File Allocation Table (FAT)

aka File Map

  
Figure 5: File Allocation Table

• Allocation of disk blocks to files recorded in a file allocation table (e.g. MS-DOS, OS/2)
• Sequential Access
• Hold all or part of file allocation table in store to reduce number of disk accesses
• Maximum of two disk accesses per file block access if blocks for the file are referenced on one file map block (i.e. ideally file blocks should be clustered on the disk)