"Everything you do with Linux involves files in one way or another. You launch programs from files, read program configurations in files, store data in files, deliver files to clients via servers, and so on. Therefore, the tools Linux provides for manipulating files are extremely important to overall system performance. At the core, these tools make up a filesystem--a set of data structures that allow Linux to locate and manipulate files. Several Linux native filesystems exist, the most important of these being the Second Extended File System (ext2fs), the Third Extended File System (ext3fs), the Reiser File System (ReiserFS), the Journaled File System (JFS), and XFS. The filesystem you use will affect your computer's overall performance and suitability for specific tasks.
"Beyond picking a filesystem, you should be familiar with various filesystem tools. Filesystem creation options and performance enhancing tools can improve disk throughput, and partition resizers enable you to grow or shrink a partition to better suit your storage needs. Filesystems sometimes become corrupted, and fixing these problems is critical when they occur. Finally, one very common problem is that of accidentally or prematurely deleted files. Knowing how to recover such files can save you or your users a lot of time and effort..."
