File System and DBMS (ICT) - S4
File System and DBMS (ICT) - S4
1. File System :
File system is basically a way of arranging the files in a storage medium like hard disk. File system
organizes the files and helps in retrieval of files when they are required. File systems consists of different
files which are grouped into directories. The directories further contain other folders and files. File system
performs basic operations like management, file naming, giving access rules etc.
Example:
NTFS(New Technology File System), EXT(Extended File System).
A file system is a software that manages and organizes the files in a storage medium, whereas DBMS is a
software application that is used for accessing, creating, and managing databases. The file system doesn't have
a crash recovery mechanism on the other hand, DBMS provides a crash recovery mechanism.
DBMS vs. File System
There are following differences between DBMS and File system:
2. Redundant data can be present in a file system. In DBMS there is no redundant data.
It doesn’t provide backup and recovery of data if it is
3. It provides backup and recovery of data even if it is lost.
lost.
4. There is no efficient query processing in file system. Efficient query processing is there in DBMS.
8. It is less expensive than DBMS. It has a comparatively higher cost than a file system.
File Processing Approach :
-Each user maintains separate files—and programs to manipulate these files—because each requires some
data not available from the other user's files.
-This redundancy in defining and storing data results in wasted storage space and in redundant efforts to
maintain common up-to-date data
-In traditional file processing, data definition is typically part of the application programs themselves; hence,
these programs are constrained to work with only one specific database, whose structure is declared in the
application programs
Database Approach:
• Improved Data Integrity — When users modify data in the database, they make changes to
one file instead of multiple files. Thus, the database approach
increases the data’s integrity by reducing the possibility of introducing inconsistencies.
-Self-describing nature of a database system; complete definition or description of database structure and
constraints is part of the database:
-Insulation between programs and data; program-data dependence versus program-data independence
-When structure changes, business requirements change
-Accessing data is done through SQL statements, so when structure is changed, usually only have to change
SQL statements (rather than multiple programs)
-When structure continually changes, business requirements change
-Support of multiple views of data
-Sharing data and multiuser transaction processing
- Database can be more complex than a file processing system.
- Databases also require more memory, storage, and processing power than file processing systems.
- Data in a database can be more vulnerable than data in file processing systems.
- Database can store a lot of data in a single file.