NTFS Index Attributes
NTFS Index Attributes Now that we have described the general concept of B-trees, we need to describe how they are implemented in NTFS to create indexes. Each entry in the tree uses a data structure called an index entry to store the values in each node. There are many types of index entries, but they all have the same standard header fields, which are given in Chapter 13. For example, a directory index entry contains a few header values and a $FILE_NAME attribute. The index entries are organized into nodes of the tree and stored in a list. An empty entry is used to signal the end of the list. Figure 11.18 shows an example of a node in a directory index with four $FILE_NAME index entries. Figure 11.18. A node in an NTFS directory index tree with four index entries. Figure 11.18 The index nodes can be stored in two types of MFT entry attributes. The $INDEX_ROOT attribute is always resident and can store only one node that contains a small number of index entries. The $INDEX_ROOT attrib