8-bit File Allocation Table

Question

FAT

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 identifier	MBR/EBR: FAT12: 0x01 e.a. (Extended Attribute) FAT16: 0x04 0x06 0x0E e.a. FAT32: 0x0B 0x0C e.a. BDP: EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
Structures
Directory contents	Table
File allocation	Linked list
Bad blocks	Cluster tagging
Limits
Max. volume size	FAT12: 32 MiB (256 MiB for 64 KiB clusters) FAT16: 2 GiB (4 GiB for 64 KiB clusters) FAT32: 2 TiB (16 TiB for 4 KiB sectors)
Max. file size	4,294,967,295 bytes (4 GiB – 1) with FAT16B and FAT32
Max. number of files	FAT12: 4,068 for 8 KiB clusters FAT16: 65,460 for 32 KiB clusters FAT32: 268,173,300 for 32 KiB clusters
Max. filename length	8.3 filename, or 255 UCS-2 characters when using LFN
Features
Dates recorded	Modified date/time, creation date/time (DOS 7.0 and higher only), access date (only available with ACCDATE enabled), deletion date/time (only with DELWATCH 2)
Date range	1980-01-01 to 2099-12-31 (2107-12-31)
Date resolution	2 seconds for last modified time, 10 ms for creation time, 1 day for access date, 2 seconds for deletion time
Forks	Not natively
Attributes	Read-only, Hidden, System, Volume, Directory, Archive
File system permissions	FAT12/FAT16: File, directory and volume access rights for Read, Write, Execute, Delete only with DR-DOS, PalmDOS, Novell DOS, OpenDOS, FlexOS, 4680 OS, 4690 OS, Concurrent DOS, Multiuser DOS, System Manager, REAL/32 (Execute right only with FlexOS, 4680 OS, 4690 OS; individual file / directory passwords not with FlexOS, 4680 OS, 4690 OS; World/Group/Owner permission classes only with multiuser security loaded) FAT32: Partial, only with DR-DOS, REAL/32 and 4690 OS
Transparent compression	FAT12/FAT16: Per-volume, SuperStor, Stacker, DoubleSpace, DriveSpace FAT32: No
Transparent encryption	FAT12/FAT16: Per-volume only with DR-DOS FAT32: No

8-bit FAT

Developer(s)	Microsoft, NCR, SCP
Full name	8-bit File Allocation Table
Introduced	1977/1978: NCR Basic +6 for NCR 1978: Standalone Disk BASIC-80 (16-byte directory entries) (1978: Standalone Disk BASIC-86 internal only) 1979-06-04: Standalone Disk BASIC-86 for SCP (16-byte directory entries) 1979: MIDAS (32-byte directory entries)
Limits
Max. file size	limited by volume size
File size granularity	record-granularity (128 bytes)
Max. filename length	6.3 filename (binary files), 9 characters (ASCII files)
Max. directory depth	no sub-directories
Allowed characters in filenames	ASCII (0x00 and 0xFF not allowed in first character)
Features
Dates recorded	No
Attributes	Write protected, EBCDIC conversion, Read after write, Binary (random rather than sequential file)

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