High Performance File System (HPFS)

HPFS (High Performance File System) - HPFS (High Performance File System) is the file system introduced with IBM's OS/2 Version 1.2. HPFS is noted for handling large files (2 gigabytes) across multiple hard disk volumes (addressable up to 2 terabytes) and long file names (up to 256 bytes). HPFS was designed to get around several limitations at the time in MS-DOS, among them its eight-character name restriction. HPFS uses a centrally-located root directory and B-tree lookup to speed access. HPFS can coexist with the MS-DOS file system, File Allocation Table (FAT), or run independently.

Among the benefits of HPFS:

   * Contiguous storage of extended attributes (without the EA DATA.SF file used by FAT)
   * Resistance to file fragmentation
   * Small cluster size
   * Support for larger file storage devices (up to 512 GB)
   * Speedier disk operation

Among the drawbacks:

   * Requires more system memory
   * HPFS partitions are not visible to MS-DOS, so if you need to boot from a floppy disk, it could be inconvenient.
   * Native DOS needs a special utility (Partition Magic from PowerQuest) to access a HPFS partition

Related glossary terms: dynamic-link library (DLL), Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), ASPI driver (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface driver), incident management (IcM), red screen of death, PXE (Preboot Execution Environment), Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), MetaFrame, restore point

[Category=Data Management ]

Source: WhatIs.com, 14 August 2013 09:03:07, http://whatis.techtarget.com/glossary/Data-and-Data-Management