Netware File System (NWFS), is a file system, based on a heavily-modified version of FAT. It was used in Novell's 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of NWFS: 16-bit NWFS 286, used in Netware 2.x; and 32-bit NWFS 386, used in Netware 3.x through Netware 6.x. It was superseded by the release of NSS in 1998.
The published specifications for NWFS are:
- Maximum file size: 4GB
- Maximum volume size: 1TB
- Maximum files per volume: ?
- 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
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.