File Allocation Table (FAT)

FileAllocation Table

File Allocation Table (FAT) is a computerfile system architecture and a family of industry-standard file systemsutilizing it. The FAT file system is a legacy file system which is simple androbust. It offers good performance even in light-weight implementations, butcannot deliver the same performance, reliability and scalability as some modernfile systems. It is, however, supported for compatibility reasons by nearly allcurrently developed operating systems for personal computers and many mobiledevices and embedded systems, and thus is a well-suited format for dataexchange between computers and devices of almost any type and age from1981 upto the present.

Originally designed in 1977 for use onfloppy disks, FAT was soon adapted and used almost universally on hard disksthroughout the DOS and Window 9x eras for two decades. As disk drives evolved,the capabilities of the file system have been extended accordingly, resultingin three major file system variants: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32. The FAT standard has alsobeen expanded in other ways while generally preserving backward compatibilitywith existing software.