File Systems

  • Article

The Universal Disk Format (UDF) is new for Windows 2000. UDF is a file system defined by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA). UDF is compliant with the ISO 13346 standard and is the successor to the CD-ROM file system (CDFS or ISO 9660).

UDF is targeted for removable disk media like DVD, CD, and Magneto-Optical (MO) discs. Since UDF is based on open standards, it is intended to facilitate data interchange between operating systems, and between consumer devices. The standard supports a number of advanced features, including:

  • Long and Unicode file names.

  • Sparse files.

  • Support for a wide range of media types including digital video disc (DVD), write once, read many (WORM) disk, and compact disc-recordable (CD-R).

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Note

Windows 2000 reads both UDF versions 1.02 and 1.50. Windows 2000 does not support writing to UDF volumes.