News New advanced filesystem format option found in Windows 11 preview build — ReFS supports up to 35 petabytes

[Admin]

Microsoft's modern Resilient File System supports files and volumes up to 35 petabytes.

New advanced filesystem format option found in Windows 11 preview build — ReFS supports up to 35 petabytes : Read more

 

[ThatMouse]

I've been using ReFS on Windows 10, but then Microsoft removed support. It still runs, but I'm unable to create new partitions. I guess I'm wondering if I upgade the hardware and upgrade to Windows 11 will I be able to still use ReFS?

 

[tamalero]

For those experts out there.. its ReFS the Windows response to BTRFS from Linux space?

 

[qxp]

For those experts out there.. its ReFS the Windows response to BTRFS from Linux space?

Unlikely. If MS simply used ext4 they would have had better features. 35 PB ? We will have drives bigger than this in 5 years, and you can have larger arrays right now.

 

[kyzarvs]

Am I reading it right that ReFS doesn't support encryption at this time?

Sooo, MS only cares about your boot partition being encrypted, not your... y'know... data?

 

[wakuwaku]

Am I reading it right that ReFS doesn't support encryption at this time?

Sooo, MS only cares about your boot partition being encrypted, not your... y'know... data?

Nope you didnt read it at all more likely. The table specifically says "file system encryption". Not that it doesnt support encryption at all.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/file-encryption

This is different from encryption like Bitlocker which encrypts the entire drive.

This is a feature where you right click individual files on an NTFS drive in explorer, select properties, under the attributes section ( where you tick/untick Read-Only or Hidden), press the advanced button, and tick the "encrypt contents to secure data" option and then clicking ok and/or apply. This is a built in feature of NTFS, unlike Bitlocker or Drive encryption which is a feature of the OS.

Note also the limitations from the above the link, specifically not supporting root directories and system files and directories, making it kinda not that useful.

How many people, including yourself, actually know and use this feature compared to just turning on Bitlocker or Drive encryption?

 

[pclaughton]

Back at it after WinFS, eh? Can I finally use special characters in file names?

 

[kyzarvs]

Nope you didnt read it at all more likely.

No need to be snooty there fella - I left it wide open to me be being wrong and encouraging a teachable moment. It is possible to do that in a friendly and positive way - even on the internet - I'm told. Have a great Thursday!

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Hasn't this been present since the Windows 10 era and it was targeted at removable drives and data centers where resiliency was more prioritized over encryption and bootability?

 

[thestryker]

ReFS in theory is a great idea, but it doesn't seem like Microsoft has really treated it with any urgency. It has a lot of really fantastic features which put it in the same general category of zfs/btrfs. The problem is that it has had some serious bugs which haven't necessarily been resolved. Integrity streams still seem to be broken despite being aware of it for years: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarde...ata_integrity_streams_corrupt_data/?rdt=35241

While it's likely to still be better for storage systems than NTFS it just isn't where it really should be at this point.

 

[usertests]

35 PB ? We will have drives bigger than this in 5 years, and you can have larger arrays right now.

Drives larger than 35 PB in 2030? HDD, tape, SSD? Seems optimistic.

As for arrays, you are probably looking at up to $500,000 for 35 PB. A lot but not unattainable.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

So is it a slower file system? With checksums and the like, does it slow down performance that you would notice?

 

[rsquared]

Does this mean that ReFS is bootable now, in this preview build? It wouldn't make sense otherwise that the installer allows you to install to an ReFS partition.

 

[ekio]

With this horrible UI from Windows Vista...

It's hard to remember this company is worth multiple trillions of dollars, when they cannot update an ugly UI in 20 years.

Is windows coded so bad that nothing can be improved anymore ?

 

[qxp]

Drives larger than 35 PB in 2030? HDD, tape, SSD? Seems optimistic.

Well, its a guesstimate: ) 100TB SSDs are available now, and people are hard at work on magnetic memory cells. If they succeed we will have non-volatile RAM with spinning disk like capacities.

As for arrays, you are probably looking at up to $500,000 for 35 PB. A lot but not unattainable.

Agreed.

 

[tamalero]

With this horrible UI from Windows Vista...

It's hard to remember this company is worth multiple trillions of dollars, when they cannot update an ugly UI in 20 years.

Is windows coded so bad that nothing can be improved anymore ?

It still reminded me how useless METRO system settings were.
You had to literally dig for the older menus to actually do work.
So yeah I agree in a way.

 

[jp7189]

I've used refs for about 10 years now in a productions setting. If you have an application that can takes advantage of fast block clone, then it's amazing. It's also good for larger arrays as corrupt blocks are detected and repaired which ntfs can't do. On ntfs you have to run a full chkdsk to go hunting for corruption and recovery (depending on the problem) is less likely. On refs there's no point to do a full volume check.

For a practical example, let's use Veeam and a long forever forward incremental backup chain comprised on many snapshot files. If you want to create a synthetic full refs just makes a mostly empty file of metadata pointers that reference the data blocks contained in the other incremental data files. That's extremely fast and space efficient. Ntfs has to copy the full data blocks in to a new file.

Likewise if you start to get bitrot in an older incremental in the chain, refs has a better chance to detect and repair that before it's a problem. Ntfs you have no idea until you try a restore and realize you're just plain f'ed.

 

[das_stig]

ReFS keeping to Microsoft standards and arriving 22 years late and incomplete. 👏