Brief History :
There was a time when the question posed in the headline, just not standing in front of users. Despite the fact that the file system was more than one even before the onset of the first desktops, a choice usually does not exist. Just because different incompatible (or only partially compatible) computer architecture was a lot behind each stood a particular firm that uses its own operating system and has its own ideas about "what is good and what is bad." And yet, and storage media used different and incompatible with each other. And if compatible hardware (such as floppy disk used in so many computer systems, with the main sizes of disk drives at the hardware level, were more or less standardized), then the data are organized differently. More or less compatible tape drives were, because so Historically, ever since the "big" computers they often used to exchange data between systems of different architecture. But the only mass recorders, which were used in conjunction with personal turned out to be domestic, and the primitiveness of typical CD-cassette led to the fact that all manufacturers, if they really used and have tried to squeeze the maximum out of the media, and all did so in different ways. The situation improved only when it became clear that the line of IBM PC (the progenitor of virtually all the surviving today architectures PC) is becoming the de-facto standard in the industry (not only). Well, when the market appears dominant architecture, all the rest are forced to take this into account - for reasons of survival. The main removable data storage then were floppy disks, so that fast enough means to ensure compatibility were those of their format used by IBM. Not the best, it should be noted. And not just on hardware, though it too - despite the fact that the first drives to 3.5 "appeared in the same year as the first PC, and many manufacturers have started to use them in the first half of the 80's, she IBM moved to this construct only in 1987, and until clung five inch drives on the market in 1976. However, in terms of format "original" design IBM conceded even by many clones of its computers - in particular, the company is on the bilateral double-density floppy disks hold only 360 kilobytes of information, while competitors are the same without any special tricks squeezed and 600-720 Kbytes . But nothing of the primitive FAT file system is not only lazy reasoning. Although it is quite possible, it is primitive and has become the second reason for turning "floppy" in the standard - it was really not easy to maintain. They should at least read-only and in addition to its own "advanced" version.
However, from the perspective of today, all it has only historical value. Floppy disks long ago ceased to be used as the primary means of information transfer, and alternative bar "x86-based» computers in most market segments remained. But we can not say that it completely solved all the problems. The fact that this same single standard platform running almost more operating systems than there were during the times when "all the flowers bloomed. Even if we take the most prevalent in the market of family, namely Windows, then it is, strictly speaking, homogeneous. Most of the installations have so far for Windows XP - comes from the early twentieth century, but it takes almost 2 / 3 of the market. Somewhere in the last quarter accounted for modern versions of Windows, and all the rest - on the hodgepodge of surviving PCs with systems that have emerged to Windows XP (they are now running low, but can still be found), various versions of MacOS and whole bunch of UNIX-based systems. But even if you are lucky enough never to face in practical life with anything other than Windows XP, all this does not solve the problem - once the "computer" technology has long gone beyond this market, is actively interfering in the consumer electronics industry. For example, most of today's video players can work with USB-drives, and cameras or mobile phones are commonly used variety of memory cards. And then everything is just only if, for example, the card is only used in "his" camera - it means format the camera and for all forget about this question However, if we should at least communicate with the computer, there is not all so obviously. The cause of the problem is that almost all modern operating systems with a few exceptions do not support a file system (as it did 20-30 years ago), but several. And the degree of their support may be quite different. And sometimes changes with the help of additional software. The mass of options, so we will not attempt to cover them all in one short article. But enough background information so that you can understand "where to dig, still try to give. And it is enough to get acquainted with the main file systems, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
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