File Allocation Table
Family of file systems originally developed by Microsoft / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Further information: Design of the FAT file system
File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default filesystem for MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems.[3] Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on hard disks and other devices. The increase in disk drives capacity required four major variants: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and ExFAT. FAT was replaced with NTFS as the default file system on Microsoft operating systems starting with Windows XP.[4] Nevertheless, FAT continues to be used on flash and other solid-state memory cards and modules (including USB flash drives), many portable and embedded devices because of its compatibility and ease of implementation.[5]
Quick Facts Developer(s), Full name ...
Developer(s) | Microsoft, NCR, SCP, IBM, Compaq, Digital Research, Novell, Caldera |
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Full name | File Allocation Table |
Variants | 8-bit FAT, FAT12, FAT16, FAT16B, FAT32, ExFAT, FATX, FAT+ |
Introduced | 1977 (1977) with Standalone Disk BASIC-80 |
Partition IDs | MBR/EBR: |
Structures | |
Directory contents | Table |
File allocation | Linked list |
Bad blocks | Cluster tagging |
Limits | |
Max volume size |
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Max file size | 4,294,967,295 bytes (4 GB − 1) with FAT16B and FAT32[1] |
Max no. of files |
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Max filename length | 8.3 filename, or 255 UCS-2 characters when using LFN[nb 1] |
Features | |
Dates recorded | |
Date range | 1980-01-01 to 2099-12-31 (2107-12-31) |
Date resolution |
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Forks | Not natively |
Attributes | Read-only, hidden, system, volume, directory, archive |
File system permissions |
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Transparent compression |
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Transparent encryption |
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