So, I'm shopping for something specific and possibly nonexistant...

[Pedersen]

Now this may be different from a FAT32 format but Pederson could answer that better then I could.

Yay! Someone asked an obscure technical question!

FAT is the type of formatting used by MS-DOS, then Windows 95, 98, and ME. NTFS was for Windows NT, then 2000, XP, and Vista, though all of them could also read FAT.

FAT underwent a bunch of changes. The ones I remember are FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. I don't remember all of the differences, but I do remember that FAT32 is the first one to support long filenames (without any special programs). It was also the default for Windows 95.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that backwards compatibility was retained, so that a computer which reads FAT32 could also read the older format disks, too.

Now, is there any way to insert a bell here to wake up those who've fallen asleep while reading boring and obscure technical details?