Re: Apple IIgs to ms-dos

[themaples@worldnet.att.net (Bruce Maples)]

The FAT system in Win95 is a backwards-compatible system that uses a
kludge to get long file names out of DOS.  Basically, it stores a
standard 8.3 DOS file name, then uses as many more directory entries
as it needs (up to 256 characters, I think) to store the long file
name itself.

It then marks those entries as System/Hidden/Volume Name (!) so that
DOS itself won't see them or list them in a directory.

Thus, a file named "My Budget for 1997" will be called something like
"MYBUDG~1.XLS" as the standard name.

Note that there is a variation on this called FAT32, that has been
_slipstreamed_ by MS.  I don't have much info about it, but will try
to find out more if anyone is interested.

As for the "some drives are using older/16-bit mode," that simply
means that the drives are being controlled via older drivers.  This
usually happens when there is an old 16-bit driver being loaded in
CONFIG.SYS.