The main advantages of exFAT in comparison to FAT32 are the removal of the 4 GB file size limit and support for hard drives with large capacities (recommended maximum sizes for both are 512 TB). The exFAT file system driver will add the option to format removable media with the exFAT file system to take advantage of it. The file system is using a smaller disk space overhead than the NTFS file system. Users reported a disk space overhead of only 96 Kilobytes on a 4 Gigabyte flash drive after formattting it with the exFAT file system. The NTFS file system used more than 47 Megabytes of space for overhead.

Interested users can download the exFAT file system driver update directly from Microsoft to add exFAT file system support to their operating system.

The exFAT file system driver incorporates the following advanced structures to improve performance:

* A cluster bitmap for fast allocation
* A per-file contiguous bit for fast file access
* Better contiguous on-disk layout (useful for recording movies)
* Support for Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) time stamps

The exFAT file system driver is designed for extensibility to enable the file system to keep pace with innovations in storage and changes in usage and to enable OEMs and ISVs to add extensions seamlessly. Specifically, exFAT adds the following features:

* Adds template-based metadata structures to enable custom extensions
* Enables implementations to persist these extensions without having to know their format

The exFAT file system driver adds increased compatibility with flash media. This includes the following capabilities:

* Alignment of file system metadata on optimal write boundaries of the device
* Alignment of the cluster heap on optimal write boundaries of the device

The prerequisites for the update are an installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3.

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Users installing the software need to have administrator rights to do so and should note that only NTFS drives support the creation which means that it cannot be used on partitions formatted with FAT file systems. It should also be noted that Link Shell Extension is compatible with 64-bit editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The type of link that is created depends on the source that is picked by the user. Picking files will create hardlinks, folders will create junctions and a partition will create a volume mountpoint. The benefit of creating that file system is that files and folders can be accessed in multiple places instead of just the source location.

In addition to the three link types specified above the Windows Vista version of Link Shell Extension supports the creation of Symbolic Links which have been introduced in the operating system.

The creation of remote links within SMB mapped network NTFS drives is supported by the software program as well. The easiest way to get an overview of the capabilities of Link Shell Extension is to visit the homepage which lists all supported modes and functions.

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The program divides the information into four panes and a header area that provides access to a quick partition browser and program help. The other panes are displaying the directory structure, the files and folders in the currently active directory including the amount of streams of each file and folder, detailed information about each stream and a hex viewer that is displaying the contents of each stream.

The default stream is the one that gets executed when the user (double-)clicks on the file. The main advantage of Stream Explorer is that it displays all information in one window.

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Basically anything can be added to an existing file (and directory) which brings up an interesting method of hiding important data on the system. Say you want to keep your passwords on the computer but do not want to use a text document to have them in the open. Using Alternate Data Streams to hide them from prying eyes could be a relative secure method of storing the password list on the computer.

They are detectable if the right software is being used. Windows Vista users can also use the dir *.txt /R which is further explained at Bart De Smet’s on-line blog.

To add textual information to any file in Windows you could use the command notepad filename:name for example notepad image.jpg:secret. This would open up Notepad and a blank text file at the first run. Any text that is added and saved during that session will the shown if the user opens the text document with the same command at a later time.

Executable files or other binary files can be added with the type command like this: type c:\text.exe > hello.txt:text.exe which can be executed with the start command start .\hello.txt:text.exe.

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By default USB devices are optimized for quick removal in Windows XP. If you want to format your USB device as NTFS you need to change that to optimize them for performance. This has however direct impact on how you remove the device from your system. You need to remove it safely if you really changed that option otherwise severe data loss might occur.

I don’t want to go deeper into the topic but I guess it does not make sense to format your USB device as NTFS considering the prospect of data loss if you miss to plug it off safely. Still it`s good to know I think.

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Creating NTFS Alternate Data Streams is not complicated at all. You can use the “type” command to do that. To fork the file virus.exe into calc.exe you would use the command type virus.exe > calc.exe:virus:exe if they are in the same directory. Add the path if they are not. The size of the calculator does not change, the only indicator is that the file changed stamp is altered.

But executing those files must be harder, right ? Wrong again. To execute virus.exe you use the command “start”, in our example it would be start calc.exe:virus:exe.

A software like Stream Explorer can find those NTFS Alternate Data Streams on your hard drive. An alternative is List Alternate Data Streams

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If it states Fat32 you should consider changing this to NTFS. Let me explain why it might be advantageous to do that. Generally speaking one could say that NTFS improves performance, reliability (Fat32 are more susceptible to disk errors), security and disk space usage if you have been using FAT32 file systems previously.

There are some exceptions to this rule which should be noted here. First, if the size of your hard drive is below 8 Gigabytes Fat32 might be the better choice disk space wise. It is definitely the better choice if you have a dual boot system with an older Microsoft operating system such as Windows 98.

It is possible to convert a FAT32 to NTFS without data loss. I would still advise to make backups of the important data before starting the conversion in case something goes wrong. (Power failure anyone ?) Please note that this is a one way process, you can’t convert the file system back to FAT32 easily.

Press Windows R, write cmd and hit enter. You only need to write down one command: convert c: /fs:ntfs where c: is the drive that you want to convert. Just change c to whatever drive you want to convert. The conversion will start after rebooting the machine. All data on that drive will still be available after the conversion from FAT32 to NTFS.

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If you are not using a program that needs the timestamp you can easily edit the registry key in vista to speed up your system. Hit Windows + R, type regedit and press enter.  Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Right-click the key NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the value of it to 1. While you are there you could also disable the creation of files in Dos format (8+3) by altering the value of the key NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1 as well.

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