Unix has a mechanism called a hard link by which it creates additional directory entries that all point to the same file. This is easy to manage because most information resides in the file’s inode,...

Unix has a mechanism called a hard link by which it creates additional directory entries that all point to the same file. This is easy to manage because most information resides in the file’s inode, including a count of the number of links. Bob is trying to create a hard link to a file in a FAT directory by duplicating the file’s existing directory entry and giving it a new name. How well will existing file read, write, and delete operations work?

a. Which operations work correctly if a FAT file has two directory entries?

b. What operations won’t work correctly?

How do those operations fail to work correctly? The following questions involve a forensic examination of a FAT file system. Find a “dump” utility and use it to examine the contents of a FAT file system. First, find an unused removable device, like a USB flash drive. Reformat it. Use online descriptions of the FAT format to locate the FAT and the file directories using the dump utility. Perform these exercises, print the results using the dump utility. Use a marker to highlight the results.