Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Inside Out

Using FAT

FAT is available in 16-bit and 32-bit versions, which are referred to as FAT16 and FAT32. FAT volumes use an allocation table to store information about disk space allocation.

File Allocation Table Structure

Disks formatted using FAT are organized as shown in Figure 20-1. They have a boot sector that stores information about the disk type, starting and ending sectors, the active partition, and a bootstrap program that executes at startup and boots the operating system. This is followed by a reserve area that can be one or more sectors in length.

Figure 20-1. An overview of FAT16 volume structure

The reserve area is followed by the primary ...