Editing File system (section)

=== Design limitations ===

File systems limit [[Comparison of file systems#Limits|storable data capacity]] {{endash}} generally driven by the typical size of storage devices at the time the file system is designed and anticipated into the foreseeable future.

Since storage sizes have increased at near [[exponential growth|exponential]] rate (see [[Moore's law]]), newer storage devices often exceed existing file system limits within only a few years after introduction. This requires new file systems with ever increasing capacity.

With higher capacity, the need for capabilities and therefore complexity increases as well. File system complexity typically varies proportionally with available storage capacity. Capacity issues aside, the file systems of early 1980s [[home computer]]s with 50&nbsp;KB to 512&nbsp;KB of storage would not be a reasonable choice for modern storage systems with hundreds of gigabytes of capacity. Likewise, modern file systems would not be a reasonable choice for these early systems, since the complexity of modern file system structures would quickly consume the limited capacity of early storage systems.