How to find out your file system. Basics of Windows XP File System

How to determine the type of file system?

Master's answer:

Usually, the user knows the installed operating system on the computer and the file system used. But it may be necessary to determine the type of file system. Usually it occurs if you sit down to work for someone else's computer.

The method of organizing and storing data on different media information, including hard disks, defines the file system. There are many different file systems. The most common file systems for Windows operating systems are: NTFS, FAT16, FAT32. For the Linux operating system and for UNIX - EXT2 and EXT3.

The type of file system can be found in different ways. One of the ways (the easiest) - you need to open "My Computer", select the disk that you are interested in, right-click on it and in the menu that opens, select "Properties". A window will open in which the type and file system of the disk will be written. For example, the Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems will show the NTFS file system.

If you have a non-working computer that refuses to load, then information about its disks can be viewed using the Acronis DiCK Director program. Its launch occurs directly from the CD. In order to select the download from the disk after the start, press F12, the download device selection window opens. There are computers on which the boot window call is performed by other keys.

Now select the download from the CD and press the ENTER key. A menu appears in which you want to select Acronis DiCK Director. After downloading, the program window will appear. In it you will see a computer discs with the type of file systems. The Acronis Dick Director utility is a very convenient program that makes it possible to break the discs you need and format them in the desired file system. With the help of the same program, you can restore, with a high degree of probability, sections of the disks after they were randomly lost. You can restore discs with all folders and files.

There is a version of the Acronis DiCk Director utility, which runs under Windows. Using it, you can also view information on file systems. But it is not recommended to carry out any operations on this version, since after rebooting the system there is a very big risk that the computer will not load at all. If there is a need to split the disk, then it is better to use a version from a CD, as it is very reliable.

When you format a hard disk or flash drive, you prepare them for storing information by the operating system. During formatting, all information is deleted and a clean file system is installed.

You may have heard about FAT or NTFS file system, but do you know which one is used in your system? This article describes how the file system is arranged and what the differences between different file systems are arranged. Also I will show you how to find out which file systems are used on your disks.

What is a file system?

The disk space is divided into sectors, each of which is approximately 512 bytes. Sectors are grouped into clusters. Clusters, also called accommodation blocks, have dimensions from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes, since they usually consist of several sectors. Clusters are continuous blocks of disk space.

Operating systems are based on the file system for organizing cluster information storage. The file system is a database containing information about the state of each cluster. In fact, the file system as it may tell the operating system about what cluster (or clusters) is stored a file, and where you can write new data.

What file systems should be known about?

Basically, Windows uses the FAT32 and NTFS file system, FAT32 and NTFS (NEW Technology File System).

If you speak short, files of more than 4 GB are kept in NTFS, and sections can be more than 32 GB. NTFS is better controlling free space than FAT or FAT32 file system, and therefore less fragments disk. NTFS also supports some security features, including encryption of files "on the fly".

In comparison with NTFS, FAT and FAT32 file systems are adapted to a smaller space, less intensively operate with a hard disk, and, therefore, work faster with small flash drives. In addition, FAT and FAT32 are cross to platform file systems. The most important drawback FAT and FAT32 is a limitation of 32 GB to the size of the section, as well as a limit of 2 GB and 4 GB to the file size, respectively.

To store information on flash drives, the new EXFAT file system (Extended File Allocation Table) is mainly used, also known as FAT64. Like NTFS, it supports more than 4 GB files and sections more than 32 GB, as well as its file management system avoids disk fragmentation. At the same time, it is fast, optimized for mobile media and processing Media files.

What operating systems work with these file systems?

FAT and FAT32 are available on reading / writing practical in all operating systems. Previously, the formatting of the disk under the NTFS file system was a sure way to achieve its inoperability outside the Windows OS. However, now support for read / write NTFS is built into many Linux distributions. There is also a hack that allows you to work with this file system in Mac OS X version 10.6, although it seems it works unstable, so it is recommended to use MACFUSE. On the other hand, ExFat requires the installation of drivers and Windows XP and in Linux and is supported by the latest versions of Windows (Vista SP1, Windows 7, 8) and Mac OS X.

Why is the size of the cluster?

If you have already formatted the disk, you should know that you can select the cluster size (or size of the placement unit).

Depending on the size of the cluster (from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes), the file can be stored in one or hundreds and thousands of clusters. When the file size is less than the cluster size, the remaining space is lost. This phenomenon is called "Lost Space". Consequently, storing a multitude of small files on a disk with a large cluster size and will lead to large volumes of lost space. On the other hand, if we choose a small cluster size, large files will be crushed into a lot of small pieces, which can slow down the disk operations, as it will be required more time reading the corresponding file. In other words, come wisely to the selection of the size of the cluster.

How to find out the file system type on the disk?

The file system is specified in the disk properties. Go to My Computer (Computer), right-click on the desired disk and then in the context menu, select Properties. In the General tab (General) in the Line System (File System), you will see the type of file system.

To find out the cluster size of the NTFS file system, use the + [R] key combination, the Startup Start window (RUN) opens. Make sure you entered the system as a user with administrative rights. In the Startup Startup window, type CMD in the text box and click OK. Next, enter\u003e FSUTIL FSInfo NTFSINFO and press ENTER.

In Windows XP and Windows 7, you can also view and change the cluster size using third-party applications, for example,.

What file system do you prefer to use on disks and why? Have you faced problems when using the NTFS file system, and how did these problems solve?

Windows file system- This is a system used by the operating system, to store and streamline files on the hard disk. Simply put - this thing is responsible for storing information (files and folders) on the hard drive and the size occupied by this information.

The security of a computer depends on the selection of the file system and how much information on the hard disk information will be addicted. By security, I mean the stability of work and protection against data loss.

Windows XP operating system supports two file systems for hard drives: Fat and NTFS.

FAT file system (File Allocation Table) is best suited for use on disks and sections up to 200 MB

FAT is the easiest of Windows NT supported file systems.

The FAT directory does not have a specific structure, and the files are written in the first discovered free space on the disk. In addition, the FAT file system supports only four file attributes: "system", "hidden", "reading only" and "archive".

For files located in the FAT sections, it is impossible to set permissions.

NTFS file system (New Technology File System) organizes directory files and sorts them by name.

NTFS is best suited for use on disks of more than 400 MB. With an increase in the size of the disk, the performance of the NTFS file system does not fall as in the FAT, but this system is more demanding to computer resources, especially the RAM. Exactly nTFS File System uses most users, although, as always, there is A number of shortcomings:

Work on NTFS operating systems not older Windows XR

Currently, NTFS has no built-in file encryption;

If the logical disk is filled by more than 90 percent, the speed of work is sharply reduced

But there are advantages:

The maximum disk size can reach 18 TB;

There is work with files above 4GB;

If in FAT, when the operating system fails, there is a big chance of damage to the file - then in NTFS, it is almost excluded;

NTFS allows you to compress files, thereby reducing their location on the disk;

More economically spend disk space:

It is possible to restore the system ... and TP

Find out which file system is used on the disk with your operating system is very simple.

To do this, you need to click on the icon on the desktop My computer-\u003e Select a disc where your operating system is installed (usually it is Disk S.)
Press the right button and choose Properties (Properties)- go to the tab General.

Must be written File System: NTFS.But maybe FAT32. or FAT16

And it is not a fact that on all your local disks is the same file system. To find out, look at all other discs.

By the way, In the same window, we can find out Capacity diskand also see how much free space left (and, accordingly, how much space Busy)

Working on your computer, the user usually knows well both the operating system installed on it and the file system used on it. But you have to sit at someone else's computer and some problems arise in the system, it may be necessary to determine the type of file system.

Instruction

The file system defines the method of organizing and storing data on various media information, including hard drives. There are a large number of different file systems, the most common are: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS for Windows operating systems; EXT2 and EXT3 for UNIX systems and, in particular, for the Linux operating system.

You can find out the type of file system in different ways. The easiest: Open the "My Computer", select the disk you are interested in, click on the right mouse button and select Properties in the menu. In the window that opens, the type of disk will be specified and the file system used. For example, the type of NTFS file system will be specified for Windows XP and Windows 7.

In that case, if you are an inoperable computer, refusing to boot, you can view information about its disks using the Acronis Dick Director program. It starts directly from the CD, to select the download from the disk, press after the start of the F12, the download device selection window appears before you. On some computers, the boot window call can be carried out by other keys.

Select the download from the CD and press ENTER. In the disk menu that appears, select Acronis DiCK Director. After downloading, the program window will open in which you will see all the disks of the computer and their partitions with the use of the file systems used. The Acronis Dick Director is a very convenient utility that allows you to smash the discs in the desired and format them in the desired file system. It allows you to restore the disk partitions with a high degree of probability after their random loss - you can recover discs with all folders and files.

There is a version of the Acronis DiCK Director program, running under Windows, you can also view all information on file systems. But it is not recommended to spend any operations with disks in this version - after rebooting the system, the risk is quite large that the computer will generally refuse to load. If you need to break the disk, use a version with a CD, it is very reliable.

Tip added January 8, 2012 Tip 2: How to find out the type of file system from the hard disk file system, many parameters of the computer are dependent. For example, if you are going to download capacitive files from the Internet (more than four gigabytes), then your hard drive should work running NTFS. Also on the type of file system depends the speed of recording files to the hard disk and the speed of copying information from the partition section.

You will need

• - PARTITIONMAGIC program;
• - Tuneup Utilities 2011 program.

Instruction

With this method, you can find out the type of file system regardless of your version of Windows. Open My Computer. Click on the hard disk in the right mouse button. The context menu appears. In this menu, select "Properties". Further search for a "File System" string. Nearby will be written the type of file system of this partition of the hard disk.

You can also find out the type of file system using the PartitionMagic program. This program will suit both the owners of the Windows family operating systems and for those users who have the Linux operating system. Find it on the Internet, download and install your computer on the hard disk.

Start PartitionMagic. Wait a little before the completion of the computer scanning process. In the main program window, you will see a list of all sections of your hard disk. Going to the "Properties" of the section, you can view and file system.

Also to view information, you can use the Tuneup Utilities 2011 computer monitoring and configuration program. It can be easily found on the Internet. Although the program is commercial, but there is a trivial life of its use. Download and install the application to your computer.

Run Tuneup Utilities. Wait for a while. When the program starts for the first time, it starts scanning your computer. After scanning, you will be prompted to correct errors and optimize the system. If there is time, you can agree. Or cancel this procedure.

After that, you will find yourself in the main menu of the program. Select the "Problem Fix" section, then in the next window - "Show system information". After a few seconds, the System Informant window will appear. In this window, select the "Disks" section. In it you can find information about the file system.

How to find out the file system type - Print version

Windows 10 supports multiple file systems from the box. Some of them are a legacy and exist mainly for backward compatibility, other modern and are widely used. This article describes various ways that you can use to see, with which file system your discs are formatted.

File system - This is a special way to store and organize your information on different media, including hard drives, solid-state disks, USB drives and other devices. It allows you to store, change, read files and folders for applications and operating systems installed on your computer.

When formatting an internal disk or flash drive, you cook it to use as a storage media in your operating system. During this process, a file system is created. During formatting, all information stored on the disk or the section will be deleted.

Windows 10 supports file systems Fat, Fat32, Exfat, NTFS and Refs. Without the use of additional software.

They have different functions and properties. For example, FAT and FAT32 are outdated file systems. FAT supports the maximum amount of 4 GB, FAT32 supports 32 GB. FAT file systems also have limitations to the maximum file size. NTFS is a single file system that supports compression and encryption of files and has advanced features.

There are several ways that you can apply to search for a file system used on your disks.

To find out the file system on disks in Windows 10, follow these steps.

1. Open "Conductor" and go to the folder "This computer".

1. Right-click the disk and select in the context menu "Properties".

1. In the "Properties" window on the General tab, you will see the file system of your disk.

This method is the easiest and fastest.

In addition, you can use the diskpart tool, drive or PowerShell.

View the file system of the disk using diskpart

1. Press the Win + R key combination.

1. In the "Run" field, enter " diskpart."And press ENTER.

1. In diskpart, enter the command list Volume.

After executing the command, you will see a file system for each disk connected to your computer.

Show file system disk using "Disk Management".

1. Press WIN + X or right-click on the button. "Start".

1. In the Winx menu, select

1. See the values \u200b\u200bin the file system column.

Finally, there is another way to determine the file system for each disk connected to your computer using PowerShell scripts.

1. Open PowerShell On behalf of the administrator.

1. Enter: get-Volume And press ENTER.

1. At the output, see the values \u200b\u200bin the column FilesystemType..

Now you know that it is very easy to identify the file system for your disks. You can use any way you like more.