All language subtitles for 3_Files and File Systems

Imagine if you had to store

a single file in a cabinet.
That sounds so bad.

What if instead of one file
you had to store 100,000?

Can you see a problem here?

Well, on our computers
we can easily

store hundreds of
thousands of files,

if not more, problem-solved.

Not quite. We have to be

able to keep track
of all these files.

The kernel handles file storage

and file systems
on our machines.

In this lesson, we're
going to dig a little

deeper on how it does that.

There are three main components

to handling files handlers,

the file data, metadata,
and file system.

Let's start with
the file system.

Well, we have a brand new hard

disks that we want
to store data on.

We need to erase and
configure the disk.

This way operating system can
read and write data to it.

This is important since it's how

our operating system
keeps tracks of files.

We must know what kind
of file system is used.

There are lots of file systems

and are used for
different purposes.

Some file systems
support the storage of

large amounts of data others
only support small amounts.

They can operate in
different speeds and have

varying resiliency towards
file corruption and so on.

We won't get into
which file system is

best. That's for you to decide.

But the major OS
manufacturers have

their own unique file
systems that they recommend,

for Windows, the major file
system that's used is NTFS.

It was introduced in the
previous version of Windows OS,

Windows NT, and includes many
features like encryption,

faster access speeds,
security, and more.

Microsoft is developing another
file system called ReFS,

but it isn't quite ready
for consumer use just yet.

For Linux, different
distributions

will use different
file system types.

A standard for file systems
for Linux is EX T4,

which is compatible with
older EXT file systems.

In general, different
file system types

don't play nicely
with each other.

You might not be able to
easily move files across

different file systems depending
on the file system type.

A good guideline to
use is just to use

the file system that your
operating system recommends.

Another important part
of file management

is the storage of
actual file data.

We write data to our hard drive

in the form of data blocks.

When we say something
to our hard disks,

it doesn't always
sit in one piece.

It can be broken down into

many pieces and written to
different parts of the disk.

Block storage improves
faster handling of data,

because the data isn't
stored on one long piece,

and it can be accessed quicker.

It's also better for
utilizing storage space.

Lastly, we need to
keep the metadata

that contains the
information about our file.

There's a lot of information

about our file that
we want to know,

who created it, when
it was last modified,

who has access to it, and so on.

The file metadata tells us

everything we need to
know about our file.

It also tells us what
type of file it is.

A file extension is the appended
part of a filename that

tells us what type of file it

is in certain operating systems.

Take cool_image.jpg.

JPG is a file extension
associated with image files.

You'll see different types of
file extensions like this.

When you're working with
your operating system,

your working knowledge
of file systems

and the differences
between them is

a great skill to have in

your IT support
specialist toolbox.

It can be super
useful when you need

to do things like
recovered data from

damaged discs or explore ways

to boot from two different
kinds of operating systems,

like Windows and Linux
on the same computer.