Chapter 3: File Systems - 9 Questions Flashcards
What is the difference between disk drives, partitions, and volumes?
Disk drives are the actual storage hardware; partitions are logical divisions of a disk drive used to define the storage space; and volumes, contained inside partitions, define how the individual files and folders are saved to the storage.
What are the two primary partition schemes for Mac- formatted drives? What are their differences?
GUID Partition Table is the default partition scheme on Intel- based Mac computers, and Apple Partition Map is the default partition scheme on PowerPC-based Mac computers.
What two volume formats does a Lion system volume support?
The volume formats supported as system volumes for Lion are Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted).
How does file system journaling work?
File system journaling records what file operations are in progress at any given moment. This way, if a power failure or system crash occurs, after the system restarts it can quickly verify the integrity of the volume by “replaying” the journal.
What are the four erase options available in Disk Utility? What are the differences between them?
- The four erase options in Disk Utility are Fastest, which simply replaces the volume’s directory structure; a second choice
- (single-pass erase), which provides good security by writing zeros on top of all the previous drive data; a third choice
- (3- pass erase), which provides even better security by writing three separate passes of information on top of the previous drive data; and Most Secure
- (7-pass erase), which provides the best security by writing seven separate passes of information on top of the previous drive data.
How does the Finder’s Secure Empty Trash feature work?
The Finder’s Secure Empty Trash performs a 7-pass erase on the contents of the Trash folder.
What four methods can be used to eject a volume or drive from the Finder?
The four methods for ejecting a volume or drive from the Finder are: drag the drive icon to the Trash in the Dock; press and hold the Eject key to unmount and eject optical media; select the volume you wish to unmount and eject from the Finder and choose File > Eject from the menu bar; and, finally, in the Finder’s sidebar, click the small Eject button next to the volume you wish to unmount and eject.
What is the potential side effect of improperly unmounting or ejecting a drive or volume?
Improperly unmounting or ejecting a drive or volume may cause data corruption. The system will automatically verify and repair an improperly unmounted or ejected volume the next time it becomes available to the Mac.
What differentiates a RAID 0 set from a RAID 1 set?
RAID 0 uses disk striping to simultaneously write data to all drives, providing increased performance, but it increases your chances of data loss due to drive failure. RAID 1 uses disk mirroring to write the same data to multiple drives, which does not increase performance but does greatly decrease your chances of data loss due to drive failure.
How do you use the Finder’s Burn Folder feature?
You can burn a disc with the Finder in several ways. First, you can create a burn folder of any size by choosing File > New Burn Folder from the menu bar. After you’re done adding and arranging items in the burn folder, click the Burn button and then insert a blank recordable optical disc. You can also create a burn folder of a specific optical disc size by first inserting a blank recordable optical disc; the Finder will automatically create a burn folder that matches the size of the recordable optical disc.
How do you use Disk Utility to burn an optical disc?
Disk Utility can burn the contents of a disk image to an optical disk. Click the Burn button in Disk Utility’s toolbar, select a disk image, and then insert a blank recordable optical disc.
Why is the root, or beginning, level of a user’s home folder visible to other users?
The root level of a user’s home folder is visible to other users so they can navigate to the Public and Sites shared folders.
How do you set the permissions on the Shared folder to allow local user sharing?
The Shared folder is set up to allow all users to read and write files, but only the user who owns an item can delete it from the Shared folder. This is accomplished using the sticky bit permissions setting.
How does the default organization of the file system allow users to safely share local files and folders?
Every home folder contains a Public folder that other users can read and a Drop Box folder that other users can write to. All other subfolders in a user’s home folder (except the optional Sites folder) have default permissions that don’t allow access to other users. The Shared folder is also set for all users to share items.
What does it mean when you choose the option to “ignore volume ownership” in the Finder? What are the security ramifications of ignoring volume ownership?
You can choose to ignore ownership on any nonsystem volume. This ignores any ownership rules and grants any logged-on user unlimited access to the contents of the volume. It’s a potential security risk because any local user account can have full access to the volume even if that user didn’t originally mount the volume.
