File Allocation Table

Also known as FAT, VFAT

family of file systems originally developed by Microsoft

Key facts

Developer s: Microsoft , NCR , SCP , IBM , Compaq , Digital Research , Novell , Caldera
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 : FAT12: Values in C-notation for hexadecimal numbers</span>"}]]}'>0x 01 e.a. (Extended Attribute) FAT16: Values in C-notation for hexadecimal numbers</span>"}]]}'>0x 04 0x06 0x0E e.a. FAT32: </span>"}]]}'>0x 0B 0x0C e.a. BDP : EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
Directory contents: Table
File allocation: Linked list
Bad blocks: Cluster tagging
Max volume size: FAT12: 32 MB (256 MB for 64 KB clusters) FAT16: 2 GB (4 GB for 64 KB clusters) FAT32: 2 TB (16 TB for 4 KB sectors )
Max file size: 4,294,967,295 bytes (4 GB − 1) with FAT16B and FAT32

Article

File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on hard disks and other devices. The increase in disk drive capacity over time drove modifications to the design that resulted in new versions: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and exFAT.

FAT was replaced with NTFS as the default file system on Microsoft operating systems starting with Windows XP. Nevertheless, FAT continues to be commonly used on relatively small capacity solid-state storage technologies such as USB flash drives, SD cards, MultiMediaCards (MMC) and eMMC because of its compatibility across operating systems and embedded systems, and ease of implementation.