File Systems

Physically, the hard disks and other media provide the basic technology for storing data Logically,however, the file system provides the hierarchical structure of volumes and directories in which you store individual files and the organizational model that enables the system to locate data anywhere on a given disk or drive.

PRIMARY FILE SYSTEMS

File allocation table (FAT), which includes FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 New Technology File System (NTFS)

File Allocation Table

Three main varieties of the FAT system exist, called FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32
FAT12. Used on all volumes smaller than 16MiB FAT16. Used on volumes from 16MiB through 2GiB by MS-DOS 3.0 and most versions of Windows. Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP support FAT16 volumes as large as 4GiB. However, FAT16 volumes larger than 2GiB cannot be used by MS-DOS or Windows 9x/Me. FAT32. Optionally used on volumes from 512MiB through 2GiB, and required on all FAT volumes over 2GiB, starting with Windows 95B (OSR 2.x) and subsequent versions.

FAT12
FAT12 was the first file system used in the PC when it was released on August 12, 1981, and it is still used today on all floppy disks and FAT volumes less than 16MiB FAT12 uses a table of 12-bit numbers to manage the clusters (also called allocation units) on a disk.

FAT12 Cluster Sizes

Characteristics of FAT12
Is used on all floppy disks Has a default format on FAT volumes of 16.76MB (15.98MiB) or less Is supported by all versions of DOS and Windows Is supported by all operating systems capable of reading PC disks

FAT16
FAT16 is similar to FAT12 except it uses 16-bit numbers to manage the clusters on a disk. FAT16 was introduced on August 14, 1984, along with PC/MS-DOS 3.0