File systems

Windows 2000 and Windows XP comes with support for multiple file systems, including the file-allocation table (FAT) systems FAT-16 and FAT-32, as well as the NTFS file system. This is an improvement over Windows NT 4.0, which recognizes FAT-16 and NTFS, but not FAT-32, and Windows 98, which recognizes FAT-16 and FAT-32, but not NTFS.

The FAT file system was originally designed to meet the needs of the original IBM personal computer. Early versions of FAT could support floppy disks and small hard drives. Later versions of FAT provide vastly improved support for larger drives, but provided very weak file-system security.

Windows NT 3.1 shipped in 1993 with the NTFS file system, which combined large disk support with file-system security. It includes, among other things, increased performance, recoverability, fault tolerance, and features for POSIX subsystems. Windows 2000 and Windows XP ships with versions of NTFS that include additional features, such as disk quotas, file encryption, and improved disk compression.

This section covers:

• Interix file system features
• Limitations with FAT installations
• MS-DOS file names on NTFS volumes
• Using files with both Interix utilities and Win32 applications
• The Interix single-rooted file system
• Hard links and symbolic links in Interix