Windows 2000 Disk File System

A file system is a format for storing information on a hard disk. In all computer systems, there is a corresponding file system that specifies the various standards and mechanisms by which computers can manipulate files and folders. Therefore, the user's operation of all files and folders is done through the file system. The file system supported by Windows 2000 includes:

? Standard File Allocation Table (FAT), running Windows NT, Windows 95, MS-DOS or OS/2 can access files on the primary partition or logical partition FAT.

? Enhanced File Allocation Table (FAT 32), an extremely efficient system for storing files on large disk drives (over 512 megabytes), if the user's drive uses this format, it will create as many on the drive A few hundred megabytes of extra hard disk space to store data more efficiently. In addition, the program can be run 50% faster, while using less computer system resources.

? The recommended file system (NTFS) in Windows 2000, only computers running Windows 2000 or Windows NT can access files in NTFS volumes.

Before installing Windows 2000 Server, users should decide which file system to choose. Windows 2000 supports the use of the NTFS file system and file allocation table file system (FAT or FAT 32). The following sections of this section provide a brief introduction to the above file systems.

5.2.1 FAT File System

The FAT file system was originally used for simple file systems with small disks and simple file structures. The FAT file system takes its name from its organization: the file allocation table placed at the beginning of the volume. In order to protect the volume, two copies were used to ensure that even one of the pieces would work properly. In addition, in order to ensure proper loading and unloading of the files necessary to start the system, the file allocation table and root folder must be stored in a fixed location.

Volumes formatted with the FAT file system are allocated in clusters. The default cluster size is determined by the size of the volume. For the FAT file system, the number of clusters must be represented by a 16-digit binary number and is a power of 2. The default cluster size is shown in Table 5.2. By using the format program at the command prompt, the user can specify the size of the cluster. However, the size of the cluster specified by the user must be greater than the size given in the table. The FAT file system is deprecated in volumes larger than 511 MB due to overhead.

If the user's computer is running Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups, MS-DOS, OS/2, or a version prior to Windows 95, the FAT file system format is the best choice. However, it is important to note that the FAT file system is best used on smaller volumes. Because, regardless of the cluster size, using the FAT file system, the volume cannot be larger than 4 GB.