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Checked & Updated 1st June 2004
Notes and Observations:
Older BIOSs (upto Early 486s) Limit Hard Drive Size to 502/512MBs despite MS-DOS Limits - Windows 95/98 has 2GB Limit without FAT32 'Large Disk Support' FAT32 goes beyond the capabilities of FAT16. The most prominent feature is that it supports drives of up to 2 terabytes in size. In addition, FAT32 decreases the cluster size on large drives, thus reducing the amount of unused space. For example, with FAT16, a 2 GB drive has a 32 KB cluster size. The same drive under FAT32 has 4 KB clusters. (Some BIOSs can still limit the Maximum disk size to 8GBs)
Cluster sizes of FAT16 and FAT32
Drive size
FAT16 cluster
size FAT32 cluster size
256 MB – 511 MB
8 KB
Not supported (Large Disk Support (FAT32) is not available on disks
under 510MBs)
512 MB – 1023 MB 16 KB
4 KB
1024 MB – 2 GB
32 KB
4 KB
2 GB – 8 GB
Not
supported
4 KB (Large Disk
Support (FAT32) must be applied on disks over 2GBs)
8 GB – 16 GB
Not supported
8 KB
16 GB – 32 GB
Not supported
16
KB
>32 GB
Not supported
32 KB
In MS-DOS, hard disk and floppy disk root directories are
limited in size, depending on the media type involved. However,
subdirectories can containas many files as disk space allows.
The subdirectories are not fixed in size and can allocate new
data clusters to hold additional directory entries. Thus,
subdirectories can grow dynamically as long as there are data
clusters available to hold new file and subdirectory entries.
However, the root directory can hold only a certain number of
subdirectory entries because it is fixed in size.
The following table shows the number of root directory entries
for common floppy and hard disk types:
(Each main directory on a floppy or hard disk, also acts as a
root directory entry)
Single-sided 5.25-inch 180K floppy disks: 64 entries
Double-sided 5.25-inch 320K floppy disks: 64 entries
Double-sided 5.25-inch 360K floppy disks: 112 entries
Double-sided 3.5-inch 720K floppy disks: 112 entries
Double-sided 5.25-inch 1.2-megabyte floppy disks: 224 entries
Double-sided 3.5-inch 1.44-megabyte floppy disks: 224 entries
Double-sided 3.5-inch 1.68-megabyte DMF format disks: 16 entries
(This is why Microsoft created CAB Files!)
Double-sided 3.5-inch 2.88-megabyte floppy disks: 240 entries
(Limited to IBM PS/2 compatible BIOS's & Drives)
Hard Drives (FAT12 & FAT16) : 512 entries
Hard Drives with FAT 32 can have up to 65,536 entries as it
treats the route directory as a file.
Windows 95/98/98se/Me/2000 Long Filename Restrictions:
The above limitations are based on the short (8.3) filename
system. Root directory entries have the same limitations in
Windows 95 onwards as they do in previous versions of MS-DOS and
Windows. If long filename support is enabled, then each file can
use more than one file or directory entry (depending on the
length of the filename, its case, and the characters it uses).
Therefore, it is possible to run out of root directory entries
with fewer files in the root directory of a hard drive, or
numbers specified for floppy disks. In the case of a FAT32 hard
drive, this is not so much of an issue!
Windows 95 onwards - Final Release Versions:
Release
Version
File
Dates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows 95 Retail, OEM 4.00.950
11/07/95 3½" & CD-ROM - FAT16, No USB Support
Windows 95 Retail, SP1
4.00.950A
11/07/95-31/12/95 3½" & CD-ROM - FAT16, No USB Support
OEM Service Release 2.0 4.00.1111
(4.00.950B)
24/08/96 3½" DMF Disks - FAT32, No USB Support
OEM Service Release 2.1 4.03.1212-1214*
(4.00.950B)
24/08/96-27/08/97 CD-ROM - FAT32, USB Support
OEM Service Release 2.5 4.03.1214*
(4.00.950C)
24/08/96-18/11/97 CD-ROM - FAT32, USB Support
Windows 98 Retail, OEM 4.10.1998
11/05/98 CD-ROM - FAT32, USB Support
Windows 98 Second Edition 4.10.2222A
23/04/99 CD-ROM - FAT32, USB Support
Windows Me Retail, OEM 4.11.3000
19/06/00 CD-ROM - FAT32, USB Support
