How to find information about the file system. File system of the computer. Logical disk file structure

Sooner or later, a novice computer user is faced with such a concept as a file system (FS). As a rule, first acquaintance with this term occurs when formatting a storage medium: logical drives and plug-in media (flash drives, memory cards, external hDD).

Before formatting operating system Windows offers to choose the type of file system on the media, cluster size, formatting method (fast or full). Let's see what a file system is and what is it for?

All information is recorded on the medium in a form that must be arranged in a certain order, otherwise the operating system and programs will not be able to operate with the data. This order organizes the file system using certain algorithms and rules for placing files on the media.

When a program needs a file on disk, it doesn't need to know how and where it is stored. All that is required of the program is to know the name of the file, its size and attributes in order to transfer this data to the file system, which will provide access to the desired file... The same happens when writing data to a medium: the program transmits information about the file (name, size, attributes) to the file system, which saves it according to its own specific rules.

For a better understanding, imagine a librarian handing out a book by title to a client. Or in reverse order: the client gives the read book to the librarian, who places it back into storage. The client does not need to know at all where and how the book is stored, this is the responsibility of the employee of the institution. The librarian knows the rules for cataloging the library and, according to these rules, searches for the publication or places it back, i.e. performs its official functions. IN this example a library is a medium, a librarian is a file system, a client is a program.

The main functions of the file system

The main functions of the file system are:

• placement and ordering on the data carrier in the form of files;
• determination of the maximum supported amount of data on the storage medium;
• creating, reading and deleting files;
• assignment and modification of file attributes (size, creation and modification time, owner and creator of the file, read-only, hidden file, temporary file, archive, executable, maximum file name length, etc.);
• defining the file structure;
• organization of directories for the logical organization of files;
• file protection in case of system failure;
• protection of files from unauthorized access and changes in their content.

Information recorded on a hard disk or any other medium is placed there on the basis of a cluster organization. A cluster is a kind of cell of a certain size, in which the entire file or part of it fits.

If the file is a cluster size, then it occupies only one cluster. If the file size exceeds the cell size, then it is placed in several cluster cells. Moreover, free clusters may not be located next to another, but be scattered over the physical surface of the disk. Such a system allows the most efficient use of space when storing files. The task of the file system is to optimally decompose the file during writing into free clusters, as well as to collect it during reading and give it to the program or the operating system.

Types of file systems

In the process of evolution of computers, storage media and operating systems, a large number of file systems appeared and disappeared. In the process of such an evolutionary selection, today the following types of FS are mainly used to work with hard drives and external drives (flash drives, memory cards, external hard drives, CDs):

1. FAT32
2. ISO9660

The last two systems are designed to work with CDs. File systems Ext3 and Ext4 work with operating systems on linux based... NFS Plus is a file system for OS X operating systems used in Apple computers.

The most widespread file systems are NTFS and FAT32 and this is not surprising, since they are designed for the Windows operating systems that run the vast majority of the world's computers.

Now FAT32 is being actively supplanted by the more advanced NTFS system due to its greater reliability in terms of data safety and protection. In addition, the latest versions of Windows will simply not allow themselves to be installed if the partition hard disk will be formatted to FAT32. The installer will ask you to format the partition to NTFS.

The NTFS file system supports disks of hundreds of terabytes and a single file up to 16 terabytes.

The FAT32 file system supports drives up to 8 terabytes and a single file size up to 4 GB. Most often, this FS is used on flash drives and memory cards. It is in FAT32 that format external drives at the factory.

However, the 4GB file size limit is already a big disadvantage today. Due to the proliferation of high quality video, the movie file size will exceed this limit and will not be able to be recorded on media.

Today we take a look into the jungle of the WindowsXP file system. What is a file system is the organization of storing your files on your hard (or any other disk). On different types disks in different operating systems create a different file system.

On hard drives these are FAT, FAT32, NTFS. On CD-DVD discs - UDF and others. Other operating systems (OS) such as Linux and MacOC use their own file systems.

FAT - one of the very first and now dying out file system, is now used only on floppy disks.

FAT32 - more reliable, but also rare now, on old computers with Windows95, 98, and also on flash cards. File size limitation is 2 gigabytes, a file with a large size cannot be written to a disc with the FAT32 file system.

NTFS - it is used in WindowsXP and Vista, supports files of almost any size, has a system of indexing data on the disk, as a result of which, if the disk fails, the data is fully recovered. If you work in WindowsXP and still use the FAT32 file system, then immediately change it to NTFS, and 90% of your computer's crashes and freezes will be resolved!

How to find out what OS you have? As easy as pie!

Left-click (LMB) the "Start" button in the lower left part of the Desktop (screen), a menu will open on the left side, which will display the name of your OS (for example: Windows XP Home Edition).

It happens that nothing is written there ...

Then find on the desktop a shortcut (picture) with the inscription "My Computer" (if not on the desktop, that is, in the "Start" menu), click on it right click mouse (RMB), a context menu will drop out, find "Properties" in it and click on them with LMB. The "System Properties" window will open (each window has its own name, it is written at the very top of the window, in its "header", also if you "grab" the window header and do not release the button, then the window can be moved entirely in any direction). Here you will see which Operating System you have.

How do you know what file system you have?

Open Explorer or Total Commander or just double click on "My Computer".
Then we select one of the drives, check everything, so we select the C: drive and right-click on it. Select (ie, click LMB) on "Properties" and see a window that says "Type" of the disk and "File system" of the disk.

So, you have WindowsXP OS but FAT32 file system.

How to change FAT32 to NTFS?

Very simple! ( Attention!!! The following procedure can only be performed on a computer with an operating windows system XP).

First, close all open windows on the desktop and those that have been minimized to the bottom panel.
We click LMB "Start", select "Run", and in the "Run Program" window that appears in the "Open" field, enter the following line:

convert c: / fs: ntfs

Click the "Ok" button. A window will open.
Next, when asked to turn off the volume, you put "Y" and press Enter.

Conversion can take from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the size of the disc. This procedure repeat with all other logical drives on the hard drive. When converting, the data on the disk (music, movies, pictures) is not affected and is not deleted anywhere. Don't be afraid nothing will be lost. CD and DVD discs cannot be converted.

Now you have solved 90% of your computer's failures, fewer freezes, and also secured your data on your hard disk from "accidental" disappearance for no reason at all (only if you do not accidentally delete it yourself) ....

The topic of GPT and MBR disk partition tables became relevant after the distribution of computers and laptops with preinstalled Windows 10 and 8. In this manual, there are two ways to find out which partition table, GPT or MBR a disk (HDD or SSD) has - by means of the operating system, and when installing Windows on a computer (i.e. without loading the OS). All methods can be used in Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7.

You may also find useful materials related to converting a disk from one partition table to another and solving typical problems caused by a partition table that is not supported under the current configuration: (and vice versa), about errors during Windows installation:,.

To use this method, you can either in Windows, or press Shift + F10 (on some laptops Shift + Fn + F10) during windows installations from a disk or flash drive to open the command line.

IN command line enter the commands in order:

• diskpart
• list disk
• exit

Notice the last column in the output of the list disk command. If there is a mark (asterisk) there, then this disk has a GPT partition style, those disks that do not have such a mark are MBR (usually MBR, since there may be other options, for example, the system cannot determine what kind of disk it is ).

How to find out MBR or GPT disk in Windows PowerShell

Another way is to use Windows PowerShell and the command to get information about drives: (from Administrator or not - it doesn't matter) and enter the command:

Get-Disk | ft -Auto

As a result, in the table you will receive information about the disks of your computer or laptop, including the structure of the partitions in the last column:

Indirect signs for determining the structure of partitions on disks

Well, some additional ones that do not give guarantees, but are useful as additional information signs that let you know if a GPT or MBR disk is in use on your computer or laptop.

When you format a hard drive or flash drive, you prepare it for the operating system to store information. During formatting, all information is removed and a clean file system is installed.

You may have heard of the FAT or NTFS file system, but do you know which one is used on your system? This article explains how the file system works and what are the differences between different file systems. I will also show you how to find out what file systems are in use on your disks.

What is a file system?

Disk space is divided into sectors, each of which is approximately 512 bytes in size. Sectors are grouped into clusters. Clusters, also called allocators, range in size from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes, since they are usually made up of multiple sectors. Clusters are contiguous blocks of disk space.

Operating systems rely on file system for organizing cluster storage of information. The file system is a database that contains information about the state of each cluster. In fact, the file system tells the operating system which cluster (or clusters) the file is stored in, and where new data can be written.

What file systems should you be aware of?

Basically, Windows OS uses the FAT (File Allocation Table), FAT32 and NTFS (New Technology File System) file systems.

In short, NTFS can store files larger than 4 GB, and partitions can be larger than 32 GB. NTFS manages better free spacethan the FAT or FAT32 file system, and therefore less disk fragmentation. NTFS also supports several security features, including on-the-fly file encryption.

Compared to NTFS, file fAT systems and FAT32 adapt to less space, work less hard with the hard drive, and therefore run faster with small flash drives. In addition, FAT and FAT32 are cross-platform file systems. The biggest drawbacks of FAT and FAT32 are the 32 GB partition size limit, and the 2 GB and 4 GB file size limit, respectively.

To store information on flash drives, a new file exFAT system (Extended File Allocation Table), also known as FAT64. Like NTFS, it supports files larger than 4 GB and partitions larger than 32 GB, and its file management system avoids disk fragmentation. At the same time, it is fast, optimized for mobile media and handling media files.

What operating systems work with these file systems?

FAT and FAT32 are read / write available on almost all operating systems. Previously, formatting a disk for the NTFS file system was the right way make it inoperable outside of Windows. However, now NTFS read / write support is built into many linux distributions... There is also a hack that allows you to work with this file system in Mac OS X version 10.6, although it seems to be unstable, so it is recommended to use MacFuse. On the other hand, exFAT requires the installation of drivers on both Windows XP and Linux and is supported latest versions Windows (Vista SP1, Windows 7, 8) and Mac OS X.

Why is cluster size important?

If you have already formatted the disk, you should be aware that you can choose the cluster size (or allocation block size).

Depending on the cluster size (from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes), the file can be stored in one or hundreds or thousands of clusters. When the file size is smaller than the cluster size, the remaining space is wasted. This phenomenon is called "lost space". Consequently, storing many small files on a disk with a large cluster size will result in large amounts of wasted space. On the other hand, if we choose a small cluster size, large files will be fragmented into many small pieces, which can slow down disk operations, since it will take more time to read the corresponding file. In other words, be smart about the cluster size.

How can I find out the type of file system on a disk?

The file system is listed in the disk properties. Go to My Computer, right-click on desired disk and further into context menu select Properties. In the General tab, in the File system line ( File system) you will see the file system type.

To find out the cluster size for a disk with NTFS file system, use the key combination + [R], the Run window will open. Make sure you are logged in as a user with administrative rights. In the Run Program window, type cmd in the text box and click OK. Then enter the command\u003e fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo and press Enter.

On Windows XP and Windows 7, you can also view and resize the cluster using third-party applications such as.

What file system do you prefer to use on disks and why? Have you encountered problems using the NTFS file system, and how did you solve these problems?

The file system allows you to organize programs and data and organize the orderly management of these objects.

On operating systems personal computers has left a deep mark on the concept of the filesystem underlying the Unix OS. On Unix, the I / O subsystem unifies the way to access both files and peripherals... In this case, a file is understood as a set of data on a disk, terminal or some other device.

File system Is a functional part of the operating system that provides operations on files. The file system allows you to work with files and directories (directories) regardless of their content, size, type, etc.

File system Is a data management system.

A data management system is a system where users are exempt from most physical file manipulation operations and can focus primarily on the logical properties of the data.

OS file systems create for users some virtual representation of external storage devices, allowing them to work with them not at a low level of control commands physical devicesand on high level sets and data structures.

File system (destination):

• hides the picture of the real location of information in external memory;
• ensures the independence of programs from the peculiarities of a specific computer configuration (logical level of working with files);
• provides standard responses to communication errors.

File structure

The entire collection of files on disk and the relationships between them is called the file structure. Developed operating systems have a hierarchical - multilevel file structure organized in the form of a tree.

A tree-like directory structure is used - directory tree. Borrowed from Unix. Hierarchical structure - the structure of the system, parts (components) of which are connected by relations of inclusion or subordination.

The hierarchical structure is depicted by a oriented tree, in which vertices correspond to components, and arcs correspond to links.

directory tree of drive G

A directed tree is a graph with a selected vertex (root) in which there is only one path between the root and any vertex. In this case, two variants of orientation are possible: either all paths are oriented from the root to the leaves, or all paths are oriented from the leaves to the root.

Trees are used to describe and design hierarchical structures.

The root is the starting position, the leaves are the final position.

Sections

During the formatting process, any hard or magneto-optical disk can be divided into several parts and work with them as with separate (independent) disks. These parts are called sections or logical drives... Partitioning a disk into several logical disks may be necessary because the OS cannot handle disks that are larger than a certain size. It is very convenient to keep data and user programs separate from system programs (OS), because the OS can "fly off the computer".

Section - disk area. Under logical disk (partition) in a computer is meant any storage medium with which the operating system works as a single whole object.

Disk name - designation logical drive; entry in the root directory.

Logical disks (partitions) are designated by Latin letters A, B, C, D, E, … (32 letters from A to Z).

The letters A, B are reserved for floppy disks.

C is the hard drive from which the OS is usually loaded.

The rest of the letters are logical drives, CDs, etc. The maximum number of logical drives for Windows is infinite.

IN partition table indicates the location of the beginning and end of this section and the number of sectors in this section (location and size).

Logical disk file structure

To access information on a disk in a file, you need to know the physical address of the first sector (surface no. + Track no. + Sector no.), The total number of clusters occupied by this file, the address of the next cluster if the file size is larger than the size of one cluster

File structure elements:

starting sector (boot sector, Boot sector);

table placementfiles (FAT - File Allocation Table);

root directory (Root Directory);

data area (remaining free disk space).

Boot-sector

Boot-sector - the first (initial) sector of the disk. Located on the 0-side, 0-track.

Boot sector contains service information:

disk cluster size (cluster is a block that combines several sectors into a group to reduce the size of the FAT table);

location of the FAT table (in the oot sector there is a pointer to where the FAT table is located);

the size of the FAT table;

the number of FAT tables (there are always at least 2 copies of the table to ensure reliability and security, since destruction of FAT leads to loss of information and is difficult to recover);

the address of the beginning of the root directory and its maximum size.

The boot sector contains the boot block (bootloader) - boot record Boot Record.

Boot Loader - A utility program that places an executable program in rAM and brings it to a state of readiness for execution.

FAT (File Allocation Table)

FAT (File Allocation Table) - file allocation table. It defines which sections of the disk belong to each file. The data area of \u200b\u200bthe disk is represented in the OS as a sequence of numbered clusters.

FAT Is an array of elements addressing clusters of the disk's data area. Each cluster of the data area corresponds to one FAT element. FAT elements serve as a chain of references to file clusters in the data area.

File Allocation Table Structure:

FAT consists of 16/32/64-bit elements. In total, the table can contain up to 65520 such elements, each of them (except for the first two) corresponds to a disk cluster. A cluster is the unit in which space is allocated in the data area on disk for files and directories. The first two table entries (numbered 0 and 1) are reserved, and each of the other table entries describes the state of the disk cluster with the same number. The item can indicate that the cluster is free, that the cluster is defective, that the cluster belongs to the file and is the last cluster in the file. If the cluster belongs to a file and is not its last cluster, then the table entry contains the number of the next cluster in this file.

FAT Is an extremely important element of the file structure. Violations in FAT can lead to complete or partial loss of information on the entire logical disk. That is why two copies of the FAT are stored on the disk. Exists special programsthat monitor the state of FAT and correct violations.

Different operating systems require different versions FAT

Windows 95 FAT 16, FAT 32

Windows NT (XP) NTFS

Novell Netware TurboFAT

UNIX NFS, ReiserFS

The logical structure of the storage medium