GOOGLE IT SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATE

Course 3 – Operating Systems and You: Becoming A Power User

Week 4: Filesystems

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TABLE OF CONTENT

In the fourth week of this course, we’ll learn about how filesystems work for Windows and Linux OS. We’ll learn about filesystem types and why they’re different for certain OS. We’ll learn about disk partitioning and virtual memory and why these are so important for an IT Support Specialist’s role. We’ll also cover ways mount and unmount filesystems, read disk usage, and repair filesystems. By the end of this module, you will partition and format a disk drive yourself in both Windows and Linux.

Learning Objectives

  • Format and partition a disk in Windows.
  • Use common tools to repair a filesystem and disk.
  • View disk usage and free space.
  • Format and partition a disk in Linux.

PRACTICE QUIZ:  FILESYSTEM TYPES

1. Which of the following is a characteristic of the FAT32 filesystem? Check all that apply.

  • It doesn’t support files larger than 4GB. (CORRECT)
  • It’s read and write compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux OSes. (CORRECT)
  • Its filesystem size can’t be larger than 32GB. (CORRECT)
  • It supports files up to 8GB in size.

Great job! The FAT32 filesystem is great for cross-platform compatibility, but has lots of limitations that don’t make it useful for large data storage.

2. What’s the difference between a GPT and MBR partition table? Check all that apply.

  • MBR only allows you to have volume sizes of 2TBs or less. (CORRECT)
  • MBR is the new standard for partition tables.
  • GPT doesn’t have a limit to the amount of partitions you can make. (CORRECT)
  • GPT allows you to have volume sizes of 2TBs or greater. (CORRECT)

Nice work! MBR has a few legacy traits that are being slowly faded out by GPT.

3. Before you can store files on a hard drive, which of the following has to be done? Check all that apply.

  • Nothing; hard drives can be used to store files out of the box
  • Format a filesystem (CORRECT)
  • Partition the disk (CORRECT)
  • Mount the filesystem (CORRECT)

You got it! Before you can start using a hard drive to store files, you’ll need to partition the disk, format a filesystem, then mount the filesystem.

4. You want to format a partition with NTFS, and know that the data you’ll be storing will consist mostly of many small files. In order to use as little space as possible, should you choose a larger or smaller Allocation Unit Size during the formatting process?

  • Larger allocation unit size
  • Smaller allocation unit size (CORRECT)

Right on! With a smaller block size, you’ll waste less space if your files are small.

5. In Linux, what could a device named /dev/sdb2 refer to?

  • The first hard drive that was detected on the system
  • The second partition of the second hard drive detected on the system (CORRECT)
  • The second B hard drive
  • The first partition of the second hard drive detected on the system

Nice work! Device partitions are denoted by numbers after the device drive.

6. True or false: If you want to save space on a Windows computer, deleting the pagefile.sys file is a good idea.

  • TRUE
  • FALSE (CORRECT)

You nailed it! You might free up some space by deleting the pagefile.sys, but this is the location of the swap file in Windows. If you remove it, then your programs will only use RAM memory, which might cause a performance degradation if you run out.

7. Which of the following commands in Windows will create a symbolic link called “cauliflower” to a file named “broccoli.txt?”

  • mklink cauliflower broccoli.txt (CORRECT)
  • mklink broccoli.txt cauliflower
  • mklink /H cauliflower broccoli.txt

Awesome! The mklink command will, by default, create symbolic links in the form of mklink <link name> <file name>.

8. True or false: In modern versions of Windows, it’s necessary to periodically run a Disk Defragmentation process manually to keep your disk healthy.

  • TRUE
  • FALSE (CORRECT)

Great job! Nowadays, Windows schedules a task to take care of the defragmentation process in the background automatically for you.

9. In Linux, what’s the difference between the commands df and du? Check all that apply.

  •  df is used to find the amount of free space on an entire machine. (CORRECT)
  • du is used to find the amount of disk usage on a specific directory. (CORRECT)
  • df is used to delete files in a directory.
  • du is used to undelete files in a directory.

Awesome work! The df, or disk free, command is used to find the amount of free space on an entire machine, while the du, or disk usage, command is used to find the disk usage on a specific directory.

10. In Linux, what’s the difference between a hardlink and a softlink? Check all that apply.

  • A softlink points to a filename. (CORRECT)
  • A hardlink points to an inode. (CORRECT)
  • A hardlink points to a filename.
  • You can view the hardlink count of a file using ls -l. (CORRECT)

Nice job! Softlinks are used to point to filenames, while hardlinks point to inodes.

11. Although NTFS is largely a self-healing filesystem, which of the following tools can you run to try to locate and repair serious disk corruption of the C: drive?

  • chkdsk /r c: (CORRECT)
  • chkdsk c:
  • fsck c:

Right on! The chkdsk utility, combined with the /r flag, will scan the filesystem on the drive supplied (in this case, C:) and attempt to fix any errors it encounters.

12. If you want to automatically mount a filesystem on computer startup, what file do you have to modify?

  • /etc/fstab (CORRECT)
  • /dev/sda
  • /etc/sudoers
  • /etc/group

Yep! To automatically mount filesystems on startup, you have to add a device entry to the /etc/fstab file.

13. In Linux, ____ is where we allocate virtual memory on our hard drives.

  • Master Boot Record (MBR)
  • /etc/passwd
  • /etc/fstab
  • swap space (CORRECT)

Yep! We use swap space to allocate virtual memory on our hard drives.

14. In Linux, an ____ stores everything about a file, except for the filename and the file data.

  • Answer: Inode (CORRECT)

You got it! Inodes store our files metadata — basically everything about a file, except for the filename and the file data itself.

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