Editing File Allocation Table (section)

=== Historical ===
FAT was used on [[hard disk drive|hard disks]] throughout the [[DOS]] and [[Windows 9x]] eras. Microsoft introduced [[NTFS]] with the [[Windows NT]] platform in 1993, but FAT remained the standard for the home user until the introduction of [[Windows XP]] in 2001. [[Windows Me]] was the final version of [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] to use FAT as its default file system.

For floppy disks, FAT has been standardized as [[Ecma International|ECMA]]-107<ref name="Ecma-107" /> and [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]]/[[International Electrotechnical Commission|IEC]]&nbsp;9293:1994<ref name="ISO_9293_1994" /> (superseding ISO&nbsp;9293:1987<ref name="ISO_9293_1987" />). These standards cover FAT12 and FAT16 with only short [[8.3 filename]] support; [[long filename]]s with [[#VFAT|VFAT]] were partially [[#Patents|patent]]ed.<ref name="Patent_5758352" /> While [[#FAT12|FAT12]] is used on floppy disks, [[#FAT16|FAT16]] and [[#FAT32|FAT32]] are typically found on the larger media.