NetWare File System

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Netware File System (NWFS), is a file system, based on a heavily-modified version of FAT. It was used in the Novell NetWare operating system. It is the default and only file system for all volumes in versions 2.x through 4.x, and the default and only file system for the SYS volume continuing through version 5.x. There were two varieties of NWFS: 16-bit NWFS 286, used in Netware 2.x; and 32-bit NWFS 386, used in Netware 3.x through Netware 6.x. It was superseded by the release of Novell Storage Services (NSS) in 1998.

The published specifications for 32-bit NWFS are:

Maximum file size: 4GB
Maximum volume size: 1TB
Maximum files per volume: 2 million when using a single name space.
Maximum files per server: 16 million
Maximum directory entries: 16 million
Maximum volumes per server: 64
Maximum volumes per partition: 8
Maximum open files per server: 100,000
Maximum directory tree depth: 100 levels
Characters used: ASCII double-byte
Maximum extended attributes: 16
Maximum data streams: 10
Support for different name spaces: Microsoft Windows Long names, Unix, Apple Macintosh
Support for restoring deleted files (salvage)
Support for journaling (transaction tracking service)
Support for block suballocation, starting in NetWare 4.x

Transparent file compression was also supported, although this had a significant impact on the performance of file serving.

Every name space requires its own separate directory entry for each file. While the maximum number of directory entries is 16,000,000, two resident name spaces would reduce the usable maximum number of directory entries to 8,000,000, and three to 5,333,333.

16-bit NWFS could handle volumes of up to 256MB. However its only name space support was a dedicated API to handle Macintosh clients.