What is a filesystem?
A filesystem is, in essence, the way data is stored and retrieved on a physical medium (which can be a hard disk, solid state drive, or even RAM). It is a software implementation that manages where and how the bits are written and found again, and may include various advanced features which enhance reliability, performance, and functionality.
The concept of a filesystem is abstract: there are many filesystem implementations, which are confusingly often referred to as filesystems. We find it easiest to grasp by ordering the filesystems in families, just as with Linux distributions: there are Linux filesystems, Windows filesystems, macOS filesystems, and many others. The Windows filesystem family spans from the earliest ...
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