how to see which sector belongs to which file in fat32?

john doe18 · External Since: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 2

i know it's written somewhere in FAT (1. sector and size of file) but
i don't know how to read it in my application? i can access drive on a
raw-data level and print out all of the sectors, but i'd like to look
which sectors are free and which are used by which files. how do i do
that? vc++ 6.0 is the language

thank you

Jeff Richards · External Since: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 1333

The size of the file is not part of the FAT. The directory entry contains a
pointer to the first sector. The FAT entry for this first sector contains
the sector number of the second sector, and so on until the FAT entry
contains the indicator for no more sectors.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"john doe" <maric81.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d03ba648.0503250418.73b71ecc@posting.google.com...
>i know it's written somewhere in FAT (1. sector and size of file) but
> i don't know how to read it in my application? i can access drive on a
> raw-data level and print out all of the sectors, but i'd like to look
> which sectors are free and which are used by which files. how do i do
> that? vc++ 6.0 is the language
>
> thank you

SFB - KB3MM · External Since: Aug 14, 2004 Posts: 44

I thought they were clusters nut sectors.

"Jeff Richards" <JRichards.TakeThisOut@msn.com.au> wrote in message
news:%23IjZMRYMFHA.568@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> The size of the file is not part of the FAT. The directory entry contains
a
> pointer to the first sector. The FAT entry for this first sector contains
> the sector number of the second sector, and so on until the FAT entry
> contains the indicator for no more sectors.
> --
> Jeff Richards
> MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
> "john doe" <maric81.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:d03ba648.0503250418.73b71ecc@posting.google.com...
  > >i know it's written somewhere in FAT (1. sector and size of file) but
  > > i don't know how to read it in my application? i can access drive on a
  > > raw-data level and print out all of the sectors, but i'd like to look
  > > which sectors are free and which are used by which files. how do i do
  > > that? vc++ 6.0 is the language
  > >
  > > thank you
>
>

Jeff Richards · External Since: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 1333

Yes - cluster. I'm sure OP can make the translation.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"SFB - KB3MM" <Mickey.RemoveThis@MouseHouse.com> wrote in message
news:utDgsWdMFHA.2704@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>I thought they were clusters nut sectors.
>
> "Jeff Richards" <JRichards.RemoveThis@msn.com.au> wrote in message
> news:%23IjZMRYMFHA.568@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
  >> The size of the file is not part of the FAT. The directory entry
  >> contains
> a
  >> pointer to the first sector. The FAT entry for this first sector
  >> contains
  >> the sector number of the second sector, and so on until the FAT entry
  >> contains the indicator for no more sectors.
  >> --
  >> Jeff Richards
  >> MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
  >> "john doe" <maric81.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
  >> news:d03ba648.0503250418.73b71ecc@posting.google.com...
   >> >i know it's written somewhere in FAT (1. sector and size of file) but
   >> > i don't know how to read it in my application? i can access drive on a
   >> > raw-data level and print out all of the sectors, but i'd like to look
   >> > which sectors are free and which are used by which files. how do i do
   >> > that? vc++ 6.0 is the language
   >> >
   >> > thank you
  >>
  >>
>

Tim Slattery · External Since: Jun 14, 2004 Posts: 249

"Jeff Richards" <JRichards DeleteThis @msn.com.au> wrote:

>The size of the file is not part of the FAT. The directory entry contains a
>pointer to the first sector. The FAT entry for this first sector contains
>the sector number of the second sector, and so on until the FAT entry
>contains the indicator for no more sectors.

The file size is not stored in the FAT, but it is stored in the file's
directory entry.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)
Slattery_T DeleteThis @bls.gov