File Systems Overview


A file system is the structure in which files are named, stored, and organized. File systems supported by Windows XP Professional include FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS. You can use any combination of these file systems on a hard disk, but each volume on a hard disk can be formatted by using only one file system. When choosing the appropriate file system to use, you need to determine the following:

How the computer is used (dedicated to Windows XP Professional or multiple-boot)

On computers that contain multiple operating systems, file system compatibility becomes more complex because different versions of Windows support different combinations of file systems.

The number and size of locally installed hard disks

Each file system has a different maximum volume size. As volume sizes increase, your choice of file systems becomes limited. For example, to create volumes larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in Windows XP Professional, you must use NTFS.

Security considerations

NTFS offers security features, such as encryption and file and folder permissions. These features are not available on FAT volumes.

Interest in using advanced file system features

NTFS offers features such as disk quotas, distributed link tracking, compression, and mounted drives. These features are not available on FAT volumes.




Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 2003
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 2003
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 338

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