Joshua Kellogg
8/23/05
chapter 8 homework exercise

1. Hidden files can not be directly modified or deleted, but this is a very basic portection, but it is still possible to change the attributes of the file. To change this attribute you go to the file properties. to view hidden files in a directory you go to the folder options located in the menu option of the folder thats open and you change the viewing type to all files.

2. Yes you can modify a system file, you left click on the file and select the properties options and change what you want from hidden, to read only and so on.

6. The four file attributes are:

*. Read-only: Determines wether or not you can delete or modify a file.

*. Hidden: Determines wether or not a file will be visible as part of the directory listing in which it exist.

*. System: Determines wether or not the file will be visable as part of the directory listing in which it exist.

*. Archive: Determines whether the file will be backed up up by backup software. This attribute is set automatically for all files that are newly created or as soon as a file is modified.

8. Sequential access method, is the simplest access method, it is based on the idea that information is written on the tape sequentially. Direct Access Method allows read and write operations in random blocks. Indexed Access Method is based on the direct access method.

9. In the sequential access method, it is easy to keep track of data because the files are stored in continuous sectors on the storage device. For example, a tape media has a file, F1, of size 20 KB by a file, F2, of size 40 KB, which in turn, is followed by another file F3, of size 100 KB stored on it. If a user deletes file F2, a free space of 40KB is available between the files F1 and F3. If the user stores another file, F4, od size 30 KB on the tape, this file may be stored on the location where file F2 was stored. This means that a space of size 10 KB will be left. This space will remain unused until another file size 10 KB or less is written on it.

11. The linked list Allocation Method is when each file is regarded as a linked list of blocks that are scattered on the disk. Indexed Allocation Method allows files to be accessed directly or sequentially, in this method, all the pointers are located at one place know as index block.

12. The commonly used file systems are FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, UFS, EXT FS, EXT FS, EXT3 FS. FAT12 is a file system used by earlier versions of MS-Dos. FAT16 uses a 16-bit binary number to store the cluster locations. FAT32 was introduced in windows 98, it supports higher partition size and disk efficiency. NTFS was design to ensure file security and LArge disk size support. UFS is a Unix file system and is similiar to windows FAT family and NFTS. EXT fs was designed for the linux family and was designed after Minix FS, which was the first file system designed by Linux. the EXT FS supports file names up to 255 characters and a file size up to 2 GB, EXT FS 2 and EXT FS 3 are extensions of this.

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