by Jason Zandri
www.2000trainers.com
Welcome to this week’s installment of
Learn Windows XP Professional in 15 minutes a week, the sixth in the series.
With this article I will begin focusing on the next section of material which centers on Implementing
and Conducting Administration of Resources on Windows XP
Professional, this one covering Windows XP Professional file
systems.
Jason Zandri’s latest article in the Learning Windows XP Professional in 15 Minutes a Week series focuses on implementing and conducting the administration of resources on Windows XP Professional and specifically covers Windows XP Professional file systems.
Implementing and Conducting
Administration of Resources
File System
Overview
To have a
good understanding of how and why you can set up or deny
access to data on a Windows XP Professional system, you need
to have an underlying understanding of any native file
security that may or may not be in place.
One place
to start would be the file system the operating system is
utilizing.
Windows XP
Professional supports the three major computer files systems
of File Allocation Table (commonly known as FAT or FAT16),
FAT32 and NTFS.
FAT16
File
Allocation Table (commonly known as FAT or FAT16) is
supported by Windows XP Professional, all Windows operating
systems, and DOS, as well as a host of other non-Microsoft OSes.
FAT is allocated in clusters, the size of which are
determined by the size of the partition. The larger the
partition, the larger the cluster size. The larger the
cluster size, the more space “required” when using it to
store data.
FAT file
system cluster sizes
Partition Size | Cluster Size | FAT Type |
0M to less than 16MB | 4,096 bytes | 12-bit |
16M through 128MB | 2,048 bytes | 16-bit |
128 through 256MB | 4,096 bytes | 16-bit |
256 through 512MB | 8,192 bytes | 16-bit |
512 through 1,024MB | 16,384 bytes | 16-bit |
1,024 through 2,048MB | 32,768 bytes | 16-bit |
As you can
see, with a 2GB partition size, (the maximum allowed under
FAT16 in most cases) if you were to save 50 different files,
all 1024 bytes (1KB) in actual size (or to have 50 fractions
of larger files “fall over” to the next cluster by that same
amount), the amount of hard drive space used up would be
1,638,400 bytes (a little over 1 MB), for 51,200 bytes of
actual data.
You can
obviously see that this is a serious problem when there are
thousands of small *.DLLs and other types of small files.
Also, with
the advent of super-inexpensive hard drives that are 80GB in
size, you can see where using FAT would be an issue as well.
In summary,
there are “advantages” for using the FAT file system on a
Windows XP Professional installation:
-
MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000,
and some UNIX operating systems can use FAT16. If there is
some reason to dual boot the system, FAT16 allows you the
greatest number of options. -
There are many software tools that can address problems and
recover data on FAT16 volumes. -
If you have a startup failure, you can start the computer by
using a bootable floppy disk to troubleshoot the
problem. -
FAT16 is efficient, in speed and storage, on volumes smaller
than 256 MB.
(Those 50
files I mentioned above, all 1024 bytes (1KB) in actual
size, would use up “only” 409,600 bytes on a 400MB partition
formatted with FAT16 and “only” 204,800 bytes on a 250MB
partition.)
There are
also some FAT16 disadvantages as well:
-
The root
folder (usually the C: drive) has a
limit of 512 entries. The use of long file names can
significantly reduce the number of available entries. -
FAT16 is limited to 65,536 clusters, but because certain
clusters are reserved, it has a practical limit of 65,524.
The largest FAT16 volume on Windows 2000 and Windows XP
Professional is limited to 4 GB and uses a cluster size of 64 KB. To maintain compatibility
with MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows 98, a volume cannot be
larger than 2 GB. (Those 50 files I mentioned above, all
1024 bytes (1KB) in actual size, would use up 3,276,200
bytes of hard drive space to store 51,200 bytes of actual
data on a 4 GB FAT16 partition used in this scenario.) -
FAT16 is inefficient on larger volume sizes, as the size of
the cluster increases. We have seen this in the examples
above. -
The boot sector is not backed up on FAT16 partitions.
Because FAT16 does not include a backup copy of critical
data structures, they are susceptible to single point of
failure issues, more so than other file systems. -
There is no
native file level security, compression or encryption
available in the FAT16 file system.
Below is a
table of Microsoft Operating systems and which file systems
they can natively access.
Operating System | Supports NTFS | Supports FAT32 | Supports FAT | Max Partition |
Windows XP Professional | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4GB |
Windows XP Home | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4GB |
Windows 2000 Professional | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4GB |
Windows Millennium Edition | No | Yes | Yes | 2GB |
Windows 98 and Second Edition | No | Yes | Yes | 2GB |
Windows 95 OSR2 and OSR2.5 | No | Yes | Yes | 2GB |
Windows NT4 Workstation | Yes | No | Yes | 4GB |
Windows 95 Gold (Original Release) | No | No | Yes | 2GB |
Windows NT3.5x Workstation | Yes | No | Yes | 4GB |
MS-DOS (versions 3.3 and higher) | No | No | Yes | * see below |
[NOTES
FROM THE FIELD] –
There is no test requirement to memorize these tables, but
it’s good to understand the “how and why” of it. Also, it is
never a “best practice” to dual boot any workstation or
server that has sensitive data on it with any file system
installed that cannot secure those files or any operating
system that threatens that security.
The
maximum FAT partition that can be created and accessed by
the operating systems listed above is 2GB in most cases. 4GB FAT
partitions can be created and properly accessed only under
those operating systems specifically listed above. A dual boot NT family
of operating system can create a 4GB FAT partition and a
lower level OS such as Windows 98 may be able to see data on
it, however, issues will arise when data access is attempted
above the 2GB threshold that the OS normally uses.
For more
information on the Maximum Partition Size Using the FAT16
File System in Windows XP, you can look up
Q310561 at the Microsoft PSS webpage.
The
“OSR” in “Windows 95 OSR2 and OSR2.5” stands for OEM Service
Release.
The
“OEM” in “OEM Service Release” stands for Original Equipment
Manufacturer.
For more
information on
Accessing FAT16 Drives Larger Than 2 GB, or
Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System, feel
free to follow the links I have provided to the Microsoft
web site.
* There
are some exceptions, but for the most part, DOS 3.3 and
higher can access up to 2GB of single partition space, as
outlined in Q67321 at the Microsoft PSS webpage. The
MS-DOS Partitioning Summary (Q69912) names some
exceptions and points out the fact that some earlier
versions didn’t support many of today’s FAT16 standards.
The
maximum single file size on a FAT16 partition is 2 GB,
regardless of the fact that some OSes can have a 4GB
partition.