File Allocation Table is the name of a computer file system architecture and a family of industry standard file systems utilizing it. The FAT file system is a legacy file system which is simple and robust. It offers good performance even in light-weight implementations, but cannot deliver the same performance, reliability and scalability as some modern file systems. It is however supported for compatibility reasons by virtually all existing operating systems for personal computers, and thus is a well-suited format for data exchange between computers and devices of almost any type and age from the early 1980s up to the present. Originally designed in the late 1970s for use on floppy disks, it was soon adapted and used almost universally on hard disks throughout the DOS and Windows 9x eras for two decades. With the introduction of more powerful computers and operating systems, and the development of more complex filesystems for them, it is no longer the default filesystem for usage on hard drives by most modern desktop operating systems. Today, FAT file systems are still commonly found on floppy disks, solid-state memory cards, flash memory cards, and on many portable and embedded devices. It is also utilized in the boot stage of EFI-compliant computers. Wikipedia [ - ]

File Allocation Table is the name of a computer file system architecture and a family of... [ + ]