Windows, Linux, Mac OS File System Types

What does high-level formatting do to a partition on a disk device?

Prepares it for use with an operating system by creating a file system on the disk partition.

What is NTFS, who developed it, and what OS is it for?

A proprietary file system developed by Microsoft for use with Windows.

What addressing scheme does NTFS provide, and what does that allow?

A 64-bit addressing scheme, allowing for very large volumes and file sizes.

In theory, what is the maximum NTFS volume size, and what are actual implementation limits?

In theory 16 Exabytes; actual implementations limited to between 137 GB and 256 Terabytes (depending on Windows version and allocation unit size).

What is NTFS journaling?

Data written to an NTFS volume is re-read, verified, and logged; if a problem occurs, the sector is marked bad and data relocated (faster/more reliable recovery after power outages and crashes).

What are NTFS snapshots used for?

Allow Volume Shadow Copy Service to make read-only copies of files at given points in time even if locked; supports file version history (revert changes) and backup operations.

What NTFS security features are listed?

File permissions and ownership, file access audit trails, quota management, and encrypting file system (EFS) to ensure only authorized users can read/modify file data.

What does NTFS POSIX compliance support, and what Windows behavior is noted?

Supports case-sensitive naming, hard links, and other key features required by UNIX/Linux apps; Windows does not insist upon case-sensitive naming (though NTFS is case-sensitive capable and preserves case).

What does NTFS indexing do?

Indexing Service creates a catalog of file/folder locations and properties, speeding up searches.

What are NTFS dynamic disks?

A disk management feature allowing space on multiple physical disks to be combined into volumes.

What NTFS features are not supported in Windows Home editions, and what max NTFS volume size is noted for latest feature updates?

Windows Home editions do not support dynamic disks or encryption; latest Windows feature updates increased maximum possible NTFS volume size to 8 Petabytes (8,000 TB).

What file system must Windows be installed to?

An NTFS-formatted partition.

What is the significant drawback of NTFS regarding other operating systems?

Not fully supported by operating systems other than Windows (macOS can read but cannot write; Linux distros/utilities may support to some degree).

What is ReFS, and what is it designed for?

Microsoft's newest file system for use with Windows; designed to make data easy to access, handle large amounts of data efficiently for different tasks, and keep data safe and protected from damage.

What ReFS resiliency benefit is listed?

Detect corrupted files/data and repair them while still online and in use, even in virtualized environments.

What ReFS high performance benefit is listed?

Storage solution improvement and optimization increases performance with large data sets/workloads through configuration of two logical storage groups or tiers.

What ReFS scalability benefit is listed?

Supports millions of terabytes of data without impacting performance metrics.

Who is ReFS supported for (per the blurb)?

Specialized customers requiring increased availability, resiliency, and scaling; NTFS remains predominant for many general users.

What is FAT32 named for, and how does FAT organize data?

Named for the file allocation table; FAT provides links from one allocation unit to another.

What does FAT32 nominally support for volume size, and what is its maximum file size?

Nominally supports volumes up to 2 TB; maximum file size is 4 GB minus 1 byte.

What key NTFS-like features does FAT32 not support?

Does not support any of the reliability or security features of NTFS.

What is FAT32 typically used to format, and when is it useful?

Typically used to format the system partition (holds the boot loader); useful for removable drives and memory cards intended for multiple operating systems and devices.

What is exFAT, what is it designed for, and what size does it support?

Extended File Allocation Table; a 64-bit version of FAT designed for removable hard drives and flash media; supports large volumes up to a recommended maximum size of 512 TB.

What access/security support does exFAT have (per the blurb)?

Support for access permissions but not encryption.

What support do Linux and macOS provide for FAT32 and NTFS as removable media?

They provide some degree of support for FAT32 and NTFS as removable media.

What do Linux and macOS use to format fixed disks?

They use dedicated file systems to format fixed disks.

What file system do most Linux distributions use to format partitions on mass storage devices?

Some version of the extended (ext) file system.

What does ext4 deliver and support?

Better performance and supports journaling.

In Linux, what is FAT/FAT32 designated as?

VFAT.

Besides ext, what alternatives will Linux also support?

FAT/FAT32 (VFAT) and XFS.

When was XFS introduced, and what was it called?

Introduced in 1993 as the High Performance Scalable File System.

What type of file system did XFS provide?

A 64-bit journaling file system.

What is the default file system for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) installations?

XFS.

What protocol can be used to mount remote storage devices to the local file system of the Linux OS?

Network File System (NFS).

What does using NFS allow you to do?

Connect to a file resource on another physical system as if the file system was directly attached to the user's own system.

What file system do Apple Mac workstations and laptops use, and what does it support?

Apple File System (APFS); supports journaling, snapshots, permissions/ownership, and encryption.

What 5 things must software provide to qualify as an operating system?

(1) Communicate with hardware (2) Provide a user interface (GUI/CLI) (3) Provide a file system (4) Provide a platform for applications (5) Provide security mechanisms (accounts/policies, etc.)

What are the two main user interface types an OS provides?

Graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line interface (CLI)

What’s notable about Unix ?

Developed by Bell Labs in the 1960s; powerful “out of the box”; multitasking and multi-user early on; mostly used on servers nowadays