Inside Windows Server 1002003 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 15. Managing File Systems

I

N THE LAST CHAPTER, WE SAW HOW to partition off raw storage on spinning media. This is a little like real estate developers who buy raw acreage out in sunny southern New Mexico. Sure, the acreage might have a beautiful view of the old Titan missile sites and dry alkali lakes, but the developers won't be able to convince Easterners to buy any property on this acreage until they section it off into plats and install some basic infrastructure like water and electricity and sewers and high-speed Internet connections.

For data storage, this sectioning and infrastructure development comes in the form of a file system. Windows Server 2003, like its predecessors, uses modular Installable File System (IFS) drivers to turn raw storage into an accessible data repository. Here are the file systems and their drivers:

• NT File System (Ntfs.sys).
  This is Microsoft's premier file system and the default file system on all Windows Server 2003 and XP platforms.




• Encrypting File System

  Efs.sys).
  This driver sits above the NTFS driver and handles file encryption/decryption.




• FAT and FAT32 (Fastfat.sys).
  Windows Server 2003 supports both of these legacy file systems.




• CD-ROM (Cdfs.sys).
  This file system supports ISO 9660 disks, which includes CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW disks. It can read both regular 700MB disks and extended 850MB disks.




• Universal Disk Format

  (Udfs.sys).
  This file system supports DVD drives. It can read Universal Data Format (UDF) formatted disks and FAT32 disks.




• Remote Storage Services (RSS)

  driver (Rsfilter.sys).
  This file system provides near-online access to files stored on tape as part of a hierarchical storage management system. The Rsfilter driver is only loaded if you install RSS.




• File System Recognizer

  (Fs_rec.sys).
  This driver figures out which file system to use when accessing a particular drive or media.

Network interfaces are also implemented as IFS file system drivers. This includes LanMan Server, LanMan Workstation, Microsoft's NetWare Client, the Mailslot and Named Pipe file systems, and the new WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) redirector. These services are covered in Chapter 19, "Managing the User Operating Environment."

This chapter contains detailed functional and operational descriptions of the three core Windows Server 2003 file systems: FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS. This includes new features in the upgraded version of NTFS. (See the sidebar, "NTFS Versions.")

Operational topics at the end of the chapter contain step-by-step instructions for configuring and managing the following file system features:

• Converting from FAT/FAT32 to NTFS




• Compression




• Reparse points and mount points




• Distributed Link Tracking




• Disk Defragmentation




• Indexing




• Formatting and writing CD-R/RW and DVD-RAM media (a new feature in Windows Server 2003 and XP)