File Systems

File Systems

An older file system used by DOS was the file allocation table (FAT). FAT is a simple file system that uses minimum memory. Although it is based on file names of 11 characters, which include the 8 characters for the file name and 3 characters for the file extension, it has been expanded to support long file- names. Early DOS used FAT12, which used a 12-bit number for each cluster, but was later expanded to FAT16, which recognized volumes up to 2 GB.

FAT32, which was introduced in the second major release of Windows 95, was an enhancement to the FAT file system. It uses 32-bit FAT entries, which supports hard drives up to 2 TB, although Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008 (including R2) support volumes up to 32 GB. FAT32 does not have the security that NTFS provides, so if you have a FAT32 partition or volume on your computer, any user who has access to your computer can read any file on it. Today, the only time you use FAT32 is in the event that you have a com- puter that can boot to multiple operating systems, and one of the other oper- ating systems (such as Windows 95 or 98) cannot read and write to NTFS. Systems that can load more than one operating system are known as having a multi-boot configuration.

NTFS is the preferred file system for Windows XP and later versions. It has many benefits over the FAT and FAT32 file systems, including

. Improved support for much larger hard disks . Some automatic recovery of disk-related errors because it is a journaling

file system that keeps track of its transactions to make sure that that entire transaction is completed before being recognized

. Better security because you can use permissions and encryption to restrict access to specific files to approved users

. Disk compression . Disk quotas

Disk Management Tools

Another file system used in Windows 7 is Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT), sometimes referred to as FAT64. ExFAT is a new file system that is better adapted to the growing needs of mobile personal storage such as USB flash drives that require minimum overhead. Although exFAT can theoretical- ly handle up to 64 ZB (a Zettabtye (ZB) is equal to 1 billion Terabytes), 512 TB is the recommended maximum. It can also handle files that are larger than

4 GB. Unfortunately, exFAT does not support the encryption and permission features found in NTFS.

Cram Quiz

1. You have a new hard drive that has 4 TB. What type of partitioning style do you need to use?

❍ A. GPT ❍ B. MBR ❍ C. Basic ❍ D. Dynamic

2. How do you convert a dynamic disk to basic disk?

❍ A. Right-click the dynamic disk and select Convert to Basic Disk in the Disk Management console.

❍ B. Right-click the disk in Windows Explorer and select Format. In the Format dialog box, select Basic format.

❍ C. Specify the convert command using diskpart . ❍ D. Back up all data on the dynamic disk. Delete the disk. Re-create the

disk as a Basic Disk. Restore the data.

Cram Quiz Answers

1. A is correct. Partitioning is defining and dividing the physical or virtual disk into logical volumes called partitions. Each partition functions as if it were a separate disk drive. Windows 7 supports two types of disk partitioning styles: Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID partition table (GPT). If you have disks that are greater than 2 TB, you must use GPT because MBR (Answer B) does not sup- port disks larger than 2 TB. Answers C and D are incorrect because Basic and Dynamic disks describe the type of hard disk storage.

2. D is correct. Converting a basic disk to a dynamic disk is a one-way process. Therefore, the only way to convert a dynamic disk back to a basic disk is to delete the old disk and re-create it. Because that loses all data, you need to back up first and restore after you are done; therefore, the other answers are incorrect.

Working with Volumes