Captive NTFS is a discontinued

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

project in the

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

programming community, started by Jan Kratochvíl. It is a

driver wrapper A driver wrapper is a Wrapper function, subroutine in a software library that functions as an adapter pattern, adapter between an operating system and a driver, such as a device driver, that was not designed for that operating system. It can enable ...

around the original

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

NTFS New Technology File System (NTFS) is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft. Starting with Windows NT 3.1, it is the default file system of the Windows NT family. It superseded File Allocation Table (FAT) as the preferred fil ...

file system In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...

driver using parts of

ReactOS ReactOS is a free and open-source operating system for amd64/i686 personal computers intended to be binary-compatible with computer programs and device drivers made for Windows Server 2003 and later versions of Windows. ReactOS has been noted a ...

code. By taking this approach, it aimed to provide safe write support to NTFS partitions. Until the release of

NTFS-3G NTFS-3G is an open-source cross-platform implementation of the Microsoft Windows NTFS file system with read/write support. NTFS-3G often uses the FUSE file system interface, so it can run unmodified on many different operating systems. It is ...

, it was the only Linux NTFS driver with full write support. On January 26, 2006 Kratochvíl released version 1.1.7 of the package. It restores compatibility with recent

kernels by replacing the obsolete LUFS (Linux Userland File System) module with

FUSE Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems to protect ...

(File System in Userspace), which as of Linux 2.6.14 has been part of the official Linux kernel. Captive NTFS requires NTFS.SYS, which cannot be freely distributed for legal reasons. It can either be obtained from an installed Windows system (which most computers with NTFS partitions are likely to have) or extracted from certain Microsoft

service pack In computing, a service pack comprises a collection of updates, fixes, or enhancements to a software program delivered in the form of a single installable package. Companies often release a service pack when the number of individual patches to a ...

External links

Jan Kratochvil's Captive NTFS home page
Compatibility layers Disk file systems Userspace file systems {{Linux-stub