How does operating system know what filesystem a partition is using? In other words, how are FAT16/32, NTFS, ext2/3 etc. distinguished from each other?
How does operating system know what filesystem a partition is using? In other words,
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How does operating system know what filesystem a partition is using? In other words, how are FAT16/32, NTFS, ext2/3 etc. distinguished from each other?
There are several ways, depending on the hardware type.
Hard discs have a Master Boot Record followed by a Partition Table. The PT contains a list of the partitions on this drive. Each entry in that list contains (among other things) a numeric System ID field that specifies the partitions file system.
Floppy discs and most USB sticks do not have a PT. Here you have to look into the partition itself. The first partition sector (known as Boot Sector) usually contains a System ID in a completely different format from the System ID in the PT. Also, the location of the ID within the sector can differ between file systems.