fats / "FAT"

[webz]

hello im doing a project for my class on fat (file allocation table) in the hard disk i was woundering if anyone has any good information on this device! thankx!

 

[sehiser]

It's not a device. Here is a basic concept of the FAT tables.

It stands for File Allocation Tables. This is basically an index of everything on the hard drive and where it is located on the drive. You have two copies of it. One is a master copy, and the other is a secondary/back-up copy of the FAT.

This is generally stored on the beginning of the drive. If you were to use a disk doctoring program the fat table would look like a hierarchy of all the information on the drive. If you are doing a report on this you should probably only use some quotes from here and site some solid sources on different websites on the net. Such as Tom's Hardware, a great hardware related website for anybody interested in the latest and greatest with some info on the basics.

This is how I explain FAT tables to the average Joe. Ciao.

Scott

 

[edfair]

Would clarify a little bit. The "FAT" is an index of clusters of sectors on the hard disk.The operating system can keep track of where particular clusters are physically located. The directory structure keeps track of where things are stored and how much storage is used.
As files are added, removed, or changed from the system, the FAT table is modified to point to additional clusters used in adding to size or made available for something else in the case where the file size is decreased.
If you can get norton utilities you can use the sector read/write to look at the FAT tables, and at the directory structure, to see how they interact. In particular, the directory structure shows the starting cluster of a file, and succeeding clusters are pointed to by the FAT. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

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