2.4 What is a file system?

A partition by itself is merely an array of hard disk sectors. In order to create the illusion of files and directories, a file system must be created on a partition. A file system is a specification of how sectors are utilized in a partition.

Note that only up to one file system may be created on a partition. Some partitions may not contain any file system. For example, a partition that is used as a “swap partition” does not contain any file systems. There are other kinds of partitions that do not contain complete file systems.

Popular desktop file systems include the following:

• FAT32: (file allocation table, 32-bit) this is a popular file system used by Microsoft products before Windows XP. However, it has some severe limitations regarding the maximum file size and maximum partition size. It is no longer useful for large hard disk drives.
• NTFS: (NT file system) this is a family of proprietary file systems used by Microsoft products, particularly NT-based operating systems. Compared to FAT32, NTFS is more efficient, can handle bigger drives, support bigger files, and offer far more access control.