File Systems

File systems are structures in which files are stored, named, and organized.  File systems vary as to the file values they support, such as file attributes, security values, encryption values, and compression values.

Different versions of Windows® support different combinations of file systems.

The following file-system descriptions are not complete. As written, they relate to this Double Image topic and the usage and compatibility of Double Image®.

• FAT12 - Relates to removable 5 1/4 and 3.5 inch floppy disks but is not limited to these disks.

• FAT16 - Relates to MS-DOS® formatted disks but can be used by other Windows® operating systems.

• FAT32 - Relates to all Windows® 32bit platforms and some DVD-RAM drives.

• exFAT Wikipedia - is an incompatible replacement for FAT file systems that was introduced with Windows Embedded CE 6.0. It is intended to be used on flash drives, where FAT is used today. Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 7 support this recent file system. Also, exFAT is supported on Windows XP provided the user has the Microsoft provided hot fix to add support for exFAT.

• NTFS - Commonly refers to Windows controlled drives. Also, the NTFS file system is often shown on the many flavors of Linux controlled drives, which include most NAS and many SAN devices.

• CDFS - Relates to CD discs.

• UDF - Relates to DVD discs. Varying sub-file systems exist.  UDF 1.5 formatting is most often used for PC storage data files that appear in a similar folder, file representation as a normal hard disk. UDF 2.0 formatting is most often used for storing video content.

Some 'Non-Windows' file systems recognized by Double Image.
 

Double Image works well for copying files when running the Unix or Linux *Samba interface because system drives may be also copied to retain their attributes and security values.  Web link: *Samba is the standard Windows interoperability suite of programs for Linux and Unix