## File System Hierarchy

UNIX administrators are used to being able to access multiple file systems or physical drives from a single root. For example, cd / takes you to the top of most directories. Under Windows NT, the MS-DOS convention of drive letters still exists. Each drive letter represents a root for a particular drive partition, and paths are relative to the current root. For example, the path C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 specifies the \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory on drive C.

#### Namespace

In addition to the obvious difference in the direction of directory name separators (/ and \), UNIX and Windows NT have other differences.

UNIX has a large namespace for file names. Windows operating systems previous to Windows NT and Windows 95 limited the name space to the 8.3 rule, with a monospace eight-character file name and three-character extension. Both FAT and NTFS support long file names (up to 255 characters).

Be aware that not all applications or utilities that run on Windows NT understand long file names.

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Last Updated: December 1, 1997