A ``file system'' is a component of an operating system that provides the
illusion of files from bits and bytes according to some standard. Popular
file system standards include the following:
- FAT (file allocation table) is a standard passed down from DOS
(disk operating system). A modern version of it, FAT32, is
commonly used in jump drives and other portable storage devices.
- NTFS (NT file system) is a file system that starts with Windows NT.
Although it is developed by Microsoft, it has almost no relationship
to DOS. NTFS offers many benefits over DOS.
- Ext2 (Extension 2) is the most common native file system used in
Linux systems. It can handle huge files, and is relatively storage
efficient.
- Ext3 (Extension 3) builds on top of Ext2. It adds journaling
ability to Ext2, which significantly improves the ability to recover
from system crashes.
- ReiserFS (Reiser file system)
is a file system that is, for the most part, more
efficient than Ext3. ReiserFS is also designed to be modular,
which means this file system can be extended more easily and
readily than most other file systems.
Copyright © 2006-07-12 by Tak Auyeung
