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File Systems

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    One measure of connectivity is the file systems that an operating system can read and write. In some cases, the access may be read only (to provide access to old information). Of course, the ability to interpret the contents of the files stored in a file system is generally left to application software.

    Note that in general, you only care about the file systems in use by your organization and used on removeable media that you are likely to encounter. The most commonly encountered file systems on removeable media are: Windows 2000 and NT (NTFS), MS-DOS (FAT), Windows 95 (VFAT and FAT32), Macintosh (HFS and HFS+), and UNIX (UFS), as well as ISO 9660 on CD-ROMs. Otherwise, you main interest in file systems is the capabilities of the native file system of each operating system.

file system summaries

(uses same legend key as the chart below)

     HFS+: Apple’s new high performance file system (replaced HFS in System 8.1); native in Rhapsody, Mac OS X Server, Mac OS X, and Macintosh System 8.1-8.5; operating systems that can handle HFS+: Mac OS X (NRWF), Mac OS X Server (NRWF), Macintosh System 8.1-8.5 (RWF), Rhapsody (NRWF)

     HFS: Apple’s Heirarchial File System (replaced MFS in System 4); native in Macintosh System 4.0-8.0; operating systems that can handle HFS: AmigaOS (RW), BeOS (RW), FreeBSD (rw), IRIX (RW), LINUX (rw), Mac OS X (DRWF), Mac OS X Server (DRWF), Macintosh (RWF), OS/2 (rw), Pyramid (RW), Rhapsody (DRWF), Windows 2000 (rw) (“third-party support”)e115 (NOTE: This is the first HFS that appears in the chart)

     MFS: Apple’s Macintosh File System (original Macintosh file system); native in Macintosh System 1-3; operating systems that can handle MFS: Macintosh System 1.0-8.1 (RWF)

    Pro: Apple’s ProDOS File System (used in the Apple II); operating systems that can handle MFS: Macintosh (RWF)

     NTFS: Windows NT’s native file systeme17; two opinions: “NT’s NTFS is a slight variation/copy of HPFS which some dubious ‘improvements’.”e22; “NTFS is far removed from HPFS (it offers a superset of features, but doesn’t use an i-node type structure, which HPFS does; it’s also faster, more efficient with large disks, has better security features”e115; operating systems that can handle NTFS: LINUX (R), OS/2 (r), Pyramid (RW), Windows 2000 (NRWF), Windows NT (NRWF)

     FAT32: Windows 95 OSR2’s native 32-bit file system (kernel patch)e17; operating systems that can handle FAT32: AmigaOS (RW), BeOS (RW), FreeBSD (RW), LINUX (RW), Mac OS X (RW), Macintosh (RW), OS/2 (rw), Rhapsody (RW), Windows 2000 (RWF), Windows 98 (NRWF), Windows 95 (NRWF)

     VFAT: Windows 95’s native file system (long file names)e17; operating systems that can handle VFAT: AmigaOS (RW), BeOS (RW), FreeBSD (RW), LINUX (RW), Mac OS X (RW), Macintosh (RW), OS/2 (rw), Rhapsody (RW), Windows 2000 (RWF), Windows 98 (RW), Windows 95 (NRWF)

    FAT: MS-DOS’s native file systeme17; operating systems that can handle FAT: AmigaOS (RWF), BeOS (RW), Digital UNIX (rw), FreeBSD (RW), HP-UX (RW), IRIX (RW), LINUX (RWF), Mac OS X (RWF), Macintosh (RWF), MS-DOS (NRWF), OpenVMS (rw), OS/2 (DRWF), Pyramid (RW), Rhapsody (RWF), Solaris (RW), ULTRIX (rw), VMS (rw), Windows 2000 (RWF), Windows NT (RWF), Windows 98 (RW), Windows 95 (RW), Windows 3.1 (NRWF)

    UFS: UNIX’s native UNIX File System for Solaris, Sun-OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, NeXTSTEP, and OpenSTEPe21; operating systems that can handle UFS: Digital UNIX (RW), FreeBSD (RW), HP-UX (RW), Mac OS X (DRWF), Mac OS X Server (DRWF), NetBSD (NRWF), NeXT (NRWF), NeXTSTEP (NRWF), OpenBSD (NRWF), OpenSTEP (NRWF), Pyramid (RW), Rhapsody (RWF), Solaris (NRWF), Sun-OS (NRWF), ULTRIX (RW)

    isofs: ISO 9660 (for CD-ROMs)e17; this is a read-only format, for obvious reasons; there are different levels of ISO 9660: Level 1 is universal, Level 2 allows more characters for file naming at the expense of cutting out some operating systems; operating systems that can handle ISO 9660: AIX (R), AmigaOS (R), BeOS (Rw), Digital UNIX (R), FreeBSD (R), HP-UX (Rw1), IRIX (Rw), LINUX (Rw), Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), OpenVMS (R), Rhapsody (Rw), ULTRIX (R), VMS (R), Windows 2000 (Rw), Windows 98 (Rw), Windows 95 (Rw)

     Hybrid: Hybrid is a special format that appears on a Macintosh as a Macintosh HFS formatted disk and on all other operating systems (that can read CD-ROMs) as an ISO 9660 disk. A Hybrid disk can only be made on the Macintosh. (NOTE: does not have an entry in the chart below)

    rock: RockRidge extension to ISO 9660 (for CD-ROMs)e41; operating systems that can read RockRidge: AmigaOS (R), HP-UX (r), Windows 2000 (R) (“but symlinks and certain other features won’t work”e115), Windows 98 (R) (“but symlinks and certain other features won’t work”e115)

    jol: Microsoft’s Joliet extension to ISO 9660 (for CD-ROMs)e41

    CD-i: CD-i (interactive), a format for multi-media CD-ROMs; operating systems that can read CD-i: AmigaOS (R), Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), Windows 2000 (R)

    VCD: Video CD, a format for storing video on CD-ROMs; operating systems that can read VCD: Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), Windows 2000 (R)

    ECD: Enhanced CD, a format that plays as both an ordinary audio CD and as a multi-media CD-ROM; operating systems that can read ECD: Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), Windows 2000 (R), Windows 98 (R), Windows 95 (R)

    PD: PhotoDisk, Kodak’s format for storing photographs on a CD-ROM; operating systems that can read PhotoDisks: AmigaOS (R), Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), Windows 2000 (R), Windows 98 (R)

    CD: Audio CD, the original audio only CD format; operating systems that can play audio CDs: AmigaOS (R), Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), Windows 2000 (R), Windows 98 (Rw), Windows 95 (Rw)

    DVD-Video: Digital Video Disk - MPEG-2 Video (2 hours 15 minutes); operating systems that can read DVD-Video: Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), Windows 2000 (R), Windows 98 (R)

    DVD-ROM: Digital Video Disk, a high capacity (4.75 GB per side) replacement for CDs and CD-ROMs; operating systems that can read DVD-ROM: Mac OS X (Rw), Macintosh (Rw), Windows 2000 (R), Windows 98 (R)

    DVD-R: Digital Video Disk, write once storage (3.95 GB per side); operating systems that can read DVD-R: Mac OS X (RW), Macintosh (RW)

    DVD-R/W: Digital Video Disk, Pioneer’s rewritable format (3.95 GB per side); operating systems that can read DVD-R/W: Mac OS X (RW), Macintosh (RW)

    DVD-RAM: Digital Video Disk, industry proposed rewritable format (2.6 GB per side); operating systems that can read DVD-RAM: Mac OS X (RW), Macintosh (RW)

    DVD+RW: Digital Video Disk, Sony and Philips proposed rewritable format (3 GB per side); operating systems that can read DVD+RW:

    MMVF: Multimedia Video File, NEC’s proposed DVD format (5.6 GB per side); operating systems that can read MMVF:

     ext2fs: LINUX’s native file system (replaces extfs)e17; operating systems that can handle ext2fs: FreeBSD (RW), LINUX (NRWF), OS/2 (rw), Windows 2000 (rw) (“poor third-party support”)e115

     extfs: LINUX’s original Extended File System (replaced by ext2fs)e30; operating systems that can handle ext2fs: LINUX (RWF), OS/2 (rw)

    BFFS: BSD Fast File Systeme35; operating systems that can handle BFFS: AmigaOS (rw), BSDi (RW), HP-UX (RW)

    AFS: Transarc’s Andrew File Systeme40; operating systems that can handle AFS: AIX (rw), HP-UX (rw) (NOTE: This is the first AFS that appears in the chart)

     HPFS-2: OS/2’s native High Performance File System (OS/2 version 2.1 or later)e22; operating systems that can handle HPFS-2: LINUX (R), OS/2 (NRWF)

     HPFS: OS/2’s native High Performance File Systeme22; operating systems that can handle HPFS: LINUX (R), OS/2 (NRWF), Pyramid (RW)

     FFS: Fast File System, AmigaOS’s native file system (Kickstart 1.3 and later)e27; operating systems that can handle FFS: AmigaOS (NRWF), LINUX (RW)

     OFS: AmigaOS’s original Old File Systeme34; operating systems that can handle OFS: AmigaOS (RWF)

     afs/afs2: AmigaOS’s high stability Ami-Fail-Safe file systeme27; operating systems that can handle afs: AmigaOS (rwF) (NOTE: This is the second afs that appears in the chart)

     MuFS: AmigaOS’s MultiUser File Systeme27; operating systems that can handle MuFS: AmigaOS (rwF)

     DCFS: AmigaOS’s Directory Caching File Systeme34; operating systems that can handle DCFS: AmigaOS (rwF)

     SFS: AmigaOS’s freeware Smart File Systeme35; operating systems that can handle SFS: AmigaOS (rwF)

     ODS-5: VMS’s most recent On Disk Structure file systeme39; operating systems that can handle ODS-5: OpenVMS (NRWF)

     ODS-2: VMS’s native On Disk Structure file systeme36; operating systems that can handle ODS-2: OpenVMS (NRWF), VMS (NRWF)

     ODS-1: PDP-11’s native file systeme19; operating systems that can handle ODS-1: OpenVMS (RWF), VMS (RWF)

     XFS: SGI IRIX’s new native file system (IRIX 6.2 and later)e24; operating systems that can handle XFS: AmigaOS (RW), IRIX (NRWF)

     EFS: SGI IRIX’s original native file systeme24; operating systems that can handle EFS: AmigaOS (RW), IRIX (RWF)

     befs: BeOS’s native 64-bit journaled file systeme29; operating systems that can handle befs: BeOS (NRWF)

    coda: successor to NFSe21; operating systems that can handle coda: FreeBSD (RW), LINUX (RW)

    NFS: Network File System; replaced by codae21; operating systems that can handle NFS: AIX (RW), AmigaOS (rw), BeOS (rw), BSDi (RW), Digital UNIX (RW), FreeBSD (RW), HP-UX (RW), IRIX (RW), LINUX (RW), NetWare (RW), OpenVMS (rw), OS/2 (rw), ULTRIX (RW), VMS (rw), Windows 2000 (rw) “with a Microsoft but non-bundled product called ‘Services for UNIX’ Windows 2000 can also act as both an NFS Client and Server”e115

    DFS: OSF DCE’s Distributed filesystem; operating systems that can handle DFS: AIX (rw), Cray, HP-UX 10.20, IRIX 6.5 (client), Solaris (client and server), Tru64 UNIX 4.0f (client), Windows NT (client). Vendors: Entegrity: http://www2.entegrity.com/dce/data.shtml; Cray: http://www.cray.com/products/software/dce.html; SGI: http://www.sgi.com/software/dce/index.html; IBM: http://www.transarc.ibm.com/Support/dfse118

     VxFS: HP-UX’s Veritas File System; native in recent versions of HP-UXe40; operating systems that can handle VxFS: HP-UX (NRWF)

     JFS: HP-UX’s Journaled FileSysteme67 for recent versions of HP-UXe20; not to be confused with AIX’s jfs (lower case letters); HP-UX: “JFS is brand new at 10.xx and has gone through some painful design changes. It still does not handle ACL’s and has a few other limitations. Starting with 10.20, the default Instant Ignition found on new systems uses HFS for /stand (absolutely required or the system won’t boot) and JFS for the root volume.”e42; operating systems that can handle JFS: HP-UX (NRWF)

     hfs: HP-UX’s Hi Performance FileSystem; native in older versions of HP-UXe20; “HFS has been the native file system since the mid 80s.”e42; operating systems that can handle hfs: HP-UX (NRWF) (NOTE: This is the second hfs that appears in the chart)

     LIF: HP-UX’s original file system; “The LIF filesystem is used by the processor ROMs and found in the bootup sectors at the beginning of the disk”e42; operating systems that can handle hfs: HP-UX (NRW)

    jfs: Journaled File System, AIX’s native file system, not to be confused with HP-UX’s Journaled FileSystem (JFS, capital letters), AutoFS: is “a convenient mechanism for mounting”, operating systems that can handle jfs: AIX (NRWF), OS/2 (RWF)

    CacheFS: operating systems that can handle CacheFS: AIX (RW)

    Minix: an obsolete file system that was the original native file system for LINUX e21; native file system for Minix; operating systems that can handle Minix: AmigaOS (rw), LINUX (RW), Minix (NRWF)

    sysvfs: UNIX System V; SCO, Xenix, Coherente21; operating systems that can handle sysvfs: FreeBSD (rw), LINUX (R), SCO (NRWF)

    Xenix: operating systems that can handle Xenix: FreeBSD (rw), LINUX (RW)

    UMSDOS: a special filesystem which allows LINUX to be installed on a MS-DOS filesysteme18; operating systems that can handle UMSDOS: LINUX (RW)

    xiafs: operating systems that can handle xiafs: LINUX (RW)

    CIFS: a superset of SMB; the security problems of SMB are not solved with CIFS; operating systems that can handle CIFS: Windows 2000 (RW), Windows NT (RW)

    SMB: Server Message Block; NetBIOS networkinge20; originally used for print and file sharing on Windows, most UNIXs share file and print services with Windows systems through an open source program called SAMBA; SMB has great security risks (see SMB and firewalls); operating systems that can handle SMB: AIX (rw), BSDi (rw), Digital UNIX (rw), FreeBSD (rw), HP-UX (rw), IRIX (rw), LINUX (RW), Macintosh (RW), MS-DOS (RW), NetBSD (rw), NeXT (rw), OpenBSD (rw), OpenVMS (rw), PC-DOS-2000 (RW), Rhapsody (rw), SCO OpenServer (rw), SCO UnixWare (rw), Solaris (rw), Sun-OS (rw), Tru64 Unix (rw), ULTRIX (rw), VMS (rw), Windows 2000 (RW), Windows NT (RW), Windows 98 (RW), Windows 95 (RW), Windows 3.11 (RW), PC-DOS (RW), MS-DOS (RW)

    adfs: Acorn’s native file systeme21; operating systems that can handle adfs: AmigaOS (rw), LINUX (R)

    TVFS: Toronto Virtual File Systeme31; operating systems that can handle TVFS: OS/2 (rw)

    CPM: operating systems that can handle CPM: AmigaOS (r)

    1541: Commodore c64; operating systems that can handle 1541: AmigaOS (r), LINUX (r)

    PFS/PFS2: Professional File System (shareware predecessor of Amiga’s AFS and AFS2 e35, operating systems that can handle PFS2: AmigaOS (rw)

    QL: Sinclair’s native file systeme35; operating systems that can handle QL: AmigaOS (r)

    ROMFS: a read-only file system for use in ROMse90; operating systems that can handle ROMFS: LINUX (r)

     rxfs: a proprietary implementation of vxfse96; operating systems that can handle rxfs: Pyramid (RWF)

    NSS: NetWare’s new file systeme97; operating systems that can handle NSS: NetWare (RWF)

    classic: NetWare’s original file systeme97; operating systems that can handle NetWare classic: NetWare (RWF)

file systems supported

legend

N = native file system

D = native file system for floppy disks (where main native file system not available for floppies)

R = can Read this file system

W = can Write to this file system

r = can Read this file system through use of third party software

w = can Write to this file system through use of third party software

1 = (for ISO 9660 only) Level 1 only

F = can Format media using this file system

note: This table will not display until the entire table has been downloaded to your computer. Please be patient.

  Apple Micro$oft UNIX CD-ROM audio DVD LINUX BSD IBM OS/2 Amiga Digital SGI Be network Hewlett Packard IBM AIX miscellaneous formats NetWare
operating system HFS+ HFS MFS Pro NTFS FAT32 VFAT FAT CIFS SMB UFS isofs rock jol CD-i VCD ECD PD CD DVD-Video DVD-ROM DVD-R DVD-R/W DVD-RAM DVD+RW MMVF ext2fs extfs BFFS AFS HPFS-2 HPFS FFS OFS afs MuFS DCFS SFS ODS-5 ODS-2 ODS-1 XFS EFS befs coda NFS DFS VxFS JFS hfs LIF jfs CacheFS Minix sysvfs Xenix UMSDOS xiafs adfs TVFS CPM 1541 PFS2 QL ROMFS rxfs NSS classic
AIX                   rw   Re67                                   rwe67                               RWe67 rwe67         RWe67 RWe67                              
AmigaOS   RWe27       RWe27 RWe27 RWFe27       Re41 Re41   Re41     Re41 Re41                   rwe35       NRWFe27 RWFe27 rwFe27 rwFe27 rwFe34 rwFe35               rwe33               rwe33         rwe35   re33 re33 rwe33 re35        
BeOS   RWe26       rwe82 RWe29 RWe28       Rwe28                                                               NRWFe29   rwe29                                            
BSDi Internet Server                   rw                                     RWw39                                 RWw39                                            
Digital UNIX               rwe103   rw RWe103 Re103 Re103                                                                 RWe103 re118                                          
FreeBSD   rwe104       RWe104 RWe104 RWe104   rw RWe21 Re104                             RWe104                                   RWe104 RWe104                 rwe104 rwe104                        
HP-UX               RWe40   rwe40 RWe40 Rw1e40 re42                               RWe40 rwe40                               RWe40 re118 NRWFe40 NRWFe20 NRWFe20 NRWe42                                  
IRIX   RWe23           RWe23   rw   Rwe23                                                           NRWFe23 RWFe23     RWe24 re118                                          
LINUX   rwe18     Re17 RWe17 RWe17 RWFe17   RWe21 Re17 Rwe17                             NRWFe17 RWFe17     Re18 Re17 RWe17                       RWe21 RWe21               RWe17 Re30 RWe18 RWe18 RWe30 Re21     re98     re90      
Macintosh OS X (ten) NRWF DRWF       RW RW RWF     NRWF Rw     Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw RW RW RW                                                                                        
Macintosh OS X Server (ten) NRWF DRWF       RW RW RWF   rw NRWF Rw     Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw RW RW RW                                                                                        
Macintosh System 9 RWFe32 NRWFe32   RWFe43   Re32 RWe32 RWFe32   RW   Rwe32     Rw Rw Rw Rwe32 Rw Rw Rw RW RW RW                                                                                        
Macintosh System 8.6 RWFe32 NRWFe32   RWFe43   Re32 RWe32 RWFe32   RW   Rwe32     Rw Rw Rw Rwe32 Rw Rw Rw RW RW RW                                                                                        
Macintosh System 8.0   NRWF RWF RWFe43   RW RW RWF   RW   Rw     Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw RW RW RW                                                                                        
Macintosh System 7.6   NRWF RWF RWFe43       RWF       Rw     Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw                                                                                                  
Macintosh System 7.5.5   NRWF RWF RWFe43       RWF       Rw     Rw Rw Rw Rw Rw                                                                                                  
Macintosh System 6.0.8   NRWF RWF         RWF       Rw             Rw                                                                                                  
MS-DOS               NRWF   RWe115                                                                                                                    
NetBSD                   rw NRWFe21                                                                                                                  
NetWare   RWe97     RWe97     RWe97                                               RWe97                           RWe97                                         NRWFe97 NRWFe97
NeXT                   rw NRWFe21                                                                                                                  
NeXTSTEP                   rw NRWFe21                                                                                                                  
OpenBSD                   rw NRWFe21                                                                                                                  
OpenSTEP                   rw NRWFe21                                                                                                                  
OpenVMS               rwe39   rwe39   Re19                                                     RWFe39 NRWFe19 RWFe19         rwe39                                            
OS/2   rwe25     re31 rwe25 rwe25 DRWe22                                     rwe22 rwe22     NRWFe22 NRWFe22                           rwe31                           rwe31                
Pyramid                     RWFe96                                                                                                             yese96    
Rhapsody NRWFe38 DRWFe38       RWe38 RWe38 RWFe38   rw RWF Rwe38                                                           RWe71 RWe71                                                  
SCO                   rw                                                                                         NRWFe20                          
Sun Solaris               RWe37   rw NRWFe21                                                                       rwe118                                          
Sun-OS                   rw NRWFe21                                                                                                                  
DEC ULTRIX               rww55   rw RWe36 Re100                                                                   RWe36                                            
VMS               rwe19   rwe39   Re19                                                     RWFe39 NRWFe19 RWFe19         rwe19                                            
Windows 2000   rwe115     NRWFe115 RWFe115 RWFe115 RWFe115 RWe115 RWe115   Rwe115 Re115 Rw Re115 Re115 Re115 Re115 Rwe115 Re115 Re115           rwe115                                     rwe115                                            
Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition         NRWF         RWe115       Rw                                                                 re118                                          
Windows NT Server 4.0         NRWF         RWe115       Rw                                                                 re118                                          
Windows 98           NRWF RW RW   RWe115   Rw         R   Rw R R                                                                                              
Windows 95           NRWF NRWF RW   RWe115   Rw         R   Rw                                                                                                  
Windows 3.1               NRWF   RWe115                                                                                                                    

     Mac OS X (formerly Rhapsody) has the built-in abstraction of file systems, allowing new file systems to be added through plug-in modules. If there is an existing file system that you feel is vital to your business, please write a well thought-out e-mail explaining why a particular file system being available for Mac OS X would be key in the possible decision to purchase Mac OS X, and send it to leadership@apple.com or .


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