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LAB RECORD
Semester-I

Course – PG Diploma In Cyber Security

Course Code – CYSPGD(102)
Name- Gautam Kumar Rajak
Reg. No – MCVC2400112
Session – 2024 - 2025
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OPERATING SYSTEM AND SECUIRITY PRACTICAL

COURSE CODE: CYSPGD (102) DATE:

LAB – 01: Identifying the File System of An Operating System

LAB OBJECTIVE - To Identify the File System of Various Operating

Systems Like Windows, Linux Using Appropriate Tools And Commands.

THEORY
A computer file is defined as a medium used for saving and managing data in the computer system. The
data stored in the computer system is completely in digital format, although there can be various types of
files that help us to store the data.
File systems are a crucial part of any operating system, providing a structured way to store, organize, and
manage data on storage devices such as hard drives, SSDs, and USB drives. Essentially, a file system acts as
a bridge between the operating system and the physical storage hardware, allowing users and applications
to create, read, update, and delete files in an organized and efficient manner.
A file system is a method an operating system uses to store, organize, and manage files and directories on a
storage device. Some common types of file systems include:

• LINUX : ext2,ext3,ext4,XFS,btrfs
• WINDOWS : NTFS,FAT32
• ANDROID : ext4,f2fs,FAT32/exFAT

Here we discussed the file system of Windows and Linux operating system.

LINUX FILE SYSTEM:

ext2:
The second ext was developed in 1993. It is a non-journaling file system that is preferred to be used with
flash drives and SSDs. It solved the problems of separate timestamp for access, inode modification and data
modification. Due to not being journaled, it is slow to load at boot time.

ext3:
The third ext developed in 1999 is a journaling file system. It is reliable and unlike ext2, it prevents long
delays at system boot if the file system is in an inconsistent state after an unclean shutdown. Other factors
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that make it better and different than ext2 are online file system growth and HTree indexing for large
directories.

ext4:
The fourth ext developed in 2006, is a journaling file system. It has backward compatibility with ext3 and
ext2 and it provides several other features, some of which are persistent pre-allocation, unlimited number
of subdirectories, metadata checksumming and large file size. ext4 is the default file system for many Linux
distributions and also has compatibility with Windows and Macintosh.

XFS:
XFS is a 64-bit journaling file system and was ported to Linux in 2001. It now acts as the default file system
for many Linux distributions. It provides features like snapshots, online defragmentation, sparse files,
variable block sizes, and excellent capacity. It also excels at parallel I/O operations.

btrfs (Better/Butter/B-tree FS):

It was developed in 2007. It provides many features such as snapshotting, drive pooling, data scrubbing,
self-healing and online defragmentation. It is the default file system for Fedora Workstation.

WINDOWS FILE SYSTEM :

FAT32:
FAT32 stands for File Allocation Table. FAT32 is an extension of previous file systems in which the data is
stored in chunks of 32 bits. FAT32 is an upgraded version of FAT16 designed to overcome the limitations of
FAT16 and add support for larger media. FAT32 was used in older versions of operating systems like
Windows 95 up until Windows XP.
FAT32 is the original file system for the Windows operating system, having been developed in the 1970s. It
was mainly made for floppy drives with capacities less than 500 K. Each of the three FAT file systems—
FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32—has a different file size and disc layout. Initially, MS-DOS used the FAT file system,
with a maximum hard drive size of 32 MB and sectors partitioned into 512 K. It frequently appears in
removable discs and storage devices. A FAT32 drive’s maximum file size is limited to 4 GB, while the size of a
FAT32 partition cannot exceed 8 TB. The lack of security offered by FAT32 is its primary drawback. File
access protection is absent from FAT16, the prior version of the file system, and thus suffers from internal
fragmentation.

NTFS:
NTFS stands for New Technology File System. First introduced in 1993, it is used in newer versions of
operating systems such as Windows NT and 2000 and later versions of Windows. NTFS is a more robust,
high-performance logging file system with multi-user access control, ACLs, and many other things that
make it appropriate to work with an Operating System that has protection. NTFS includes characteristics
such as data recovery, multi-streaming, fault tolerance, security, extended file size, and file systems,
UNICODE names. exFAT is used where NTFS is not feasible, due to its data-structure overhead, but a greater
file-size limit than the standard FAT32 file system is needed.
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LAB ENVIRONMENT

REQUIREMENTS:
• A Kali Linux Based System
• A Windows Operating System

LAB TASKS

PART – A : IDENTIFYING FILE SYSTEM ON LINUX

All the commands run using KALI LINUX terminal

• Lsblk -f

The lsblk command lists the information about available block devices.Running it with the -f option will
show the file system type of each partition.

• df -T

df -T command reports file system disk space usage,to include the file system type on a particular disk
partition,use the -T to lists mounted filesystems and their types.

• blkid

Shows the file system type and UUID of all partitions. $sudo blkid
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• sudo file -sL /dev/sda1

This command identifies the file type.The -s flag enables reading of block or character files and -L enables
following of symlinks.

• Cat /etc/fstab

The /etc/fstab file contains information about disk partitions and their associated file systems.Checking this
file can also reveal the file system types cat /etc/fstab.

• mount

Running the mount command without argument shows all mounted file systems along with their types :
mount | grep “^/”

• GParted
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GParted is a graphical tool for managing disk partitions.Run the following command : $sudo gparted

• fsck
It is used to check and optionally repair linux file systems,it can also print the file system type on specified
disk partitions.The flag -N disables checking of the file system for errors.
fsck -N /dev/sda1

PART – B : IDENTIFYING THE FILE SYSTEM ON WINDOWS

• STEP 1

1. Open file explorer and right click on it

2. Then click on to the properties
3. Then show the entire file system information
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• STEP 2

1. Open disk management (Win + X > Disk Management)

2. Then observe the file system types in the file system column

• STEP 3

1. Open Command Prompt (cmd) as an administrator

2. Then run the command : wmic logicaldisk get name,filesystem
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RESULTS

LINUX

COMMAND OUTPUT
lsblk -f ext4
df -T ext4
sudo blkid ext4
/etc/fstab ext4
sudo file -sL ext4
mount | grep “^/” ext4
sudo gparted ext4
fsck -N ext4

WINDOWS:

METHOD FILE SYSTEM TYPE

File Explorer NTFS

Disk Management NTFS

Command Prompt NTFS/FAT32

CONCLUSION

This lab successfully demonstrated the identification of file system on Linux and Windows.Knowing the file
system type is critical for tasks like partitioning,formatting,secuirity and ensuring compatibility across
platforms.
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Signature Of Faculty –