Subject: Digital Forensics

Topic: Preserving and Recovering Digital Evidence

Difficulty: High

FAT is the terminology that is used for both the FAT16 and FAT32. The FST is utilized for the storage devices. The FAT is an old technology that has some limitations as compared to the NTFS. The NTFS, on the other hand, is also a way of storing data on a hard drive or physical disk but it is different from the FAT and relatively a new technology.

A physical disk store a data in form 0’s or 1’s and it is the file management system that gives meaning to such data. When people talk about their disk is NTFS or FAT, it actually refers to the file management system that is being used in their computers or the operating system. The maximum file name option present in FAT is composed of 8.3 characters.

In contrast, the NTFS being a new technology gives the 256 characters. The feature of Fault tolerant auto repair is a main difference between the NTFS and FAT as this option is only available for the users of NTFS. The exclusive feature of the Files and Folder encryption is available for the user of NTFS but on the other side, the users of FAT can’t utilize this option.

FAT knows as (File Allocation Table) is a main computer file system for various operating systems, mostly used in DOS, including Open DOS, MS-DOS, free DOS, DR-DOS, Microsoft Windows (like 98, xp, vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10). Removable flash drives and memory cards are also used FAT.

FAT32 is a common extension which means that data or files are saved in chunks of 32 bits. FAT is mostly the same file system that has been used on a PC since the early DOS days. The File system is a way for storing data and organizing files an easy way to find and access them on the computer. The default format for memory cards and flash drives are shown below.

• FAT16 up to 2 GB.

• FAT32 up to 4 GB to 32 GB.