Minix: One of the oldest UNIX file systems, I believe it is also the most reliable, but lack of featured ability has limitations (up to 64MB per file system)
Ext: The old version of EXT2, and is not compatible. It is difficult to use the new version of the installer, most people are used to use EXT2. EXT2: Linux is the most common file system, which is easy to compatible
NFS: Network file system allows multiple computers to share file systems, easy to store files from all of these computers
FAT (File Allocation Table): The FAT file system began using MS-DOS in 1982, and has become a continuous improvement of MSDOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 9X, Windows NT / 2000 / XP, and OS / 2. Including the huge family of FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32. Mainly used by DOS and Windows. FAT can also be identified by Linux, OS / 2, Windows NT.
HPFS (High Performance File System) - IBM OS / 2 file system. Similar to NTFS, its security, reliability, speed and efficiency are much higher than the FAT system.
NTFS (NT File System): File System for Windows NT. It provides better security and reliability, faster data access, and less storage space, and even some people think it is the best file system today.
Wait a transaction log write method: It is a recuable file system. NTFS uses this mode to write files, with the speed of writing the security of the file system and the speed performance of the delay write file system.
Vfat (Virtual File Allocation Table) - This is the protection mode version of the FAT file system, which is used by Windows 95/98, compatible with the FAT system, the main difference is that this version supports long file names. The FAT32 (32-bit file allocation table is mainly used by the Windows 95/98 system. The FAT32 system breaks through many of the FAT systems, but can only be supported by very least operating system.
FAT is the simplest file system that is supported by Windows NT so far. The FAT file system is called File Allocation Table (FAT), in fact it is actually located on the top of the volume (partition). To protect the volume, two FATs are saved to prevent one of them being damaged. In addition, the FAT table and root directory must be saved in a fixed area to make the system boot file correctly.
The FAT directory structure is not organized, the file is saved to the first air area on the disk. In addition, FAT only supports read-only, hidden, system, and file archive properties.
The advantage of FAT is possible to perform a recovery operation in all file systems supported by Windows NT. The recovery tool tries to read the hardware directly, and this is not possible in Windows NT. However, if the file exists in a FAT partition, and the system is restarted under MS-DOS, the file can be recovered. The FAT file system is the best for a drive or partition of approximately 200M, because the overhead at FAT is very small.
The disadvantage of FAT is more possible, and when the drive or partition is greater than 200 MB, the FAT file system should not be used. This is because the performance of the FAT partition is rapidly decline as the capacity of the volume increases. It is impossible to set permissions to file settings in the FAT partition.
HPFS overview
The HPFS file system is first introduced with OS / 2 1.2, in order to obtain a better reading of a larger hard disk appearing on the market. In addition, it is necessary to use a new file system to extend naming system, organizational, and security for rapidly growing network service market demand. HPFS maintains the FAT directory structure, but adds an automatic directory index based on the file name. The file name is also extended to 254 double characters. HPFS also allows a file to be composed of "data" and special attributes, in order to increase flexibility in supporting other naming rules and security. In addition, the allocation unit also changes from the cluster into a physical sector (512 bytes), which can reduce disk waste. In addition, HPFS also includes two unique special data sizes: Super block, super block, located logical 16 sector, and includes a pointer to root directory FNODE. One of the most dangerous hazards using HPFS is that the super block is lost or damaged due to a bad sector, the content in the partition is true, both of which make the rest of the disk are good. If you copy everything to another 16th sector is a good disk, then rebuild the hyper block, this is possible to recover data, but this will be a very complex task.
The spare block standby block is located in the logical 17 sector, including a table containing "Hot Fixes" and an alternate directory block. Under HPFS, when a bad sector is detected, the "thermal repair" expression is logically point to an existing good sector instead of the bad sector. This technology used to process write errors is called hot fixes.
Hot Repair is a repair technology for the wrong residents due to bad sectors, and the file system moves the contents in the bad sector to another and mark the original sector. All of this is transparent to any program that is performing disk input / output (I / O) (ie: applications never know the hard disk problem). Using a file system that supports thermal repair does not generate error information when encountering a bad sector, Note: The HPFS version included in Windows NT is not supported.
The disadvantage of HPFS cannot set security in HPFS under Windows NT.
NTFS Overview From the perspective of the user, NTFS still has the file organization to the indexed directory, just like in HPFS. However, unlike FAT and HPFS, there is no "special" data on the disk and no longer rely on basic hardware characteristics, such as 512 bytes of sectors. In addition, there is no specific location on the disk, such as a super block for the FAT table and HPFS.
The purpose of NTFS is to provide the following characteristics: reliability, which is very important for advanced terminal systems and file servers; an additional functional platform supports POSIX demand; remove the restriction of FAT and HPFS file systems
Reliability: In order to ensure NTFS reliability, three main aspects are involved: recovery capabilities, exclude severe single sector failure and hot repair. NTFS is a recoverable file system, just like the HPFS version in OS / 2, NTFS supports thermal repair. The added functional NTFS provides a platform that can be used by other file systems. In addition, NTFS fully supports the security model of Windows NT and also supports multi-file streams. A data file is no longer just a data stream.
Elimination limits First, greatly increase the capacity of files and volumes, so they can now reach 2 ^ 64 bytes (16 EXA bytes or 18, 446, 744, 073, 709, 551, 616 bytes). NTFS also returns to the cluster concept in the FAT to prevent problems caused by fixed sector capacity in HPFS. This is achievable because Windows NT is a portable operating system and different disk technology may encounter in some case. Therefore, each sector 512 byte is considered to be probably not a very suitable allocation. This is achieved by relying on the cluster as a few times the size of the own allocation size of the hardware. Finally, all file names in NTFs are based on Unicode, and the 8.3 file name is reserved with the long file name. NTFS Advantage NTFS is the best application for volumes greater than or equal to 400MB. Because the performance of NTFS will not fall, it is so that it has a greater capacity.
Restability designed in NTFS allows users to use any disk repair tools in NTFS partitions.
NTFS Disadvantages: No encirclement in NTFS yet
Currently, there is no encryption in NTFS in NTFS (in fact, NTFS 5.0 included in Windows 2000 has supported encrypted).
