H:\ENUNCY~1.CO\WIKI\8.3_VF~1

FACTS DETECTED

THE TERROR~1 HAVE WON. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?

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8.3 VFAT IS A COMMON SHORTH~1 FOR THE LIMITS ON FILENAME LENGTH IMPOSED BY THE FAT FILESY~1 USED BY DOS AND VERSIONS OF MICROS~1 PRIOR TO WINDOW~1 AND WINDOW~2 3.5 SIMILAR FILE NAMING SCHEMES HAVE ALSO EXISTED ON EARLIER CP_M~1 AND ON SOME DATAGE~1 AND DIGITA~1 MINICO~1 OPERAT~1 SYSTEMS

FAT, SHORT FOR FILE ALLOCA~1 TABLE, IS A FILE SYSTEM DESIGNED BY MICROS~1 FOR THEIR DOS OPERAT~1 SYSTEM.

TECHNI~1 FEATUR~1 IN HISTOR~1 REVIEW

INITIA~1, NOONE CARED, BUT EVENTU~1 SOMEONE DECIDED THAT FAT HAD NO SUPPORT FOR DIRECT~1, BECAUSE THE FIRST VERSIONS OF MS-DOS DIDN'T USE THEM, PLUS NOONE CARED. BUT THEN MS-DOS 2.0 CAME OUT, MICROS~1 UPGRADED FAT TO PROVIDE FOR A HIERAR~1 FILE SYSTEM WITH A TREE STRUCT~1. STILL NOONE CARED. THAT VERSION OF FAT WOULD ALLOCATE A CLUSTER SIZE OF 8 KB, AND SUPPOR~1 EXTENDED HARD DISK PARTIT~1 WITH OVER 9000 BYTES!.

THE NEXT VERSION, FAT16, WAS RELEASED BY MICROS~1 TO PROVIDE FOR GREATER HARD DISK SIZES. IT HAD A LIMIT OF 2 GB, THE FOUNDER OF MICROS~1 REASON~1 THAT IT'S ALL WE'RE EVER GOING TO NEED.

THE NEXT VERSION, FAT32, WAS RELEASED BY MICROS~1 TO PROVIDE FOR GREATER HARD DISK SIZES. IT HAD A LIMIT OF 32 GB, WHICH THE FOUNDER OF MICROS~1 ASSUMED THAT IT'S REALLY ALL WE'RE EVER GOING TO NEED.

WITH HARD DISK SIZES ABOVE 32 GB NOW COMMON, MICROS~1 HAS PROVIDED OPERAT~2 SYSTEM SUPPORT FOR CREATION OF FAT32 PARTIT~2 GREATER THAN THAT, UP TO 2 TB TO BE EXACT. THE FOUNDER OF MICROS~1 SUPPOSED THAT IT'S REALLY, REALLY ALL WE'RE EVER GOING TO NEED.

8.3 FILENA~1 HAVE AT MOST EIGHT CHARAC~1 FOLLOWED BY A _~1.__ FOLLOW~1 BY A FILENA~2 OF AT MOST THREE CHARAC~1 FILE AND DIRECT~1 NAMES ARE UPPERC~1

VFAT~1 A VARIANT OF FAT WITH AN EXTEND~1 DIRECT~1 FORMAT~1 WAS INTROD~1 IN WINDOW~1 AND WINDOW~2 3.5 IT ALLOWED MUCH LONGER~1 MIXED_~1 UNICODE FILENA~1 (LFNS) IN ADDITION TO CLASSIC 8.3 NAMES

TO MAINTAIN BACKWA~1 COMPAT~1 WITH LEGACY APPLIC~1 _ON~1 DOS AND WINDOWS 3~1.1__ AN 8.3 FILENAME IS AUTOMA~1 GENERA~1 FOR EVERY LFN~1 THROUGH WHICH THE FILE CAN STILL BE RENAME~1 DELETED OR OPENED

ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO COMPUL~1 ALGORI~1 FOR CREATING THE 8.3 NAME FROM AN LFN~1 WINDOWS USES THE FOLLOW~1 CONVEN~1

1. IF THE LFN IS 8.3 UPPERC~2 NO LFN WILL BE STORED ON DISK AT ALL
   • EXAMPL~1 _TEXTFI~1.TXT
2. IF THE LFN IS 8_3~1 MIXED CASE_~1 THE LFN WILL STORE THE MIXED_~1 NAME_~1 WHILE THE 8_3~1 NAME WILL BE AN UPPERC~2 VERSION OF IT
   • EXAMPL~1 _TEXTFI~2.TXT BECOMES _TEXTFI~1.TXT
3. THE LFN IS TRUNCA~1 TO THE FIRST 6 LETTERS OF ITS BASENA~1 FOLLOWED BY A TILDE_~1 FOLLOWED BY A SINGLE DIGIT_~1 FOLLOWED BY THE FIRST 3 CHARAC~1 OF THE EXTENS~1 THE RESULT IS THEN STRIPPED OF INVALID CHARAC~1 SUCH AS SPACES AND EXTRA PERIOD~1 WHILE OTHER CHARAC~1 SUCH AS ___~1 ARE CHANGED TO THE UNDERS~1 ____~1 AND UPPERC~3
   • EXAMPL~1 _TEXTF~3.TXT BECOMES _TEXTF~4.TXT _OR~1 _TEXTF~5.TXT SHOULD _TEXTF~4 ALREADY EXIST_~1 _VER_1~1.TEX BECOMES _VER_1~2.TEX
4. BEGINN~1 WITH WINDOWS 2000_~1 IF AT LEAST 4 FILES OR FOLDERS ALREADY EXIST WITH THE SAME INITIAL 6 CHARAC~1 IN THEIR SHORT NAMES_~1 THE LFN IS INSTEAD TRUNCA~1 TO THE FIRST 2 LETTERS OF THE BASENAME _OR~1 1 IF THE BASENAME HAS ONLY 1 LETTER~1 FOLLOWED BY 4 HEXADE~1 DIGITS DERIVED FROM AN UNDOCU~1 HASH OF THE FILENA~1 FOLLOWED BY A TILDE_~1 FOLLOWED BY A SINGLE DIGIT_~1 FOLLOWED BY THE FIRST 3 CHARAC~1 OF THE EXTENS~1 THE RESULT~1 AS BEFORE~1 IS STRIPPED AND UPPERC~3
   • EXAMPL~1 _TEXTF~3.TXT BECOMES _TE021~1.TXT

NOW, AS OF 2006, MICROS~1 IS RETIRING ALL VERSIONS OF THE FAT FILE SYSTEM IN FAVOR OF A NEW FILESY~1 CALLED NTFS (STANDING FOR NICE TRY FILE SYSTEM). IT'S MUCH BETTER THAN FAT, AND ALSO DOES HARD DISK PARTIT~3 SIZES OF UP TO 16 EB, BECAUSE THAT'S REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ALL WE'RE EVER, EVER GOING TO NEED, DAMMIT! AND BECAUSE DOS HAS GONE THE WAY OF THE DINOSA~1, SO MIF001~1 IS ENCOUR~1 EVERYONE TO UPGRADE TO ITS MORE RECENT OFFERI~1.

THE NTFS FILE SYSTEM USED BY THE WINDOW~2 FAMILY SUPPORTS LFNS NATIVE~1 BUT 8.3 NAMES ARE STILL AVAILA~1 FOR LEGACY APPLIC~1 THIS CAN BE OPTION~1 TO INCREASE PERFOR~1

THE ISO966~1 FILE SYSTEM _MAINL~1 USED ON COMPAC~1 HAS SIMILAR LIMITA~1 AT THE MOST BASIC LEVEL 1_~1 WITH THE ADDITI~1 RESTRI~1 THAT DIRECT~1 NAMES CANNOT CONTAIN EXTENS~1 AND THAT SOME CHARAC~1 _NOTAB~1 HYPHEN~1 ARE NOT ALLOWED IN FILENA~1 LEVEL 2 ALLOWS FILENA~1 OF UP TO 31 CHARAC~2 MORE COMPAT~1 WITH MACOS~1 FILE NAMES

DURING THE MICROS~1 ANTITR~1 TRIALS THE NAMES MICROS~2 AND MICROS~3 WERE HUMORO~1 USED TO REFER TO THE COMPAN~1 THAT MIGHT EXIST AFTER A PROPOS~1 SPLIT OF MICROS~1