Overview of File Systems Lesson

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Introduction

 Before you can store data on a volume, you must first format the volume.
 To format a volume, you must select the file system that the volume should use.
 Windows 10 supports different file systems, including:
 file allocation table (FAT),
 FAT32, and
 extended file allocation table (exFAT);
 NTFS file system and
 Resilient File System (ReFS); and
 Compact Disc File System (CDFS) and
 Universal Disk Format (UDF), which are used on optical and read-only media.

 Lesson Objectives After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
 Describe the features of the FAT file system.
 Explain the features of the NTFS file system.
 Describe the features of the ReFS file system.
 Work with the file systems available in Windows 10.

Slide 5
The FAT File System
 FAT is the oldest file system that Windows 10 supports.
 It has a low overhead but many limitations when compared with newer file systems. However,
enterprises often use it because nearly every operating system supports it.
 For example, you would use FAT on removable media, such as a USB key, when you need to transfer
data between Windows 10 and a non-Microsoft operating system or on a local hard drive if you have
a PC with dual-boot configuration.
 Windows 10 supports three versions of FAT: FAT, FAT32, and exFAT.
 The main difference between the three versions is the size of the largest supported volume, the
default cluster size, and the maximum number of files and folders that you can create on the
volume.
 The following table lists the differences between the three FAT versions.

Attribute FAT FAT32 exFAT

Maximum volume size 4 gigabytes (GB) 32 GB 2 32 -1 clusters
Maximum file size 4 GB 4 GB 16 exabytes
Maximum files per volume 65536 4177920 Nearly unlimited
 Note: A cluster is the smallest unit of disk space that you can allocate to store a file.
 For example, if a volume cluster is 4 kilobytes (KB) and you store a file with a size of 100 bytes on
that volume, it will use one cluster, which is 4 KB.
 Note: The exFAT file system supports clusters from 512 bytes to 32 megabytes (MB).
 Additional Reading: For a detailed comparison between FAT and FAT32, refer to: ”FAT16 vs. FAT32”
at: http://aka.ms/i7wc50 Additional Reading: For more information about exFAT limitations, refer
to: “File System Functionality Comparison” at: http://aka.ms/q3z160
 When you compare any version of FAT with the NTFS file system, which is the default file system in
Windows 10, you will find that many NTFS features are not available with FAT, such as:
 Security. You cannot configure file permissions and limit user actions on a FAT volume.
 Any user has unlimited permissions to data stored on a FAT volume, which includes reading,
modifying, and deleting.
 You cannot limit user permissions to data that the FAT file system stores.
 Auditing. You cannot audit user actions on the FAT file system.
 For example, if a user deletes a file, Event Viewer will not log that action.
 Compression. The FAT file system does not support compression and each file uses its full original
size, rounded to the closest cluster size.
 You can use compression that is not file-system dependent on the FAT file system, such as
compressed (zipped) folders.
 Encryption. Encrypting File System (EFS) is not supported, and you cannot use it on ExFAT volumes.
 You can use encryption that is not file-system dependent, such as non-Microsoft Pretty Good Privacy
(PGP) solution.
 Disk Quota. The FAT file system does not support quotas.
 This means that you cannot limit the disk space that users can use on a FAT volume.
 Each user can store as much data as there is available space on the FAT volume.
 Note: Windows 10 adds support for encryption on FAT and FAT32 volumes.
 Note: You select a file system and cluster size when you format a volume.
 However, you cannot change the file system or cluster size that you are using on the volume.
 You can only perform a backup, and then reformat the volume with different parameters.
 The only exception is that you can convert FAT or FAT32 to NTFS file system.

Slide 6
The NTFS File System
 The NTFS file system is the default file system in Windows 10.
 The NTFS file system provides performance, reliability, and advanced features that are not available
in any version of FAT, including:
 Reliability. The NTFS file system uses log-file and checkpoint information to restore the consistency
of the file system when the computer restarts.
 In the event of a bad-sector error, the NTFS file system dynamically remaps the cluster that contains
the bad sector, and it allocates a new cluster for the data.
 The NTFS file system also marks the cluster as bad, and no longer uses it.
 Security. You can set permissions on a file, folder, or the entire NTFS volume, which enables you to
control which users, groups, or computers can read, modify, or delete data.
 You also can enable auditing to log activities on the NTFS volume.
 Data confidentiality. The NTFS file system supports EFS to protect file content.
 If you have enabled EFS, you can encrypt files and folders for use by single or multiple users.
 The benefits of encryption are data confidentiality and integrity, which can protect data against
malicious or accidental modification.
 Limit storage growth. The NTFS file system supports the use of disk quotas, which enable you to
specify the amount of disk space that is available to a user.
 When you enable disk quotas, you can track and control disk-space usage.
 You can configure whether to allow users to exceed their limits and configure Windows 10 to log an
event when a user exceeds a specified warning level or quota limit.
 Provide additional space.
 The NTFS file system allows you to create extra disk space by compressing files, folders, or whole
drives.
 You also can extend an NTFS volume by mounting an additional volume to an empty folder.
 Support for large volumes. You can format a volume up to 256 TB by using the NTFS file system with
a 64 KB cluster size.
 The NTFS file system supports larger files and a larger number of files per volume compared with
any FAT version.
 The NTFS file system also manages disk space efficiently by using smaller cluster sizes.
 For example, a 30-GB NTFS volume uses 4-KB clusters.
 The same volume formatted with FAT32 uses 16-KB clusters.
 Using smaller clusters reduces space wastage on hard disks.
 Advanced features. The NTFS file system includes multiple advanced features, such as distributed
link tracing, sparse files, and multiple data streams.
 Note: By using the Convert.exe utility, you can convert FAT or FAT32 to NTFS file system on data
volumes without downtime or data loss.
 You cannot convert NTFS to FAT.
 You first must back up data, and then format the volume by using the NTFS system and restore the
data.

Slide 7
The ReFS File System
 Windows Server 2012 introduced ReFS.
 It also is available in Windows 8.1,
 Windows Server 2012 R2, and in all newer Microsoft operating systems.
 ReFS is built on the NTFS file system, and it is designed to provide the highest level of resiliency,
integrity, and scalability, regardless of software or hardware failures.
 ReFS includes only some of NTFS features, such as security and auditing, but does not support
others, such as quota, compression, and EFS encryption.
 ReFS is especially useful for data volumes in multiterabyte (TB) file servers and for cluster-shared
volumes in failover clusters.
 ReFS includes the following benefits:
o ReFS is designed to provide the highest level of protection for data from common errors that
can cause corruption, such as unexpected loss of power or disk failure.
o If you use ReFS with redundant storage, which is mandatory in Windows 10, ReFS can detect
data corruption and automatically correct it by using a second copy of the data
o ReFS periodically scans volumes.
o If it detects corruption, ReFS tries to correct the corruption automatically.
o If it cannot repair the corruption automatically, ReFS localizes the salvaging process to the
corruption area.
o This does not require any downtime for the volume.
o ReFS supports extremely large volumes, even larger than the NTFS file system, without
impacting performance .
o ReFS volumes can have multiple petabytes of data and a theoretical size limit for ReFS volume
is 2^78 bytes.
o ReFS allows you to control file permissions and configure auditing as you would with the NTFS
file system.
o But several other NTFS features, such as compression, disk quotas, EFS, and volume shrinking,
are not available with ReFS volumes.
o Windows 10 provided limited support for ReFS.
o You can use it only with two-way or three-way storage spaces.
o You cannot format ReFS for nonmirrored storage spaces, such as simple or parity storage
spaces.
o Additional Reading: For more information on ReFS, refer to: “Resilient File System Overview”
at:http://aka.ms/m3p37a Additional Reading: For more information, refer to: “Building the
next generation file system for Windows: ReFS” at: http://aka.ms/al1zfa