7.1. File Systems and Directories

Before you can understand installation of an operating system, you need to know a bit about file systems and directory structures.

7.1.1. File Systems: FAT32 vs. NTFS

As explained in Chapter 6, "Operating System Features and Interfaces," a hard drive must be partitioned and formatted before it can hold files or programs. The basic building block of storage is the disk. Disks are partitioned (primary, logical, extended) and then formatted for use. With the Windows operating systems this exam focuses on, you can choose to use either FAT32 or NTFS.

Here's a quick review of these file systems:

FAT32

Introduced with Windows 95 Release 2, FAT32 is similar to FAT but has a number of advantages. It supports larger ...

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