i don't think mandrake does anything special as far as file system goes
check out here for mandy specific things
http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/
if u r concerned with ext2/3 and other file systems internally works,
i think u have to dig up tldp.org
for howto.
for getting abstract overview, u can search this site for related posting too.
or googling.
good luck