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The default file system for Windows 11 may soon be changed to a new offering designed with high-end servers in mind, but there’s still a long way to go.
For more than three decades, Windows machines have used NTFS for all things storage, including internal drives and external drives like USB sticks.
Release notes for the latest version of Windows 11 (version 25276), detailed support for the Resilient File System (ReFS).
Windows ReFS vs NTFS
ReFS was first introduced with Windows Server 2012 and is clearly designed with large amounts of data in mind. windows latest (opens in new tab) notes that NTFS is limited to 256 terabytes (which is honestly more than enough for you or me), but there are some cases where businesses and data centers need more. ReFS raises the limit to 35 petabytes (more than 35,000 terabytes).
The Resilient FS promises to be more resilient as it can detect and repair corruptions while remaining online, and it’s also designed with scalability in mind.
“ReFS is designed to support extremely large data sets – millions of terabytes – without negatively impacting performance, achieving greater scale than previous file systems,” Microsoft (opens in new tab) noted.
However, there are some drawbacks, especially when it comes to using ReFS for the computers that consumers will eventually be able to use. At least for now, it doesn’t support system compression, encryption, and removable media.
While it may be years before ReFS makes it to our homes (if at all), its support in Windows 11 may indicate it’s trickling down to some high-end business machines as it expands beyond server domains, but at the moment NTFS has nothing to worry about.
Through windows latest (opens in new tab)