFS set the standard for file systems for approximately 10 years. Linux ext2 broke all the rules regarding safety and also blew the doors off the performance of its predeces- sors. HFS addressed the needs of the GUI of the Macintosh although design decisions made in 1984 seem foolhardy in our current enlightened day. The aim of XFS is squarely on large systems offering huge disk arrays. NTFS is a good, solid modern design that offers many interesting and sophisticated features and fits well into the overall structure of Windows NT." Thanks for the link to the book!
- fidgewidge 4y ago
  Yeah there's one from an ms dev here: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/873#issuecomment-425272829 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/873#issuecomment-425...
mananaysiempre 4y ago
Is it NTFS or is it the NT I/O stack? Because the latter is so impressively complex I’m not sure if it’s actually possible for it to do fast metadata operations. (I remember Raymond Chen writing there was a special metadata caching layer in the NT FAT driver because otherwise it would be unbearably slow. Linux has a general-purpose dentry cache playing a similar role—does modern Windows have anything similar for NTFS?)

hulitu 4y ago

On win 10 ? On win Nt it will happilly make your system unbootable after a power failure.