From: Pegasus [MVP] on
.. . . and have a look at the replies you received to your first and
identical post.

From: Bill in Co on
Paul wrote:
> Bill in Co wrote:
>
>>>
>>> If I insert my Kingston 1GB stick, then select "format" for the thing,
>>> the choices are:
>>>
>>> FAT (FAT12 or FAT16, as appropriate ?)
>>> FAT32
>>> exFAT
>>
>> FAT12 is offered? I thought FAT12 was only used by floppy disks, or
>> perhaps the older floppy disk formats like 5" (can't recall now). (My
>> guess is for all PC floppy disks, though).
>>
>
> If the storage device you attempted to "format" was smaller than 32MB,
> it might try FAT12 for you. I'm guessing that is what you'll find on
> a floppy ?

I expect so. :-) PC Floppies only went up to 1.44 MB, as I recall.
Well, possibly there were a few 2.88 MB really hi density ones, but I can't
recall now. 1.44 MB was as high as I ever went.

> If the storage device is larger than 32MB, then I think
> it'll do FAT16. It leaves a generic "FAT" in the menu, to surprise you.
> It would have made more sense, if they just named the specific option
> they planned to use.

Well, unless you have a floppy drive, I can't see any need for FAT12.
I would expect the generic FAT entry you see there will be FAT16 (since you
plugged in some external device, and we're not talking about a floppy
drive).

> I used a utility that can identify file systems, and it said my floppy
> has FAT12 on it. So I can verify that one. If I was to plug the
> Kingston 1GB flash into the computer, and select "FAT" as the
> formatting option, I think it would use FAT16 for that.

I would expect so.
I just don't think there are any 32 MB (or less) external plug-in storage
devices, are there?

> The "FAT" option is missing, when I plug in the 8GB flash, because
> even FAT16 isn't going to work for that. Only FAT32 could handle it,
> in the FAT family.
>
> Paul