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Microsoft FAT Specification

This document describes the on-media FAT file system format. This document is written to help guide development of FAT implementations that are compatible with those provided by Microsoft. This document does not describe all algorithms contained in the Microsoft FAT file system driver implementation neither does it describe all algorithms contained in associated utilities (Microsoft format and chkdsk utilities). However, it is expected that the reader will refer to the Microsoft Corporation FAT file system reference source code for additional clarification as/when needed. There are three variants of the FAT on-disk format, namely: • FAT12 • FAT16 • FAT32 Data structures comprising all three variants are described here. Also provided are descriptions of specific algorithms that will be useful to the engineer implementing a FAT driver for reading and/or writing to media. It is expected that the FAT Test Specification document will be used by the reader to validate interoperability and correctness of the resultant FAT implementation.

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