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What is a File System?A file system is a structure used to organize and access files on a storage device; the most popular storage device is the hard disk. Each operating system has its own native file system but many operating systems can also read several types of other file systems. The ISO 9660 file system used on CD-ROMs is an example of a file format that can be read by diverse operating systems. The basic purpose of a file system is to organize files and provide access to those files. The primary organization method is called the hierarchical structure. The entry point to this structure is called the root or top-level. The two basic elements of the structure are folders and files. Folders are used to hold more files and folders. By starting at the root folder and opening a folder in the root, you are moving one level deeper into the hierarchy. A file system usually also contains bookkeeping information such as the file creation time and the file size. There is also security information that is used to control who may read or write the file. Some systems my contain file access information which is useful for multi-user operating systems. In the early days of Windows, file name length was a big issue. This problem came about because MS-DOS has a file name limit of 11 characters. This short file name made it easy to run out of meaningful names. The short file name was carried over into the Win 3.x system. Fortunately, Win 95 introduced long file names into Windows. Here are just few of the many types of file systems:
Without an organized file system, we would not be able to use computers for the many tasks we use them for. Most disks contain hundreds or even thousands of files. This great number of files would overwhelm us if these files were not hidden behind the abstraction of the hierarchical directory structure. |
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