File System Management In Microsoft Operating System

File System management

What is a File System management?

From the user’s point of view, one of the most important parts of an operating system is the file System. Computer uses special type of file systems to store and organize data on HDD, CD, DVD and Flash Drives. Operating systems provide its own file management system. The file System is a mechanism which allows a user to organize files into some sort of suitable arrangement so that they can be referred to by a meaningful name. So this is the method and data structures that operating Systems use to keep track of files on above devices or partition.

Elements of the file management

How file System management is implemented in Microsoft Operating Systems

Windows

• Windows also allows much longer names up to 255 characters in a file name, subject to an overall maximum of 260 characters in a complete pathname.

File attributes

• File attributes are settings associated with computer files that grant or deny certain rights to how an operating system can entree that file. Microsoft Windows have capabilities of having read, collection, system, and hidden attributes.

Read-Only: The file cannot be opened for writing. A Read-Only files will not avoid it from being deleted.

Hidden: files marked with this attribute will be hidden from view under normal viewing conditions.

System: A file or directory used exclusively by the operating system which should not be changed or deleted. If set, the file is a System file.

Directory: Directory is tagged to folders or sub-folders to differentiate them from files.

Archive: backup utilities can use this bit to identify recently modified files, and reset it after a backup copy of the file has been

Symbolic links < 60 characters stored within inode.

4. Compatible with ext2fs.

5. Maximum filename length is 255bytes.

Naming Files, Paths

• There is a program called 'space.exe' in user’s /usr/storage/bin directory that goes out and checks on how full all user’s disks and partitions are, and inform the results back to user’s terminal. To execute that program operator might have to type /usr/storage/bin/space which is a pain because it requires extra typing and user have to remember where the program is.

• UNIX stores lists of program locations in a PATH variable.

Example – /usr/local/bin:/usr/storage/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin/:/bin

• when a command is entered, UNIX searches these directories and will execute the first command it finds, so if user type 'space' on a command line and there is a space program in /usr/local/bin then ‘space.exe’ will be executed.

• UNIX uses the character ‘/’ as a path separator character to separate the components of the pathnames, it also uses by itself as the name of the root directory.

• UNIX Operating System is designed for use by more than one user, so there should be a technique to keep each user’s files separate. So, there is an option which is known as the user’s Home