Resilient File System (ReFS)- A New Generation File System

The File System in a computer is to store the data in such a way so that they can be easily stored and found. Here we are going to have a look at Resilient file system (ReFS) - the next generations file system and determines its features.

An introduction to Resilient File Systems (ReFS):

 

Resilient File system (ReFS) is the file system which was introduced in Windows Server 2012 file system by Microsoft. It’s the predecessor of New Technology File system (NTFS) file system, which is still in use today. ReFS is still an optional file system today.
Resilient file system is designed to work with large data sets. It provides efficient scalability and availability in comparison with NTFS. Data integrity is one of the most useful feature of ReFS file system which protects the data from common errors that can cause data loss. In ReFS if system error occurs, it recovers the data without data loss and without affecting volume availability.

Key elements of ReFS File system:

 

Improved reliability on Volume size:  

Refs uses B+ Tree structure to store and locate the data, which helps in larger scalability. There are no limitation on size of files and folders, this would be quite advantageous when working with large data size. In this structure Metadata and file data both are into tables just like in relational database. ReFS file systems supports a maximum file size of 16 Exabytes, a maximum of 18.4 × 1018 directories and a maximum volume size up to 1 Yottabyte (with 64 KB clusters).

ReFS Detect and Repair Problems itself: 

ReFS usually check metadata itself periodically to ensure that data has not been corrupted or lost. If File data or metadata get corrupt that file can be deleted without using the offline maintenance, and restored from the backup. In ReFS file system there is no need to check file system periodically run CHKDSK, it show an error message like this
“The type of the file system is ReFS.
The ReFS file system does not need to be checked.”

Supports Current APIs and technologies: 

 ReFS Supports all Win 32 APIs and some features of NTFS such as BitLocker encryption, Access control Lists, USN Journal, Change notification, Symbolic links etc. ReFS also integrates with Storage Space. Storage space is a virtualization technology that allows data mirroring and data stripping.

However, ReFS file system does not support some features of NTFS including alternate data stream, Ntfs Compression, encrypting file system, hard links and disk quotas.