What is Traditional File System?

What is Traditional File System?

Before database management systems traditional file system was used to store and maintain data on the computer. It was an early attempt to computerize the manual file system.

In traditional file system. The data is usually kept in computer files on disk. in  a typical file system, each department has its own set of applications programs and data files data Is stored and managed  in data files through application programs.

Problems faced in traditional file system

The main problems that can be faced in traditional file system are as follows:

Data Redundancy

Redundancy means having multiple copies of the same data. In traditional file system, each application program has its own data files. The same data may be duplicated in more than one file. It is known as data redundancy. The duplication of data may create many problem such as:

To update a specific data record, the same data must be updated in all data files. Otherwise different files may have different information about a specific item.

A valuable storage space is wasted

Date Inconsistency

Data inconsistency means that different files may contain different information of a particular object. Actually redundancy leads to inconsistency. When the same data is stored at multiple locations, the inconsistency may occur. For example, in a college traditional file system, if the address of a student is changed and it is updated in the data file located at registrar’s office only since, data files are maintained by other departments also. Therefore some data files will contain the old address, while others contain the new address. In this case, the data inconsistency occurs.

Data Sharing

In traditional file systems, each application program use its own private data files. The traditional file systems do not provide the facility to share data of a data file among multiple users on the network. If one department this a data that is required by another department then second copy of the data is made. This method for sharing data from one department to another in a organization also leads to problem of inconsistency.

Data Dependence

In traditional file systems the data stored in file depends upon the applications program through which the file was created. The physical structure of data files and records are defined in the application program code. It is difficult to change the structure of data files or records. If you want to change the structure of data file tenuous have to modify the application program.

Data Security

The traditional file systems do not provide the proper security system against illegal access of data any one can easily change or delete valuable data stored in the data file