DBMS vs File System: Comparison Between The Two

Here, we will learn about DBMS and File System and the differences between them in the tabular form.

What is File System?

File System (Often called as File Management or FS) is a technique which helps the users to store and manage the files in the various storage device such as hard disk, pen drive, and DVD. It organizes the files in such a way that the user easily accesses or retrieves the data files. It is a simple and fast way to store various types of data files. We can easily store the videos, images, text, and audio files.
Operating System such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac has its own file system. NTFS is a file system, which is widely used in Windows OS. The file system contains the different type of files which are grouped into directories. Directories may contain other directories or files.
In the file management system, the redundancy of data is high, which cannot be controlled easily.
Following are the examples of the file system:
1. FAT (File Allocation Table)
2. GFS (Google File System)
3. HFS (Hierarchical File System)
4. NTFS (New Technology File System)
5. UDF (Universal Disk Format)

What is Database Management System (DBMS)?

Database Management System (DBMS) is a software, which helps the users to store and manage the interrelated data in the database easily. DBMS is a set of programs which manipulate the database.
Database Management Systems help the users to easily store, retrieve, delete, and update the data in the database.
As compared to the file management system, DBMS provides more features. It removes the data redundancy from the database because of the ‘Normalization’ feature. It also provides high security to the data, so that unauthorized users can’t access the data from the database.
Following are the examples of Database Management system (DBMS):
1. MySQL
2. Microsoft Access
3. Microsoft SQL Server
4. Oracle
5. PostgreSQL

Difference Between DBMS and File System

File System (FS)
Database Management System (DBMS)
1. File System is a technique, which stores and manages the files in the various storage devices. 1. DBMS is a software, which stores and manages the data in the database.
2. In file management systems, the redundancy of data is more. 2. In DBMS, the redundancy of the data is less.
3. It does not provide the process of data recovery if the data is lost. 3. It provides the process of data recovery if the data is lost.
4. Inconsistency of the data is high in the file systems. 4. In DBMS, normalization concept keeps the data consistent.
5. As compared to DBMS, this system is less complex. 5. As compared to the file system, it is more complex to handle.
6. This system provides less security to the data. 6. This system provides high security to the data.
7. File system is less expensive as compared to DBMS. 7. The cost of DBMS is high as compared to file systems.
8. Data cannot be shared because the data is distributed in multiple files. 8. Data can be shared easily because the data is present at one location.
9. In the file system, the concurrency facility is not good. 9. DBMS provides concurrency using the locking techniques.
10. File system is less flexible than the DBMS. 10. DBMS is more flexible than the file system.
11. Examples of the file system are: NTFS, EXT GFS, HFS, etc. 11. Examples of DBMS are: MySQL, MS-SQL, Oracle, MS-Access, etc.

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