A.2.3 NTFS
NTFS file system is the main file system for Windows NT/2000/XP. Its
structure is closed, so no other operating system fully supports. Main
structure of NTFS is the MFT (Master File Table). NTFS stores a copy of the
critical part of the MFT to reduce the possibility of data damage and loss. All
other NTFS data structures are special files.
Like FAT, NTFS uses clusters to store files, but cluster size does not depend
on partition size. NTFS is a 64-bit file system, it uses Unicode to store file
names. It is also a journaling (failure-protected) file system, and supports
compression and encryption.
Files in folders are indexed to speed up file search.
A.2.4 Linux Ext2
Ext2 is one of the main file systems for the Linux operating system. Ext2 is a
32-bit file system. Its maximum size is 16 terabytes. Main data structure that
describes a file is an i–node. A place to store the table of all i-nodes has to
be allocated in advance (during formatting).
A.2.5 Linux Ext3
Officially introduced with their version 7.2 of the Linux operating system,
Ext3 is the Red Hat Linux journaling file system. It is forward and backward
compatible with Linux ext2. It has multiple journaling modes and broad
cross-platform compatibility in both 32- and 64-bit architectures.
A.2.6 Linux ReiserFS
ReiserFS was officially introduced to Linux in 2001. ReiserFS frees many Ext2
disadvantages. It is a 64-bit journaling file system that dynamically allocates
space for data substructures.
38 Appendix A : Partitions and File Systems
