OPERATING SYSTEMS

FILE SYSTEMS
FILE SYSTEMS

A file system is a structured data

representation and a set of metadata
describing the stored data. A file system
serves for the purposes of the whole
storage and it is also a part of an isolated
storage segment a disk partition.
FILE SYSTEMS

File system blocks are groups of sectors

that optimize storage addressing.
Modern file systems generally use block
sizes from 1 to 128 sectors (512-65536
bytes).
Files are usually stored at the start of a
block and take entire blocks.
Windows file systems
FAT:

FAT (File Allocation Table) is one of the simplest types of file

systems. It consists of a file system descriptor sector (boot sector or
superblock), a file system block allocation table (referred as File
Allocation Table) and plain storage space to store files and folders.

Files on FAT are stored in directories. Each directory is an array of

32-byte records, each defining file or file extended attributes (e.g. a
long file name). File record attributes the first block of a file.

Any next block can be found through a block allocation table by

using it as a linked list.
FAT
The numbers in FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 stand for
the number of bits used to enumerate a file
system block.

This means that FAT12 can use up to 4096

different block references, while FAT16 and
FAT32 can use up to 65536 and 4294967296
accordingly.

The actual maximum count of blocks is even

less and depends on the implementation of a
file system driver.
FAT
FAT12 was used for old floppy disks. FAT16 (or simply
FAT) and FAT32 are widely used for flash memory
cards and USB flash sticks. The system is supported
by mobile phones, digital cameras and other portable
devices.

FAT or FAT32 is a file system that is used on Windows-

compatible external storages or disk partitions with the
size under 2GB (for FAT) or 32GB (for FAT32).
Windows cannot create FAT32 file system over 32GB
(however Linux supports FAT32 up to 2TB).
NTFS

NTFS (New Technology File System) was introduced in

Windows NT and currently it is a major file system for
Windows. This is the default file system for disk
partitions and the only file system that supports disk
partitions over 32GB.

The file system is quite extensible and supports many

file properties, including access control, encryption etc.
Each file on NTFS is stored as a file descriptor in a
Master File Table and file content.
NTFS

A Master file table contains all information

about the file: size, allocation, name etc.
The first and the last sectors of the file
system contain file system settings (boot
record or superblock).
This file system uses 48 and 64 bit values to
reference files, thus, supporting disk
storages with high capacity.
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 into the system. And,
namely, Copy-on-Write (CoW): no metadata is
modified without being copied; data is not written
over the existing data, but into new disk space.
With any file modifications, a new copy of
metadata is stored into free storage space, and
then the system creates a link from older
metadata to the newer one. Thus, the system
stores significant quantity of older backups in
different places providing easy file recovery
unless this storage space is overwritten.
FILE DIRECTORIES

Collection of files is a file directory. The

directory contains information about the files,
including attributes, location and ownership.
Much of this information, especially that is
concerned with storage, is managed by the
operating system. The directory is itself a file,
accessible by various file management routines.
Information contained in a device directory are:
Name
Type
Address
Current length
Maximum length
Date last accessed
Date last updated
Owner id
Protection information
Operation performed on directory are:
Search for a file
Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system
SINGLE-LEVEL DIRECTORY
In this a single directory is maintained for all the
users.
Naming problem: Users cannot have same
name for two files.
Grouping problem: Users cannot group files
according to their need.
TWO LEVEL DIRECTORY
In this separate directories for each user is maintained.
Path name:Due to two levels there is a path name for
every file to locate that file.
Now,we can have same file name for different user.
Searching is efficient in this method.
TREE-STRUCTURED DIRECTORY
Directory is maintained in the form of a tree.
Searching is efficient and also there is grouping
capability. We have absolute or relative path name
for a file.
FILE ALLOCATION METHODS
Continous allocation
A single continuous set of blocks is allocated to a file at the
time of file creation. Thus, this is a pre-allocation strategy,
using variable size portions.

The file allocation table needs just a single entry for each file,
showing the starting block and the length of the file.

This method is best from the point of view of the individual

sequential file. Multiple blocks can be read in at a time to
improve I/O performance for sequential processing. It is also
easy to retrieve a single block.
For example, if a file starts at block b, and the ith block of the
file is wanted, its location on secondary storage is simply b+i-
1.
INDEXED ALLOCATION
It addresses many of the problems of
contiguous and chained allocation. In this case,
the file allocation table contains a separate one-
level index for each file: The index has one entry
for each block allocated to the file.

Allocation may be on the basis of fixed-size

blocks or variable-sized blocks. Allocation by
blocks eliminates external fragmentation,
whereas allocation by variable-size blocks
improves locality.