What is the difference between FAT16 and FAT32?

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pramitroy

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I want to know the basic and technical details of the difference between FAT16 and FAT32 file systems, i.e., how do those work and what is the difference between 16 and 32?

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Shadow Knight

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Here is the explanation:

FAT16 is the original file system used in DOS and Windows 3.x, and was originally only designed for use on relatively small partitions. It's been revised so that it's possible to make a FAT16 partition up to 4GB in size, but no more than that. FAT32 is a revised version of FAT16 that can be used to create much larger partitions and has native support for long filenames, and was introduced with Win98. Both FAT16 and FAT32 are also backwards- and cross-compatible with older versions of Windows and other OSes. However, both FAT16 and FAT32 suffer from many drawbacks: they have weak error recovery and no built-in file security, just to name two

Source: http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/eac/knowledgebaseAnswer/0,295199,sid63_gci981288,00.html

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    Yes, but where did the name come from with 16 and 32? Some more in depth info, for example, does it come from 16 byte word and 32 byte word support? and why cluster size is different? — pramitroy
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    FAT16 means that it supports 16 bit address bus and FAT32 supports both 16 and 32 bit address bus. So yes, I would say that the numbers at the end stands for the address bit supported. — Shadow Knight
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    Are there any minimum volume size for FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS? — pramitroy
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    I don't know about the minimum, but a FAT16 maximum would be up to 4GB, a FAT32 would be 32 GB, and NTFS can go all the way to 2 Terabytes. — Shadow Knight
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    Only 32 GB for FAT32? I have found a source that says it can be up to 2TB also for it. Source: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm — pramitroy
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    I did this based on the research I did plus my school professor (ITT-Tech) help. That site could be right or wrong. As for me I believe in my professor. Sorry if I wasn't much of a help 😟 — Shadow Knight
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    No no its ok, I just found a difference and thought I would mention it. Thanks for your nice help to me. — pramitroy
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    No problem 🙂 — Shadow Knight
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