Here are some brief introductions about the different features of these four file systems. If a file exceeds the capacity of singular sector of a FAT16 partition, it would take more space than the size of the file itself. FAT16 is outdated because it has a big weakness: it supports partition with a capacity of no more than 2GB. It uses bit binary number to hold clusters, limiting the partition or volume size up to 2TB with a sector size of bytes. And it works with most of Windows, even Mac, and game consoles.
But it also has a size limit. It can only support a maximum of 32GB partition, and a maximum of 4GB single file. If you copy a file like a movie that is usually larger than 4GB to a FAT32 hard drive, you will be told that the file is too large for the destination disk. It uses B-tree structure that allows users to use hard disk larger than 2TB and provides much fast speed, making itself a popular choice among an increasing number of Windows users. Besides, NTFS is a journaling file system that resists data loss and damage.
It has additional permission settings that can encrypt files to control access of files and folders. A database file system cannot replace a typical file system, though. You made it to the end, which means you know a lot more about file systems now.
But I'm sure this won't be the end of your file system studies. A file system defines how files are named , stored , and retrieved from the storage device.
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Tweet a thanks. Learn to code for free. Get started. Forum Donate. Reza Lavarian. It's a bit tricky to explain what exactly a file system is in just one sentence. Let's start with a simple definition: A file system defines how files are named , stored , and retrieved from a storage device.
Or when you copy, edit, or delete a file, the file system handles it under the hood. However, these concepts remain relevant to other environments and file systems. Why do we need a file system in the first place, you may ask? Imagine a room with piles of papers scattered all over the place.
However, a file system changes everything: A file system isn't just a bookkeeping feature, though. Everything begins with partitioning Storage devices must be partitioned and formatted before the first use. But what is partitioning? A storage device should have at least one partition or more if needed. Why should we split the storage devices into multiple partitions anyways?
The recovery and diagnostic utilities reside in dedicated partitions too. For instance, the tech team would appreciate a quieter area. Are you ready? Away we go! Wait, what is the system firmware? You may ask. Here's an explanation: A firmware is a low-level software embedded into electronic devices to operate the device, or bootstrap another program to do it.
This sector is called MBR. MBR contains the following information: The boot loader, which is a simple program in machine code to initiate the first stage of the booting process A partition table , which contains information about your partitions. MBR gap can be used to place another piece of the boot loader program if needed. This is when the operating system's logo fades in MBR's data structure limits the number of partitions to only four primary partitions. When making a partition, you can choose between primary and extended.
After this is solved, we'll encounter the second limitation. And wait, there's more! For instance, you can have as many partitions as your operating system allows. This is where the first-stage boot loader would reside in an MBR-partitioned disk After this first sector, the GPT data structures are stored, including the GPT header and the partition entries. This backup is called Secondary GPT.
If this path cannot be found on your system, then your firmware is probably BIOS-based firmware. NVRAM contains the booting settings and paths to the operating system boot loader files. Let's confirm that with the dmidecode command like so: sudo dmidecode -t 0 And the output would be: dmidecode 3. Formatting partitions When partitioning is done, the partitions should be formatted. Most operating systems allow you to format a partition based on a set of file systems.
These data structures are one aspect of a file system. Let's take the NTFS file system as an example. How it started, how it's going A file system is a set of data structures, interfaces, abstractions, and APIs that work together to manage any type of file on any type of storage device, in a consistent manner.
Each operating system uses a particular file system to manage the files. Or you can just use the exFat file system. But how about file systems in Linux distributions? When people talk about file systems, they refer to one of these layers or all three as one unit. Although these layers are different across operating systems, the concept is the same. The next layer is the virtual file system or VFS. So does this mean an operating system can use multiple file systems at the same time?
The answer is yes! Can you guess what it is? Yes, we're talking about the logical file system. A high-level architecture of the file system layers What does it mean to mount a file system? However, there are times you need to mount a file system manually. Please note that the mount point should already exist as a directory. Inodes are identified by a unique number called the inode number. Inodes are associated with files in a table called inode tables.
The inode also includes the address of the blocks allocated to the file; On the other hand, where exactly it's located on the storage device In an ext4 inode, the address of the allocated blocks is stored as a set of data structures called extents within the inode. Whenever you open a file on Linux, its name is first resolved to an inode number. Having the inode number, the file system fetches the respective inode from the inode table.
When a file is created, an entry is created in the directory and the first cluster number containing data is established. This entry in the FAT table either indicates that this is the last cluster of the file, or points to the next cluster.
Updating the FAT table is very important as well as time consuming. If the FAT table is not regularly updated, it can lead to data loss. It is time consuming because the disk read heads must be repositioned to the drive's logical track zero each time the FAT table is updated.
There is no organization to the FAT directory structure, and files are given the first open location on the drive. In addition, FAT supports only read-only, hidden, system, and archive file attributes. FAT uses the traditional 8. The name of a file or directory can be up to eight characters long, then a period.
The name must start with either a letter or number and can contain any characters except for the following:. If any of these characters are used, unexpected results may occur. The name cannot contain any spaces.
It is not possible to perform an undelete under Windows NT on any of the supported file systems. Undelete utilities try to directly access the hardware, which cannot be done under Windows NT. For further discussion of FAT advantages, see the following:. Windows NT Server 4. This is because as the size of the volume increases, performance with FAT will quickly decrease. It is not possible to set permissions on files that are FAT partitions.
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4. In conclusion, compared with NTFS and exFAT, FAT32 comes in higher compatibility in old operating systems and removable storage devices, whereas its features limit in single file size and partition size.
And exFAT features larger volume volume size and single file size. In this situation, you can download MiniTool Partition Wizard to help you complete this conversion. What Is Windows File System?
Note: Although the files have been encrypted and compressed, people still can open it when they use your user name to login Windows system.
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