[ The PC Guide | Systems and Components Reference Guide | Hard Disk Drives | Hard Disk Logical Structures and File Systems ]
PC Operating System and File System Cross-Reference
In separate sections, I discussed the various operating systems used by most PCs, and also the file systems used for most PC storage devices. In each case, I described which file systems went with which operating systems. There are a lot of operating systems and file systems, however, so I have included this summary cross-reference table, which shows at a glance what supports what:
Operating |
FAT |
NTFS |
HPFS |
UNIX |
BFS (BeOS) |
||||
FAT12 |
FAT16 |
VFAT |
FAT32 |
1.1 / 4.0 |
5.0 |
||||
MS-DOS (Straight) |
Yes |
Yes, DOS 3.0 or later |
-- | -- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Windows 3.x |
Yes |
Yes |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Windows 95A |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Windows 95B / 95C |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Windows 98 / 98SE / ME |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Windows NT |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
-- |
Yes |
Partial, with |
Yes, patch or hack needed |
Third Party? |
-- |
Windows 2000 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Third Party? |
Third Party? |
-- |
OS/2 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
-- |
-- |
Yes |
Third Party? |
Third |
UNIX / Linux |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Read |
Read |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
BeOS |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Read |
Read |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Note: Support for non-native
file systems in the alternative operating systems such as OS/2, Linux or BeOS depends
entirely on the version of the operating system being used. Later versions generally
support more file system types. In some cases special modules must be added or
modifications made to the source code.
Next: Major Disk
Structures and the Boot Process
| The PC Guide
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