▶ 5.5 FAT: An Example File System
The essentials of file system formatting are best illustrated with an example: the FAT file system. While the format dates back to the earliest personal computers, it has evolved since then. The FAT 12 format was superseded by FAT 16, which supported gigabytes of storage. Today’s FAT 32 supports terabytes of disk space.
Today, we often use FAT formatting on removable hard drives and flash memory. Most commercial digital cameras use FAT format on their storage cards. FAT provides hierarchical directories and flexible file naming. The major shortcoming is that individual FAT files must contain less than 4 gigabytes.
Volume Layout
FIGURE 5.11 shows the layout of a FAT-formatted volume. Sector 0, the first ...
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