fat16 & fat32.

FAT=File Allocation Table
32/16=number of bits used to address space on the drive.

Translation: All data on your drive has an address. Lots of data needs lots of addresses. With FAT16, that address can be 16 bits long. But eventually, you run out of addresses. Hence the limits of 2 gigs per partition -- FAT 16 simply can't address more than that. FAT 32 has a limit, I don't know it, other than it's not an issue today.

If there are advantages to FAT16, I don't know them. I think Win95 could run _only_ on FAT16 until Second Edition?

DOS, NT 4.0 and WIN95 release a only support Fat16
Win95b, win98, Win2k support FAT32.

FAT32 is better because it allows smaller cluster sizes. thus sometimes with fat 16 you get a lot of disk space that is unusable. By converting you can actually increase your free disk space. Fat 32 also allow larger partition sizes than FAT 16.

cp

Fat16:A file table used by DOS and early releases of Windows 3x,to place and locate files on a disk
Fat32:File system used in Windows 95 and Windows 98. It supports larger disk capacities(up to two terabytes),it uses a smaller cluster size,it produces more efficient storage utilization

FAT16: Used before Win95B version can only access a single HD parition of 2GB or less. Note that you can also format your drive to FAT16 and use it on a Win95B, NT or later versions. Pros: Faster access but limit of 2GB per partition.

FAT32:Can be use by Win95B or later versions. You can partition your HD with FAT32 with over 2GB of per partition. Pros: Can partition your HD of over 2GB. Works well with 32bit programs. Cons: Access is slower than FAT16.