File System

A file system is the method used by an OS to manage the data on a drive. To make different drive or partitions, we use FDISK command. To make tracks & sectors on a drive, we use FORMAT command. The OS uses only one file system for an entire logical drive.

Types of file system

  1. CDFS: - It is Compact Disk File System. It is read only and used to read the contents of CD – ROM. It is supported by all OS. In some OS we need to install it like in DOS but in OS like 9x it automatically installed.
  2. UDF: - It is Universal Disk Format and read only file system used to read the contents of DVD.
  3. HPFS: - It is High Performance File System which comes only in Win NT 3.5.
  4. FAT 16: - FAT is File Allocation Table and 16 means it used 16 bits or 2 Bytes to make each entry. It is supported by all OS so it is also called universal file system.
  5. FAT 32: - This f/s use 32 bits to make each entry. But it is not supported by DOS, Win 95 and Win NT.

Difference between FAT 16 & FAT 32

FAT 16

1. Hard Disk Size
       in Win 98       à Up to 2GB
       in Win NT/2k à Up to 4GB
2. Cluster size
       in 2GB à 32KB
       in 4GB à 64KB
3. It is slow in speed.
4. It is supported by all OS.
FAT 32

1. Hard Disk Size
        in Win 98        à Up to 2TB
        in  Win 2k       Ã  Up to 32GB
2. Cluster size
        in 8GB   à 4KB
        in 16GB à 8KB
3. It is fast in speed.
4. It is don’t supported by DOS, Win 95,  
    Win NT.




  1. NTFS: - It is New Technology File System.
In Win NT 4.0 à NTFS 4.0
In Win NT 5.0 à NTFS 5.0

Features of NTFS
            There are many hot features of NTFS file system over FAT. Comparison of NTFS, FAT 32 and FAT 16 in case of Win 2k is displayed on next page: -

Feature

1. File level security
2. Speed to access files
3. Huge partition
4. Compression (file level)
5. Long file name
6. Local security
7. Cluster size
8.Recoverable f/s
9. Encrypting f/s
10. Disk Quota
NTFS

√ (12 permissions)
√
16EB
2:1

√
√
64 bits
√
√
√
FAT 32

X
√
32GB
X

√
X
32 bits
X
X
X
FAT 16

X
X
4GB
X

X
X
16 bits
X
X
X

Use in Different OS
All the OS does not support all f/s. The table of supportness of f/s of each OS is given below: -

OS
FAT 12
FAT 16
FAT 32
NTFS
CDFS
DOS
√
√
X
X
√
Win 95
√
√
X
X
√
Win 98
√
√
√
X
√
Win ME
√
√
√
√
√
Win 2k
√
√
√
√
√
Win NT
√
√
X
√
√


Converting FAT f/s to NTFS

There are fewer features in FAT f/s rather than NTFS. We can convert FAT f/s to NTFS by using the following command on Command Prompt.
CONVERT :  /FS:NTFS
But we can not convert NTFS partition to FAT. It can corrupt the data.