File system & introduction to

Disk Management
File system
What is File System?
• A file system or filesystem is used to control how data is stored and
retrieved.
• Without a file system, information placed in a storage medium would
be one large body of data with no way to tell where one piece of
information stops and the next begins.
• By separating the data into pieces and giving each piece a name, the
information is easily isolated and identified.
• Data is divided into further groups, each group of data is called a
"file".
What is File System?
• Any computer file is stored on a storage with given capacity.
• Actually, each storage is a linear space for reading or both reading and
writing digital information.
• Each byte of information on the storage has its own offset from the
storage start (address) and is referenced by this address.
• A storage can be presented as a grid with a set of numbered cells (each
cell is a single byte). Any file that is saved to the storage gets these
cells.
Sector
• Computer storages use a pair of sector and in-sector offset to
reference any byte of information on the storage. A sector is a group
of bytes (usually 512 bytes), a minimum addressable unit of the
physical storage.
• Example, byte 1040 on a hard disk will be referenced as a
sector #3 and offset in sector 16 bytes ([sector]+[sector]+[16 bytes]).
• This scheme is applied to optimize storage addressing and to use a
smaller number to reference any portion of information on the storage.
File system… Definition
• A file system is a structured data representation and a set
of metadata describing the stored data. A file system serves for the
purposes of the whole storage and it is also a part of an isolated
storage segment – a disk partition.
• A file system operates blocks, not sectors. File system blocks are
groups of sectors that optimize storage addressing. Modern file
systems generally use block sizes from 1 to 128 sectors (512-65536
bytes).
• Files are usually stored at the start of a block and take entire blocks.
Types of file system
• Microsoft Windows OS uses two major file systems:
1. FAT
2. NTFS

• Recently released file system by Microsoft

1. ReFS
FAT
• FAT (File Allocation Table) is one of the simplest types of file systems.
• It consists of a file system descriptor sector (boot sector or
superblock), a file system block allocation table (referred as File
Allocation Table) and plain storage space to store files and folders.
• Files on FAT are stored in directories. Each directory is an array
of 32-byte records, each defining file or file extended attributes (a long
file name)
• File record attributes the first block of a file. Any next block can be
found through a block allocation table by using it as a linked list.
• Block allocation table contains an array of block descriptors.
• Zero value indicates that the block is not used and non-zero relates to
the next block of the file or a special value for file end.
Different versions of FAT.
• There are 3 main different versions of FAT.
1. FAT12
2. FAT16
3. FAT32
• The numbers in FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 stand for the number of bits
used to enumerate a file system block. This means that FAT12 can use
up to 4096 different block references, while FAT16 and FAT32 can
use up to 65536 and 4294967296 accordingly.
• The actual maximum count of blocks is even less and depends on the
implementation of a file system driver.
Different versions of FAT.
• FAT12 was used for old floppy disks.
• FAT16 (or simply FAT) and FAT32 are widely used for flash memory
cards and USB flash sticks.
• The system is supported by mobile phones, digital cameras and other portable
devices.
• FAT16 or FAT32 is a file system that is used on Windows-compatible
external storages or disk partitions with the size under 2GB (for
FAT16) or 32GB (for FAT32).
NTFS:
• NTFS (New Technology File System) was introduced in Windows NT and
currently it is a major file system for Windows.
• This is the default file system for disk partitions and the only file system that
supports disk partitions over 32GB.
• The file system is quite extensible and supports many file properties,
including access control, encryption etc.
• Each file on NTFS is stored as a file descriptor in a Master File Table and file
content.
• A Master file table contains all information about the file: size, allocation, name
etc.
• The first and the last sectors of the file system contain file system settings (boot
record or superblock).
• This file system uses 48 and 64 bit values to reference files, thus, supporting disk
storages with high capacity.
ReFS:
• ReFS (Resilient File System) is the latest development of Microsoft currently available for Windows 8/12
Servers.
• The file system architecture absolutely differs from other Windows file systems and is mainly organized in a
form of a B+-tree.
Assignment # 2
How ReFS is different from other File system and how it is organized in B+ -tree formate
&
How to apply permissions on nested folder and files?
Assignment due date 10-12-2021
• ReFS has high tolerance to failures due to new features included into the system.
• Copy-on-Write (CoW): no metadata is modified without being copied; data is not written over the existing
data, but into new disk space. With any file modifications, a new copy of metadata is stored into free storage
space, and then the system creates a link from older metadata to the newer one.
• the system stores significant quantity of older backups in different places providing easy file recovery unless
this storage space is overwritten.
Introduction to Disk Management
Disk Management
• Disk Management is an extension of the Microsoft Management
Console that allows full management of the disk-
based hardware recognized by Windows.
• Disk Management is used to manage the drives installed in a computer
- like hard disk drives (internal and external), optical disk drives,
and flash drives. It can be used to partition drives, format drives,
assign drive letters, and much more.
• Disk Management is an extension of the Microsoft Management
Console that allows full management of the disk-
based hardware recognized by Windows.
Disk management
• Disk Management is
a Microsoft Windows utility first
introduced in Windows XP as a
replacement for the fdisk
command.
• It enables users to view and manage
the disk drives installed in their
computer and
the partitions associated with those
drives.
• Each drive is displayed followed by
the layout, type, file system, status,
capacity, free space, and % free.
How to open Disk Management
• Disk management can be open in
different ways.
Way 1
• Click the Start button and access
the Run option. You can also
press Windows key + R on the
keyboard to open the Run option.
• Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.
• Tip: In Windows 8, you can type
"diskmgmt.msc" directly on the Start
screen to access Disk Management.
Way 2
• Open the Control Panel.
• Double-click on Administrative
Tools if in Classic View or
click Performance and
Maintenance and
then Administrative Tools if in
Category View. Note: If you do not
have admin rights to the computer this
will not be available.
• Once in the Administrative Tools
window double-click Computer
Management and then click Disk
Management under the Storage
section.
How to Use Disk Management
Disk Management has two main sections - a top and a bottom:
I. The top section of Disk Management contains a list of all the
partitions, formatted or not, that Windows recognizes.
II. The bottom section of Disk Management contains a graphical
representation of the physical drives installed in the computer.

Performing certain actions on the drives or partitions make them

available or unavailable to Windows and configures them to be used by
Windows in certain ways.
common things in Disk Management:
Here are some common things that you can do in Disk Management:
Partition a Drive
Format a Drive
Change a Drive's Letter
Shrink a Partition
Delete a Partition
Change a Drive's File System
Disk Management Availability
• Disk Management is available in most versions of Microsoft Windows
including Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows
Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.

• Note: Even though Disk Management is available in multiple

Windows operating systems, some small differences in the utility do
exist from one Windows version to the next.
Features of Disk Management
• The Disk Management tool has a graphical interface like a regular program
• command line utility diskpart, which was a replacement of an earlier utility
called fdisk.
• Disk Management can be used to check free hard drive space.
• It can be used to see the total storage capacity of all the disks ,which is
expressed in units (i.e. MB and GB) as well as a percentage.
• Disk Management is where you can create and attach virtual hard disk files
in Windows 10 and Windows 8.
• To build a virtual disk file with the VHD file extension, use the Action >
Create VHD menu. Opening one is done through the Attach VHD option.
Alternatives to Disk Management
1. Some free disk partitioning tools let you perform most of the same
tasks supported in Disk Management but without even needing to
open Microsoft's tool at all.
2. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free, for instance, lets you make a
bunch of changes to your disks to see how they'll affect the sizes,
etc., and then you can apply all the changes at once after you're
satisfied.
• some of them are even easier to use than Disk Management.
End of Lecture