Windows 8 New File System, ReFS

For those who haven't heard, Microsoft has announced that one of the biggest changes that will come in the new Windows 8 will be a new file system, ReFS (Resilient File System). What does that mean, goodbye NTFS. Starting as a storage system, ReFS will come in Windows Server 8 at the start. Then it'll eventually become a storage system on Windows Clients and ultimately as a boot volume. 

A Look Inside ReFS

ReFS will complement the Storage Spaces feature in both Windows 8 and Windows Server 8, working in many ways like a drive extender. Also, it helps with the verification and auto-correction of data and makes it available to a large scale of operations. Lastly, file fragmentation will no longer be a big problem. In the end, ease of use should increase as well as performance improvements on the system.

On the other side, one of the many goals Microsoft has with ReFS is to maintain a high degree of compatibility with a subset of NTFS features. Of course, getting rid of NTFS can only be accomplished gradually, but that means that incorporating elements of it in ReFS will be necessary so that data files plus software programs are still accessible. On the flip side, it'll get rid of other elements of NTFS that provide limited value at the cost of system complexity and footprint.