File System Components [Files]

  • Article

All file systems supported by Windows have the following storage components:

  • Volumes. A volume is a collection of directories and files.
  • Directories. A directory is a hierarchical collection of directories and files.
  • Files. A file is a logical grouping of related data.

In addition, the latest version of the NTFS file system supports symbolic links.

Storage devices and partitions are the required physical foundation for the logical file system components, but they are not part of the file system. For more information, see Disk Devices and Partitions.

Because the NTFS file system is the preferred file system, this documentation describes only the NTFS file system implementation of volumes, directories, and files. The FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system implementations are legacy technologies and are only described in general terms.