FAT Filesystem structure

Boot sector
Reserved sectors
FAT 1
FAT 2
Root directory
Cluster 2 Cluster numbering starts at 2 for FAT12 & FAT16, and
Cluster 3
is specified in the boot sector on FAT32 (normally 2)

.........
FAT16 Boot Sector
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 Jump OEM ID Bytes / sect / reserved
Instruction sect cluster sectors
10 no / Root Small Media Sectors / Sectors / Number / Hidden sectors
FATS entries Sectors descr FAT Track heads
iptor
20 large Sectors Physical rese ext Volume Serial Volume Label (deprecated)
drive
number rved boot Number
sig
30 Volume label File System Type
40 OS Boot Code
50
60
70
…
1D0
1E0
1F0 55 AA
reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457122.aspx

(c) Michael Wilkinson, This document may be freely distributed provided this notice remains intact, The original is located at http://www.writeblocked.org/resources.
26/08/2012 Page 1 of 3
FAT32 Boot Sector
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 Jump Instruction OEM ID Bytes / sect / reserved
sect cl sectors
uster
10 no / 0x0000 0x0000 Media 0x0000 Sectors / Number / Hidden sectors
FATS descr Track heads
iptor
20 large Sectors Sectors / FAT 0x0000 File Root(first) Cluster
Total sectors in System Number
volume Version
30 FS Info Backup Reserved
sector boot
sector
40 Phys 0x00 Extd Volume Serial Number Volume Label (deprecated)
Drive boot normally “NO NAME ”
num sig
50 Vol Label System ID “FAT32” Boot code
60 Boot code
70
80
90
…
1D0
1E0
1F0 55 AA
reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457122.aspx

(c) Michael Wilkinson, This document may be freely distributed provided this notice remains intact, The original is located at http://www.writeblocked.org/resources.
26/08/2012 Page 2 of 3
FAT Directory Entry
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 File name Extension attr reserved
10ms create
ibute create time
time1
10 create date last unused modified modified start File Size
access time date cluster
date
1. The 10millisecond create time is technically only used in FAT32.

Attributes
BIT 5 4 3 2 1 0
Value Archive Directory Volume Hidden System Read
only

Long File Name

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 file name (Unicode 2 bytes/char) 0x0F reservedCheck file name
sum
10 file name 0x0000 file name

reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938438.aspx

(c) Michael Wilkinson, This document may be freely distributed provided this notice remains intact, The original is located at http://www.writeblocked.org/resources.
26/08/2012 Page 3 of 3