Virtually all operating systems come with tools to manage the hard disk. The vast majority of these tools are unable to read metafiles such as the $MFT file in Windows 7. Why is this?
◦ The $MFT file is actually not part of the file system.
◦ Metafiles are database internal to the file system and are therefore locked out whenever the file system is mounted.
◦ While the metafiles are an integral part of the file system, the files themselves reside outside of the directory structure.
◦ Metafiles are protected system files and require access that user-level utilities are not granted by the OS.