FAT16 (originally just FAT) is the 16-bit file system widely used by DOS and Windows 3.x. Fat 16 tracks the storage location of files on a disk using a file allocation table and a directory entry table. With FAT, the table of directory entries keeps track of the location of the file’s first block, the filename and extension, the date and time stamps on the file, and any attributes associated with the file.
The disadvantages of FAT16 are that it only supports partitions up to 2GB and does not offer the security features of NTFS.
On the plus side, FAT16 is backward compatible, which is important if the computer will be dual booted with DOS or any other operating system. DOS, Unix, Linux, OS/2, Windows 3.1, and Windows 9x are compatible with FAT16.
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