Various kind of file systems and it’s utility

You may come from Windows, and Windows has partitions like C:\ and D:\, you can install Windows on any of these partitions, usually C:\. But, what about other File System Structure?

Well, let's take a look at File System and file types.

In computing, a file system or filesystem controls how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, information placed in a storage medium (typically a hard disk drive) would be one large body of data with no way to tell where one piece of information stops and the next begins. By separating the data into pieces and giving each piece a name, the information is easily isolated and identified. Taking its name from the way paper-based information systems are named, each group of data is called a "file". The structure and logic rules used to manage the groups of information and their names are called a "file system".

Commonly used file systems include File Allocations are -

Linux file systems

Open-source Linux OS aims at implementing, testing and using different concepts of file systems. The most popular Linux file systems include:

• Ext, Ext2, Ext3, Ext4 - a “native” Linux file system. This file system falls under active developments and improvements. Ext is an old one and no longer used due to limitations. Ext3 file system is just an extension of Ext2 that uses transactional file writing operations with a journal. Ext4 is a further development of Ext3, extended with the support of optimized file allocation information (extents) and extended file attributes. This file system is frequently used as a "root" file system for most Linux installations.

• ReiserFS - an alternative Linux file system for storing a huge number of small files. It has good capability of files search and enables compact files allocation by storing file tails or small files along with metadata in order not to use large file system blocks for the same purpose.

• XFS - a file system derived from SGI company and was initially used for company’s IRIX servers. Now XFS specifications are implemented in Linux. XFS file system has great performance and is widely used to store files.

• JFS - a file system developed by IBM for the company’s powerful computing systems. JFS1 usually stands for JFS, JFS2 is the second release. Currently, this file system is open-source and implemented in most modern Linux versions.

• Btrfs - “better file system” made by Oracle. It is not stable as Ext in some distros, but you can say that it is a replacement for it if you have to. It has a good performance.

Windows file systems

Microsoft Windows OS uses two major file systems such as FAT, inherited from old DOS with its later extension FAT32, and widely-used NTFS file systems. Recently released ReFS file system, was developed by Microsoft as a new generation file system for Windows 8 Servers.

• FAT - FAT(File Allocation Table) is file system type that has been used since the late 1970s. Microsoft Windows 95 and 98 used a 32-bit version of FAT called FAT32 for disk storage. Newer versions of Windows and certain embedded devices may use the latest version of FAT, called exFAT, for storage. Mac OS X includes support for FAT for other drives and partitions (not the bootable partition), so it possible that an external drive or a partition to store files uses this file system type.

• NTFS - NTFS (New Technology File System) is a file system type that is commonly used for Microsoft Windows. It is the standard file system for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 10. It provides numerous improvements over the FAT file system, including better security and better disk utilization. If you are running a Mac that is dual-booting with a recent version of Microsoft Windows, support for NTFS is necessary to recover this data.

• ReFS - ReFS (Resilient File System) is the latest development of Microsoft currently available for Windows 8 Servers. The file system architecture absolutely differs from other Windows file systems and is mainly organized in a form of a B+-tree. ReFS has high tolerance to failures due to new features included in the system.

MacOS file systems

Apple's MacOS operating system applies two file systems such as HFS+, an extension to their own HFS file system used on old Macintosh computers, and recently released APFS.

• HFS+ - HFS+ file system is operated by Apple desktop products, including Mac computers, iPods, as well as Apple X Server products. Advanced server products also use Apple Xsan file system, a clustered file system derived from StorNext or CentraVision file systems. This file system stores files and folders and Finder information about directories view, window positions etc.

• APFS - Apple File System (APFS) is a proprietary file system for macOS High Sierra and later, iOS 10.3 and later, tvOS 10.2 and later,[6] and watchOS 3.2 and later, developed and deployed by Apple Inc. It aims to fix core problems of HFS+ (also called Mac OS Extended), APFS predecessor on these operating systems. Apple File System is optimized for flash and solid-state drive storage, with a primary focus on encryption. The file system can be used on devices with relatively small or large amounts of storage. It uses 64-bit inode numbers and allows for more secure storage. The APFS code, like the HFS+ code, uses the TRIM command, for better space management and performance. It may increase read-write speeds on iOS and macOS, as well as space on iOS devices, due to the way APFS calculates available data.

Macs can also read and write to FAT32 file systems, although they can only read from NTFS file systems by default - you’d need third-party software to write to NTFS file systems from a Mac.

Clustered file systems

Clustered file systems are used in computer cluster systems. These file systems support distributed storage. Distributed file systems include:

• ZFS - Sun company “Zettabyte File System” - a new file system developed for distributed storages of Sun Solaris OS.

• Apple Xsan – the Apple company evolution of CentraVision and later StorNext file systems.

• VMFS - “Virtual Machine File System” developed by VMware company for its VMware ESX Server.

• GFS - Red Hat Linux “Global File System”.

• JFS1 - the original (legacy) design of IBM JFS file system used in older AIX storage systems.

Utilities of the file systems

File systems include utilities to initialize, alter parameters and remove an instance of the file system. Some include the ability to extend or truncate the space allocated to the file system. Directory utilities may be used to create, rename and delete directory entries, which are also known as dentries (singular: dentry), and to alter metadata associated with a directory. Directory utilities may also include capabilities to create additional links to a directory (hard links in Unix), to rename parent links (".." in Unix-like operating systems), and to create bidirectional links to files.

File utilities create, list, copy, move and delete files, and alter metadata. They may be able to truncate data, truncate or extend space allocation, append to, move, and modify files in-place. Depending on the underlying structure of the file system, they may provide a mechanism to pretend to or truncate from, the beginning of a file, insert entries into the middle of a file or delete entries from a file. Utilities to free space for deleted files, if the file system provides an undelete function, also belong to this category.

Some file systems defer operations such as the reorganization of free space, secure erasing of free space, and rebuilding of hierarchical structures by providing utilities to perform these functions at times of minimal activity. An example is the file system defragmentation utilities. Most important features of file system utilities involve supervisory activities which may involve bypassing ownership or direct access to the underlying device. These include high-performance backup and recovery, data replication and reorganization of various data structures and allocation tables within the file system.

 

Hope now, you have a good idea about file system in the different OS. Choosing the right file system can lead you to the best performance, so choose the best. Please let us know in the comments section if we left any good one. Thank you!