Presented By:

Sundas munir &

Itrat fatima
FILE SYSTEMS
 File system

In a computer, a file system is the way in

which files are named and where they are
placed logically for storage and retrieval.

It organizes files and manages access to

data.
 File Systems

 The operating system keeps track of data (documents,

pictures, etc.) by placing it into a file.
 To store and retrieve files:
 Disk divided into tracks
 Tracks are divided into sectors
 Sectors grouped into clusters
 Number of sectors in a cluster is determined by
 Size of the hard drive
 File allocation system – FAT, FAT32, NTFS
OS and File System Compatibility

Operating System FAT16 FAT32 NTFS

Windows XP   
Windows 2000   

Windows NT  

Windows 95, 98, ME  

Windows 95 

MS-DOS 
 A file system defines the structure and the
rules used to read, write, and maintain
information stored on a disk.
 Which system used is determined by;
Hardware
Software
Security needs
 File system is responsible for:
 File management
 providing the mechanisms for files to be stored,
referenced, shared, and secured
 Auxiliary storage management
 Allocating space for files on secondary and tertiary
storage devices.
 File integrity mechanisms
 Ensuring that the information stored in a file is
uncorrupted.
 Access methods
 How the stored data can be accessed.
.
File Names
 1 to 255 characters in length
This includes the path
 You can use uppercase and lowercase
(case-aware, but not case-sensitive)
 You can use spaces.
 You cannot use these characters:

/ \ : * ? “ < > |
File Names continued
 Filenames consist of two parts
Main part of filename
○ Identifies the contents of the file
File extension
○ Identifies the file type
 The last period separates the file extension
from the main part of the filename.
The Full Path
 What does it mean?
The complete path from the root of the files system to
the desired object.
Use \ (vs. /)
C:\ - the root
For Example;
E:\BBA-IT\5th Semester\Networking\File System.ppt
FAT???
File allocation table – where the OS records how
the disk space is used
File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system
developed by Microsoft for MS-DOS and was the
primary file system for consumer versions of
Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows
Me.
File Systems
 FAT12: The earliest version the file system, FAT12
allows a partition to contain up to 4096MB/ (212)clusters.

 FAT 16: oldest, created for DOS, supported by most

OS’s, cannot be installed on partitions larger than 2 GB, or on
hard drives larger than 4GB.

 FAT 32: supports disks from 512MB to 2TB, compatible

with Windows 98 and up
 Tracks

Sectors
within a
Track

Cluster
Clusters?
 A cluster, also known as an allocation unit,
consists of one or more sectors of storage
space, and represents the minimum amount of
space that an operating system allocates when
saving the contents of a file to a disk.
 The number of sectors per cluster is dependent
on
Type of disk (floppy disk, hard disk)
Version of operating systems
Size of disk
There are 3 versions of FAT: FAT-12, FAT-16,
and FAT-32. These numbers refer to the
number of bits available to define clusters. The
floppy disk we’re looking at uses FAT-12, and so
is limited to 212 or approximately 4096 clusters.

A cluster is made up of 4 sectors (the minimum

size that can be allocated.)
A sector is 512 bytes  a Cluster is 2048 bytes.
So Fat-12 has a maximum of 4078 clusters *
2048 bytes/cluster = 8 Megabytes
Features of FAT32
•FAT32 provides the following enhancements over
previous implementations of the FAT file
system:FAT32 supports drives up to 2 terabytes in
size. 

FAT32 uses space more efficiently. It uses smaller

clusters (that is, 4-KB clusters for drives up to 8
GB in size), resulting in 10 to 15 percent more
efficient use of disk space relative to large FAT or
FAT16 drives.
FAT32 is more robust. FAT32 can
relocate the root folder and use the
backup copy of the file allocation table
instead of the default copy.

FAT32 is more flexible. The root folder

on a FAT32 drive is an ordinary cluster
chain, so it can be located anywhere on
the drive. The previous limitations on the
number of root 
Advantages of FAT File System
 The FAT file system is best for drives and/or
partitions under approximately 200 MB

 It is better to format system partition as FAT

Disadvantage of FAT File System
 It is not better to use FAT on partitions that are
greater than 200 megabytes. FAT partitions are
limited in size to a maximum of 4 Gigabytes
(GB) under Windows NT and 2 GB in MS-DOS.

 The FAT file system is also prone to

fragmentation
 (it’s the inability of a file system to lay out related
data sequentially (contiguously)
NTFS

 NTFS stand for new technology file system

 It is the standard file system of Windows NT,
including its later versions Windows 2000, 
Windows XP, Windows Server
2003, Windows Server 2008,Windows Vista,
and Windows 7.
Advantages:
 Improve performance: its much more
efficient than FAT
 Reliability: NTFS uses a lossless
compression algorithm, which ensures that
no data is lost when compressing and
decompressing data. 
 Security :  Using NTFS permissions you can
control access to every file on an NTFS
volume.
 Using disk quotas enables you to control the
amount of data that users can store on your
NTFS volumes
 Disadvantages of NTFS

 It is not recommended to use NTFS on a

volume that is smaller than
approximately 400 MB
 Currently, there is no file encryption built
into NTFS
 It is not possible to format a floppy disk
with the NTFS file system
Define Cluster Size Properly

 Cluster is an allocation unit. If you create file

lets say 1 byte in size, at least one cluster
should be allocated on FAT file system. On
NTFS if file is small enough, it can be stored
in MFT record itself without using additional
clusters.
 FAT 16 FAT 32 NTFS
DRIVE SIZE
Cluster Size Cluster Size Cluster Size

260 to 511 MB 8 KB (16 sectors) Not Supported 512 bytes (1 sector)

512 to 1023 MB 16 KB (32 sectors) 4 KB (8 sectors) 1KB (2 sectors)

1024 MB to 2 32 KB (64 sectors) 4 KB (8 sectors) 2 KB (4 sectors)

GB
2 to 4 GB 64 KB (128 sectors) 4 KB (8 sectors) 4 KB (8 sectors)

4 to 8 GB Not Supported 4 KB (8 sectors) 8 KB (16 sectors)

8 to 16 GB Not Supported 8 KB (16 sectors) 16 KB (32 sectors)

16 to 32 GB Not Supported 16 KB (32 sectors) 32 KB ( 64 sectors)

>32 GB (up to 2 TB) Not Supported 32 KB (64 sectors) 64 KB (128 sectors)

FAT VS NTFS

 Microsoft highly recommends you choose

NTFS
 If your hard drive is larger then 32 GB, use
NTFS for best performance.
 Your hard drive may not appear to be as big
as it really is when using FAT32; so when
given a choice, use NTFS.
 Why to choose FAT or NTFS
 Do you need the added features and
capabilities that NTFS provides but FAT
does not?
 Are you willing to accept the additional
hardware requirements necessary to use
NTFS, and to deal with its drawbacks and
limitations?
 Can you invest the additional time and
resources for proper administration of an
NTFS system?
 Answers…….
 Larger organization more no of peoples than
we use NTFS
 It provide security to the server which share
large amount of data with others
 If more than 20 people use system than
NTFS is preferred
Conversion volume from FAT to
NTFS

 Converted file in NTFS is slower so we do

defragmentation
 Defragmentation tools are in general unable
to defragment MFT (Master File Table ),
however, you can try to backup the whole
system, re-format the volume with proper
cluster size, and restore it back.
Compare FAT and NTFS File
System

 Compatibility
Only Windows NT supports NTFS partitions , Windows
NT and Windows 95 supports both NTFS and FAT

 Volume size
FAT supports partition sizes only up to 2 GB , the
maximum size of an NTFS partition is 16 EB
 Fault tolerance
Windows NT offers software support for several
alternate disk-access methods that increase speed
and/or fault tolerance, While FAT does maintain two
copies of the file-allocation table, in case one copy is
damaged, it’s incapable of automatically fixing errors)

 File compression
NTFS has its native support for file compression, It
offers you the chance to compress individual files and
directories of your choice
 The system partition
A better solution is to format your system partition as
FAT because NTFS partitions are accessible only via
Windows NT. If you have a fatal error with Windows NT,
you can’t simply boot a system disk to a command
prompt and fix a problem on an NTFS partition
 Converting to NTFS
In MS-DOS type command: CONVERT drive: /FS:NTFS
Security
NTFS has a built-in security system , FAT has no
local protection, it only has the share permission
(protect the file from network