GCFA · Question #302
Your Windows XP hard drive has 2 partitions. The system partition is NTFS and the other is FAT. You wish to encrypt a folder created on the system partition for the purpose of data security. Which…
The correct answer is A. You can only encrypt files on the NTFS partition. Windows Encrypting File System (EFS) is exclusively an NTFS feature and cannot be used on FAT volumes regardless of where the operating system is installed.
Question
Your Windows XP hard drive has 2 partitions. The system partition is NTFS and the other is FAT. You wish to encrypt a folder created on the system partition for the purpose of data security. Which of the following statements is true about this situation?
Options
- AYou can only encrypt files on the NTFS partition.
- BYou can only encrypt files on the FAT partition.
- CSince the operating system is on the NTFS partition, you can encrypt files on both.
- DYou cannot encrypt files on either partition.
How the community answered
(26 responses)- A77% (20)
- B4% (1)
- C8% (2)
- D12% (3)
Why each option
Windows Encrypting File System (EFS) is exclusively an NTFS feature and cannot be used on FAT volumes regardless of where the operating system is installed.
EFS is architecturally tied to NTFS because it stores encryption keys and metadata within NTFS file attributes and relies on NTFS access control structures to associate keys with user accounts. FAT lacks these structures entirely, so EFS functionality is unavailable on the FAT partition and is only possible on the NTFS partition.
FAT does not support the NTFS-specific metadata and access control mechanisms that EFS requires, making encryption impossible on FAT - the opposite of what this choice states.
EFS eligibility is determined by each partition's file system type independently; the OS being on NTFS does not extend EFS capabilities to other partitions formatted as FAT.
EFS is fully functional on the NTFS partition, so it is factually incorrect that neither partition can host encrypted files.
Concept tested: EFS encryption requires NTFS, not FAT
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/file-encryption
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