Basics of Windows File System

Many of us are not new to MS Windows. In fact most of us are probably reading this article on a MS Windows platform. I’m writing this article on one now. It isn’t difficult to know what operating systems we use, the CPU speed, the RAM size or the size of the hard drive (if you’re having trouble with them, drop us an email and we’ll see if we can help you.). These information are the homework that needs to be done before making a laptop or desktop purchase.

This article today goes a little beyond the surface. If you ever tried to format a disk drive, you probably know what I’m referring to. We’ll have a look at the basics of the MS Windows file system which many are not aware of.

There are 2 types (I’ll touch on the common ones) of file systems in MS Windows namely the FAT32 and NTFS. Have a look below for and determine what suits your environment.

FAT32 File System

FAT stands for File Allocation Table. For now, we just need to know FAT32 is an enhanced version of FAT. You can usually find FAT32 installed on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 (yes it does support). However you won’t find it on Windows NT (legacy server OS) or the Microsoft server series. Characteristics of FAT32 include the partition size limit of 2TB (terabytes!) and a file size limit of 4GB. Not to worry though, I’ve hardly came across any single file that huge.

NTFS File System

NTFS stands for New Technology File System. NTFS can usually be found in Windows 2000, Windows XP (depending on how the operating system is formatted) and the Microsoft server series. It is much more reliable than FAT32, allowing to recover from problems without resulting in data loss and thus improving fault tolerance. It also boasts better storage efficiency than the FAT32 does.

FAT32 Partition Limitations in Windows

I mentioned earlier FAT32 has a 2TB partition limit. That’s true. This limit is imposed from Microsoft whereby no partitions greater than 4GB can be created using Microsoft’s partition tool. Which means you won’t be able to maximize you 500GB hard drive storage to its max.

Nevertheless, you will still be able to make use of 3rd party tools (non-Microsoft) to achieve the full disk drive utilization.

NTFS and Security

I feel that the main reason for server deployment using NTFS is due to the security feature which FAT32 doesn’t possess. You can set file and folder security controlling what authorized users can see and can’t see. This can’t be achieved with FAT32 partitionied file systems. Besides servers NTFS can be deployed on desktops running Windows 2000, XP and Vista. When installing the operating system, have it to format to NTFS.

Usage

NTFS plays a more significant role in a work environment. It’s relatively simple to manage file and folder accessibility once you get the hang of it. For a simple users, it’s really fine having the Windows file system on FAT32 if it’s just meant for web surfing and simple word processing. Even so if the computer is shared between family members.

The above article is written layman for users to illustrate the basics of what we need to know about the basics of Windows file system. What’s you take on this? Leave me a comment.