Different Components ![[Pasted image 20230717102828.png]]

  • Platter
  • Track
  • Track Sector
  • Disk Sector
  • Cluster
  • Head
  • Actuator Arm

Solid State Drives

  • Page size typically is 4096 bytes or 4 Gigabytes
  • Common block size is 128 pages
  • Controller was created to create something called Logical Block Addressing (LBA)
    • LBA is just a pointer to a specific piece of data on a system

Windows Partitions

  • Master Boo Record (MBR)
    • Contained within the first sector of the disk
    • Stores the location of the OS boot files
    • Only one can exist per disk
    • Must exist on a primary partition
  • GUID Partition (GPT)
    • Each partition is it’s own boot sector
  • Dynamic Storage Partition scheme (proprietary)
  • Can have four total partitions
    • Must have at least one primary partition
    • Additional partitions can be Logical or Extended Partitions. Extended Partitions do not receive drive letters.

Dynamic Disks

  • No limit in partisions
  • Can implement RAID
  • Can span volumes across drives

GPT

  • Attempted replacement for MBR (Master Boot Record)
  • No limit to number of primary drives
  • No size limit
  • Uses GPT Header and partition in array
  • LBA 0 is the protected MBR
  • Modern Systems required UEFI to boot with GPT

Hidden or Swap Partitions

  • Used by operating systems to keep backup copies of the Operating System files for restores
  • Used by Operating Systems to Swap RAM (Random Access Memory) imprint for applications
    • This only exists on Linux Operating Systems
  • Similar to Page partitions on Windows

Formatting

  1. Create File System
  2. Create Root directory for File System
  3. Organize the Partition Blocks
  • Each Operating System has it’s own formatting

Linux

  • EXT4
  • BTRFS
  • XFS
  • ZFS

Windows

  • FAT32
  • FS
  • NTFS

FAT (32)

  • Earliest Formatting Scheme (legacy)
  • No longer used
  • FAT32 is the latest version of disk formating
    • Each block stores up to 4096 bytes
    • blocks larger than the maximum size use multiple clusters

Fragmentation

  • When you delete a file/folder it’s location gets flagged as empty space
  • Deleted files may be recovered from the recyble bin or 3rd party software
  • As data gets added/deleted/changes, gaps are formed
  • This decreases efficiency
  • Defragmentation re-organizes data
  • SSDs do not have fragmentation issues

NTFS

  • New technology file system
  • Uses clusters of blocks and master file table for the file allocation
  • A copy of the MFT is located in the middle of the partition
  • NTFS supports partitions up to 16 TB on a dynamic disk and 2 TB o na basic disk
  • Benefits:
    • Security: Treats files and folders as objects and provides security via Access Control List (ACL)
    • Compression: Can compress individual files and folders to save space
    • Encryption: Allows for disk encryption via “encrypting file system (EFS)”
    • Disk Quotas:

exFAT

  • External Hard drives were large and cost efficient with these formatting supports
  • FAT32 only supports drives up to 2 TB and files up to 4 GB
  • exFAT supporst files up to 16 exabytes (EB) and partition limit of 64 zettabytes (ZB) - 512 TB
  • Supports 64-bit
  • exFAT lacks NTFS’s extra features such as permissions, compression, and encryption

APFs

  • Apple File System (APFS) provides snapshots, encryptions, and disk efficiency

ext4

  • Most Linux based machines use this format and uses 1 exabyte (EB) with a file size up to 16 TB
  • Backward compatible with ex32 and ext3
  • Linux file system capabilities exceed macOS and Windows: ASbie to read and write to NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, HFS+, and ext4
  • Enterprise level and data centers use ZFS