September 30, 2025 Week 4 Learning Journal

 April 20th, 2026

Journal Entry Week 7

    This week in class we covered file systems and how data is organized in them and how they are accessed on a disk. The main topics were inodes and file metadata, block allocation, directory structures, links, and how file systems manage storage through bitmaps and indexing. We also did a few problems on calculating inode locations and how to understand how data is physically laid out on a disk. 

    In my own words inodes are basically the identify of a file. Block allocation is how a file system decides where it will store the pieces of a file on the disk. Directory structures are what maps filenames to inodes. Hard links point to the same inode, symbolic links point to a path. Bitmap system tracks which inode and clock are free or being used. 

    The hardest topic for me was inode calculations. I had a heck of a time when making one small mistake and throwing off the rest of the problem. I definitely need more practice working on those. 

    My aha moment was understanding how directories work. When I realized that filenames are just mappings to inode numbers, I felt like I got some realization going on. 

    I do have a few questions moving forward. I wonder how modern file systems handle the same problems at scale. Do they still use the same inode style structure or are there any major differences? How does the OS decide where the best place to put a block is? How does fragmentation work on SSD vs HDD?

    For connections to other courses, it is definitely related to Computer Architecture course for the prerequisite. There are also many programming connections of course, and some math. Overall I feel like this week was a good point to wrap up and tie it all together. I don't expect I will be making file systems anytime soon, but it was a good chance for exposure to the topic. 

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Journal Entry Week 7 (30 minutes)

Due Tuesday by 11:59pm Points 10 Submitting a text entry box Available Apr 15 at 12am - Apr 21 at 11:59pm

Write a reflection on your learning in this week of class. 

It is okay if you summarize the main topics covered during the week, but the purpose of the log is reflection.  What questions do you have?  What ideas do you have?   Are there any concepts that you're finding hard to get your head around?  If so, take this opportunity to explain exactly what's not clear.

A way to approach this is to think about how the things we learned this week fit together, both with each other and with things from previous lectures and from other topics.  The basic steps are below.

Identify the topics we covered in class -- you can start by listing them

Explain what each of the topics were in your own terms -- take the identified topics and add a sentence or two describing them

Identify least-understood topics -- of these topics, which was the hardest for you to write the descriptions?

Explain the nature of your confusion -- for these difficult topics, what pieces of them make sense and what pieces are difficult to describe?

Identify "aha" moments -- which topic did you find it easiest to write about, and why did it make sense?

Ask questions -- what do you think will come next?  Are there any gaps that don't seem to be explained yet?

What connections did you see to other classes and applications -- have you used/heard/thought about these topics before?

 

I'd recommend treating these like steps.  First do step one and list out the topics.  Next, describe them.  After that, think about how those two steps went and what it seems to mean.  Finally, think about how these topics are tied together -- will they be helpful in other classes, do they relate to things we learned previously, or are you thinking about how they might fit into the larger topic of virtualization?

 

Note: your reflection should be at least 250 words, and will be capped at ~2k words.