We all have various technologies that we work with every day and that we take for granted, without really knowing what makes them work. In this article, I am going to give you some basic background information on the FAT file system. This installment will launch a series of articles that I plan to do on various common file systems, including FAT, NTFS, Reiser, JFS, and more. (If there is a particular file system you are
interested in learning more about, leave a comment in the discussion area below, and I’ll consider
it for a part of this series.)

Keep in mind that if you’re a file system
programmer, these articles may not be for you. If, however, you consider
yourself an Average Joe IT pro, you might find the series interesting and
useful. To get started, I’ll take a look at arguably the most common file
system out there: FAT.

Get the skinny on FAT

Developed
in 1977 and first introduced in 1980 with QDOS, FAT (File Allocation Table) has
undergone some upgrades over the years and is available in three different
versions, named FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. The number in each name refers to the
number of bits available for addressing, although FAT32 reserves 4 bits of this
addressing space, providing only 28 bits for actual use. FAT’s initial 12-bit
addressing scheme limited the file system to a maximum of 4,077 clusters (also
known as “allocation units”), while FAT16 increased this limit to 65,536
clusters, and FAT32 to 268,435,438 clusters.

Before
I get into FAT, I’ll explain a couple of terms:

Cluster/Allocation
Unit

Every FAT-based disk is broken down into a number of
clusters, each containing a number of 512-byte disk sectors. Most file systems
do not deal directly with the disk sectors, as this would require significant
overhead. Instead, sectors are grouped into clusters, which can be anywhere
from 2,048 bytes in size to 32,768 bytes in size (4 to 64 clusters). As disks
grow larger, the cluster size increases, and, thus, the more disk sectors that
are used per cluster. Cluster size directly impacts the maximum size of a disk.
For example, if you take a 512-MB disk using FAT16, which can have only a
maximum of 65,536 clusters, you are required to use a cluster size of at least
8K (524,288,000 bytes / 65,536 clusters = 8K cluster size). Another example
(FAT16: 1 GB disk – 1,048,576,000 bytes / 65,536 clusters = 16K cluster size).

File Allocation Table
Not to be confused with the name of the file system itself,
the File Allocation Table provides a complete map of how each cluster in the
disk is used (or not used, if the cluster is empty).

Cluster waste

(Often called “slack”) A file is stored using clusters, not
using the size of a disk sector. So, suppose you have a disk that is broken up
into 32 KB clusters and you save a file that is 33 KB in size. This file will
require two full clusters, or a total of 64 KB of disk space, resulting in 31
KB of wasted space, or slack.

FAT12

FAT12
provided no means to support a directory structure and, due to 16-bit counting
of sectors, disk size was limited to 32 MB. Understand that sector counting and
cluster addressing are different concepts. While FAT12 supported 16-bit sector
counting, it still used only 12 bits for cluster addressing. While FAT12 provided
theoretical support for many more files, because of FAT12’s initial lack of a
directory structure mechanism, the number of files that could be stored was
very limited since all files had to be saved to what would eventually become
the root directory. The maximum size of an individual file in FAT12 was also 32MB.

Hierarchical
directory support was added via MS-DOS 2.0 in 1983, which effectively allowed
FAT12-based disks to store more files.

FAT16

FAT12’s
limitations meant that disks could not grow beyond a certain point, so, in
1984, Microsoft released MS-DOS 3.0’s FAT16, which itself underwent a revision
in 1987. 1984’s release of FAT16 is often called the “initial release”, and
sometimes even considered an extension to FAT12, while 1987’s build is the
“final release;” this release is FAT16’s common implementation. FAT16’s initial
release increased cluster addresses to 16-bits, providing the ability to
support up to 65,536 clusters (2 ^ 16 clusters). Disk size was still limited to
32 MB, however. The maximum size of an individual file in FAT16 is 2 GB.

1987’s
FAT16 update increased the disk sector index to 32 bits. This, along with new
ways to counts the clusters and sectors on the disk, resulted in a maximum
partition size of 2 GB, although some implementations have pushed this to 4 GB
(very uncommon and not recommended). Note here that I use the phrase “partition
size” rather than “disk size.” Along the way, and separate from FAT
development, other developments were also moving forward and the concept of
partitions was introduced. I will not be going over partitions in this article.

FAT16,
also known as just FAT, is commonly used today on removable media, such as USB
drives and media cards.

FAT16
remained the standard file system used from MS-DOS 3.0 all the way up to
Windows 95 A. With the 1996 release of Windows 95 B (OSR2), although FAT16 was
still supported, Microsoft introduced the new, more efficient FAT32. FAT32
remains supported in all current versions of Windows.

FAT32

FAT32
is probably the most confusing entry into FAT history as it appears that
Microsoft has either intentionally crippled the file system in Windows, or they
have never truly fully implemented it.

With
28 bits of addressing space available, a FAT32 partition should be able to
support up to 268,435,438 (2 ^ 28 bits) clusters, thus providing support for
disks/partitions up to 2 TB in size. For some reason, Microsoft never bothered
to update their Scandisk utility, thus effectively limiting FAT32 to 4,177,920
(about 2 ^ 22) clusters, placing the volume limit at 124.55 gigabytes. Further,
in recent versions of Windows, FAT32 cannot be used for volumes that are larger
than 32 GB in size.

One
huge improvement in FAT32 is the tremendous increase in the addressing space,
which means that you can have larger disks with smaller cluster sizes and avoid
as much “slack”. However, as the cluster size decreases, the number of entries
in the file allocation table increases, meaning that a small cluster size on a
FAT32 partition could result in a performance hit.

As
a note, Windows NT does not support FAT32.

FAT32
volumes support file sizes of up to 4 GB which, these days, is not adequate for
many tasks.

Pros and cons

FAT
continues going strong with its use in a lot of removable media. FAT also
enjoys widespread operating system support because of its relative simplicity. However,
FAT suffers from a number of serious drawbacks that make it unsuitable in many
of today’s environments.

• Lack
  of permissions: In today’s security-conscious world, a file system without
  permission capability would be akin to leaving your new Lexus parked in
  the bad part of town with the keys inside… oh, and the car is full of all
  of your customer records, too.
• File
  size limitations: With video editing, virtualization (meaning huge virtual
  disks), and other activities, FAT is simply not able to keep up with the
  demands of today’s users.
• Lack
  of encryption: FAT lacks native encryption ability. Again, for mobile
  users in particular, security concerns dictate the use of encryption.

Summary

A
decades-long technology, FAT remains in use today. Here’s a quick comparison of
the different versions of FAT.

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