ACSP File System and Storage 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A user wants to share a large video file between a Mac and a Windows 11 PC using an external drive without reformatting. Which file system supports this with files larger than 4 GB?
- FAT32
- ExFAT (Correct answer)
- HFS+
- APFS
Correct answer: ExFAT
ExFAT supports files larger than 4 GB and is natively readable and writable on both macOS and Windows without additional drivers.
Question 2: Which macOS utility command verifies and repairs permissions on a volume running macOS Catalina or later?
- diskutil repairPermissions /
- fsck_apfs -y /dev/disk1s1
- diskutil repairVolume / (Correct answer)
- sudo repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /
Correct answer: diskutil repairVolume /
On macOS Catalina and later, `diskutil repairVolume` is used since System Integrity Protection manages system file permissions automatically.
Question 3: When a macOS system volume is mounted as 'read-only' after a failed update, what underlying technology enforces this protection?
- FileVault encryption
- Signed System Volume (SSV) (Correct answer)
- APFS snapshots
- System Integrity Protection only
Correct answer: Signed System Volume (SSV)
The Signed System Volume (SSV) cryptographically seals the system volume, and macOS mounts it read-only to protect its integrity.
Question 4: A Mac supports up to how many APFS volumes within a single APFS container before performance may be impacted?
- There is no defined limit; performance depends on available storage (Correct answer)
- Exactly 4 volumes
- Up to 16 volumes
- Up to 8 volumes
Correct answer: There is no defined limit; performance depends on available storage
APFS imposes no hard limit on the number of volumes per container, but all volumes share the same pool of free space and I/O resources.
Question 5: What does the 'noatime' mount option do when applied to an APFS or HFS+ volume on macOS?
- Prevents access-time timestamps from being updated when files are read (Correct answer)
- Disables APFS snapshots
- Stops Time Machine from backing up the volume
- Prevents new files from being created
Correct answer: Prevents access-time timestamps from being updated when files are read
The `noatime` option stops macOS from writing an updated access-time to disk every time a file is read, reducing unnecessary write operations.
Question 6: A technician creates a new APFS volume inside an existing APFS container using Disk Utility. Which statement about the new volume's space allocation is correct?
- The container's free space is equally divided among all volumes automatically
- The new volume draws from the container's shared free space pool with optional quotas (Correct answer)
- The technician must specify a fixed partition size at creation time
- The new volume is assigned exactly half the remaining free space
Correct answer: The new volume draws from the container's shared free space pool with optional quotas
APFS volumes share a common pool of free space within the container, and optional size quotas or reservations can be set but are not required.
Question 7: Which file system check tool should be run against an APFS volume when 'fsck' is needed from macOS Recovery?
- fsck_hfs
- fsck_apfs (Correct answer)
- diskutil verify
- apfs_util -check
Correct answer: fsck_apfs
The `fsck_apfs` command is the file system consistency check tool specifically designed for APFS volumes on macOS.
ACSP File System and Storage 5
A user wants to share a large video file between a Mac and a Windows 11 PC using an external drive without reformatting.
Which file system supports this with files larger than 4 GB?