wanted to know more about HD

[dafunkymunky]

hi guys

can somebody please explain me what these fat32 and filesystem is all about

[Kotik]

FAT which stand for File Allocating System is a way for the hard disk to remember where different packages of a file is on the hard disk.

A single file in windows can be scattared all around the hard disk in different small pieces. So this FAT32 or NTFS (NT Fat system) stores in what order these files are on the hard disk and where they are.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[webmaster]

The maximum partition size with FAT32 is only 32GB, NTFS supports partitions to up to 2TB.

Another thing with NTFS is that if some sector gets damages, it automatically moves the data from that sector to another that's working.

[Kotik]

What happens with that bad sector? Do you just loose space or what?

[webmaster]

What happens with that bad sector? Do you just loose space or what?

Yes I think so.

[Phate]

Only until you format the HD

[webmaster]

I think we will se alot of new things in the harddrive market the this year. Look at this for exaple: link

[dafunkymunky]

anyone here knows more about how this is done
and is ntfs the linux thing if not what does linux use
and is the data in a hard disk stored continuously or is it some random order

[Kotik]

anyone here knows more about how this is done
and is ntfs the linux thing if not what does linux use
and is the data in a hard disk stored continuously or is it some random order

I think it is ext2 if I remember correct. It was quite sometime ago I tried installing linux gentoo and failed miserably :p

[overmeer]

The maximum partition size with FAT32 is only 32GB, NTFS supports partitions to up to 2TB.

This is not entirely true, the 32GB limit is imposed by microsoft (give them a hug) to force you to use NTFS, it's a software limit in Windows XP, you cannot create partition larger the 32GB and they act like you cannot access larger onces either but you can. If you set up a FAT32 partition outside of Windows XP or with third party tools it works just fine.

As far as I know FAT32 has a 8TB limit, but the practical one is 2TB, also there are problems on windows 95/98/me with partitions larger then 127 or 137 GB

On other operating systems there is no problem creating and using for example a 250GB FAT32 partition.

small note: FAT16 has a limit of 2GB, and I think NTFS in theory can be 256TB, but again practically it's mostly 2TB.

edit:If you have/repair bad sectors you loose space and you loose whatever info is in that sector

anyone here knows more about how this is done
and is ntfs the linux thing if not what does linux use
and is the data in a hard disk stored continuously or is it some random order

edit2: , yes linux usually uses either EXT2, EXT3 or ReiserFS (very good IMO), or even FAT32. There are many other Filesystems. NTFS is purely M$ and they dont share with the other children.

'How it's done' that depends on what OS you are using, there are many tools to do this, Usually some tool (like FDISK) ships with the OS, but there are many.

Data is not stored 'randomly', but 'not continuously' , It's not like the OS just chucks it randomly away, but it does not store them contiously either, one file can be spread out in various locations (fragmented)

[Malcolm]

Well, you cannot use FAT32 for anything major in linux, as FAT32 doesn't support the UNIX permission system.

To add to the list of filesystems:
ext2 - OLD and very curruptable, use only for read-only purposes

ext3 - like ext2 but this is a journaling filesystem. If you power off your system mid-copy you should be able o retreave all your files after a rebuilding scan

reiserfs - this is the reiser filesystem version 3. amazing journaling (see above) filesystem with crazy speed. Also allows you to get rid os slack-space*

reiser4 - same as above with alot of speed improvements _AND_ the ability to make any file/folder in your computer into an OOP-like object!

xfs - haven't really used it personally. I hear its very fast, has meta-data journaling...

jfs - IBM's journaling filesystem. It's kinda new and I haven't touched it.

swap - With this you can make your kernel think you have more ram

Lastly about fragmentation - all UNIX based filesystems have a check inplace to fix this crap. Microsoft, amazingly enough, can't make a good filesystem. Good filesystems correct fragmentation on their own. Try to search for a UNIX based defrag utility, you won't find one - well maybe you'll find one for FAT/FAT32 partitions