The many different operating systems in use nowadays can cause quite a bit of confusion with regard to what types of file systems can be read by what. It doesn’t help matters any that most modern operating systems support several different file systems as well. In order to clear matters up somewhat, here then is a listing of some of the more commonly used operating systems and the file systems they can use.

 

Linux

Many of the Linux distributions in use today support various file systems including ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, Reiser4, JFS, XFS, GFS, GFS2, OCFS, OCFS2, and NILFS. The ext file systems are supported of course, since they are based on the original Linux file system to begin with, while the other file systems were adapted from other operating systems such as UNIX and Microsoft Windows in order to meet certain requirements. In addition to those file systems, Linux also supports XFS and JFS, FAT, and HFS. More recently, Linux has begun to support the NTFS system introduced by Microsoft Windows NT.

 

Mac OS X

Mac OS X currently supports HFS+ natively, and it allows read and write access to FAT and UDF, although the operating systems cannot be installed under these file systems. Being partly drawn from the UNIX system, Mac OS X also supports almost all file systems supported by the VFS.

 

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows supports NTFS and the FAT file systems FAT16 and FAT32. In addition, Windows also supports the ISO 9660 and UDF file systems used for CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Windows Vista however can only be installed on NTFS formatted drives. Windows Embedded CE 6.0, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and Windows Server 2008 also support ExFAT, which is a file system typically used for flash drives.

 

Solaris Operating System

UFS is the primary file system of the Solaris Operating System. While Solaris UFS did not offer logging and journaling features before 1998, the operating system has since added these and many other data management features.

 

Special-purpose file systems

Most forms of removable media utilize the FAT file system. Among these devices are floppy disks, flash memory cards, and digital cameras among others. Compact Discs, DVDs and Blue-Ray discs utilize the ISO 9660 and Universal Disk Format or UDF formats, while Linux 2.6 series and Windows Vista use an extension of the UDF system called Mount Rainier. This allows rewriting to DVDs in much the same way as rewriting to floppy disks.

 

Journalized file systems

Certain file systems offer journaling features, which provide an added measure of protection in the event of a system crash. Certain UNIX file systems such as ReiserFS, JFS, and Ext3 provide such protection.