What is the difference between filesystem and partition

A partition is a chunk of a disk with a specific size e. Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a disk into multiple chunks as if there were multiple disks. Some partitions may be divided in turn into multiple separate logical chunks , it must be supported by the partitioning scheme used. The effective chunk regardless being physical or logical is called a volume. The raw volume can be later formatted to contain a file system which can itself store actual data. The operating system needs to keep tracks of the volumes in the system.

It's were files and directories are stored. MBR can create up to 4 partitions on a drive, either primary or extended. The visible space on the drive is limited to 2 TB, space in excess cannot be used by partitions. There can be only one extended partition per drive, this partition can be divided into up to logical volumes. GPT supports drives larger than 2 TB and up to partitions per drive. An image is a snapshot of a volume files and other data into a single file, similarly to a zip file.

The file system is used to control how data is stored and retrieved on a volume. It's the practical way to store data organized into files and directories instead of unordered and unrelated bytes.

The file system takes care of the file content and structure tree. Directories and files are given properties like read only and access permissions. It's still supported by modern devices for compatibility and exchange purposes. NTFS adds support for metadata, access control list permissions and journaling.

When the file system cannot allocate contiguous sectors for a file, file content is stored in distant sectors, this fragmentation slows down data access in mechanical devices.

Some file systems are able to reduce the effective unused space size, but a file usually owns more space than actually required to store data. This code is a bootstrap which is able to load and execute the appropriate code from the active partition to start the main OS components, of which the file system which provides functions to load files.

Then the OS takes control of the computer. Before large storage options emerge, there were no partitions. For example, floppy disks have no partitions. The file system sits directly at the beginning of the storage space. When storage capability of new devices expanded greatly there was a need to logically divide a device into smaller parts to serve different purposes.

Thus a partition table is created to split device into partitions. Whenever a file system is created at beginning of a partition or an older device and is made available to a user, it becomes a volume. Creating a file system on a partition is called formatting.

Here is an example of a disk with five partitions and a link to a definition of an extended partition. Ubuntu Community Ask! Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What is the difference between Filesystem and "Extended Partition" in Disks? Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 5 months ago. Active 1 year, 5 months ago. Viewed 1k times. Improve this question. Startec Startec 1, 3 3 gold badges 17 17 silver badges 30 30 bronze badges. An extended partition is a partition that can be further divided to create additional partitions.

Basically, the extended partition allows you to have more partitions on a physical drive than you could otherwise have. Here is an example of a disk with five partitions and a link to a definition of an extended partition. Python Javascript Linux Cheat sheet Contact. Show Threads. Show Posts. Difference between filesystem and partition. Operating Systems Solaris Difference between filesystem and partition.

Registered User. Join Date: Feb Join Date: Mar Join Date: Dec A filesystem is a logical, hierarchy of directories and files while a partition is a physical subset of a disk. Whether there is a one to one mapping between both of them will depend on various factors. Traditional filesystems lay out a single filesystem on a single partition. Raid based volume managers lay out a single filesystem on more than one partition.

ZFS lay out many filesystems on a single or more partitions, beyond other choices Join Date: May Don't understand why you should be asking them here.