According to Wikipedia, NTFS stands for New Technology File System. NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT and its descendants Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista. But that doesn't really explain what it is. The biggest difference between NTFS and the traditional FAT based file systems is that it supports access control lists and file system journaling. This adds a bunch of much needed reliability and security features to Windows. This also means that Linux and other open source operating systems have a great deal of trouble reading and writing to it. Linux has offered experimental read/write support in the latest kernels, and there are also several third party add-ons.

Despite the advantages of NTFS and its journaling support, data loss is still an issue. NTFS uses delayed write technology, which holds program data in RAM until the hard drive is less busy. This is a more efficient way of dealing with the slower activity of writing data to a drive. The problem with this method is that if the computer locks up, the data in memory might not get written to the drive, causing data corruption or loss. Also, nothing prevents user error. If you accidentally delete a file, and empty the recycle bin, your data is still deleted.

Obviously backing up your data is the best option to quickly recover from a data loss issue. However, backups don't always get made, nor do they always work. Data recovery on a NTFS based drive is similar to any other form of file system recovery, and you should prepare in advance for the worst case with a disaster recovery plan. This includes doing the following:

• Implementing a backup plan and sticking to it
• Verifying the backup. It doesn't matter that you have a backup if it's no good
• Selecting NTFS compatible data recovery software
• Finding an appropriate NTFS compatible un-delete utility
• Evaluating a comprehensive data recovery service

Getting your disaster recovery plan completed ahead of time will save you time and money in the long run.