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Questions tagged [fat32]

FAT32 is a filesystem format that is used on flash drives and older systems. It is the only filesystem that is fully supported by all three major operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux).

FAT32 (File Allocation Table or File Allocation Table) is a that organizes and manages access to files on hard drives and other media. Created in 1996 by Microsoft to replace the FAT16 used by MS-DOS and with a number of limitations. FAT32 was implemented on Windows 95 (OSR2), Windows 98 and Millennium, and still has compatibility with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, using a more modern file system, NTFS, which was continued, and is also used in systems Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R1/R2 (enterprise server).

The file allocation table (FAT) is a data structure that Windows creates after formatting a physical unit. This table stores information about the location of each file within the physical drive so they can be saved, retrieved, modified or deleted later. They are stored in blocks arranged in different positions of the disk, justifying the need for a table that point to each of these blocks.

Summary

For any type of data access to media, you need a file system to take these actions. Without a structure for storing data such as FAT32, no procedure for disk access is possible.

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Format a USB drive to FAT32 using Python

I'm trying to create a bootable USB drive and need to format the USB into FAT32 so that I can extract all the files into it. Is it possible to format a USB drive using pure python? Can I format it into FAT32 without the use of external commands? I…
owasp
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How to set FAT32 short names in Powershell or Windows Command Shell

I need to write a script that sets the short name of a file on a FAT32 file system. On NTFS I can use the FSUTIL utility under windows but I cannot seem to fathom out how to do this for a FAT32 drive. Bonus kudos for a window command or powershell…
Preet Sangha
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Format specifiers for data type BYTE, WORD and DWORD in c-language?

In C-language, what are the most appropriate format specifiers for data type BYTE, WORD and DWORD to be used with printf and scanf functions? I am having a hard time displaying BPB field's values over console. For example, if I am trying to display…
Amit Kumar
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How can I find information about a file from logical cluster number in NTFS/FAT32?

I am trying to defragment a single file through Windows defragmentation API ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363911(VS.85).aspx ) but if there is no free space block large enough for my file I would like to move other parts of files to…
Daniel Karling
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Extract file from fat image in python

I have a fat32 partition image file dump, for example created with dd. how i can parse this file with python and extract the desired file inside this partition.
David A
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How to truncate a file in FAT32 file system without zero padding in C?

I have 2TB HDD contains a single partition of FAT32 file system. While truncating a file to larger size say 100MB or 200MB using ftruncate(), it takes time of 5 to 10 seconds to do zero padding. Is there any way of file truncation that take a less…
Parshv Shah
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SD card write speed in SPI mode

I have an SD card (or SDHC card) connected to a microcontroller via SPI mode. I am using Chan’s FAT library. I write data to it which comes from an 8192 byte buffer (buffer cannot be larger due to insufficient RAM). This writing is performed…
wlamers
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Weird standard for FAT32 >4gb files

I have recently encountered an embedded system with IDE drives that are FAT32 but have >4gb files. It appears to do this by setting the file size in the 32byte directory entry to how many bytes the final cluster uses - instead of being the actual…
kiasecto
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make links between ext4 and fat32

it is used in android phone. Because my ROM is big enough(around 8G), and my SDCard has been full with various files, so i want to link a big file stored in ROM to SDCard so as to save the treasure space of SDCard( the big file cannot be identified…
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Batch file detect if NTFS alternate stream can be written to

Background In Windows 7, when a file is downloaded from the internet, some browsers (e.g. IE and Firefox) flag it as coming from the internet. This is apparent in the properties dialog of the file, which will show a message and an "Unblock" button…
Ricket
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What is meant by "fat32 clients" or "fat32 applications"?

I have heard expressions such as ".NET FAT32 client" or ".NET FAT32 application". When i asked what was meant by that, the answer was "a desktop application". This however makes little sense to me. FAT32 is a file system such as NTFS. Wouldn't it…
Dante
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Reading boot sector of a FAT32 file system

I am writing a program and I need to access some information in the boot sector about the FAT32 file system that I have mounted. Here is what I did, fully commented. int main (void) { unsigned short *i; //2 byte unsigned integer…
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force windows to reload FAT32 root directory information after edit

I update the hard disk root directory, information like long filename, filesize , filedate etc, using VC++ writefile function. However, I note window explorer do not know about this until it is re-booted such as a refresh or reopen another window…
Will.i.am
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Read, write, and manipulation of FAT32 in C

I am trying to write a program in C that allows me to move through a FAT32 file system image. However, I am having difficulty understanding and applying the equations to gather the correct data. I am using a debian distribution of linux so…
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how to force windows FAT32 driver to reload FAT table?

i am implementing custom windows disk driver, and need FAT32 windows driver reloads it FAT tables, 1 and 2, that is below data sectors. How this can be done? I need faster method without unmounting the drive. Why i am doing this is because the disk…
Sergey
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