Question

In a FAT 12 file system(a cluster contains 2 sectors), a file has a size of 123 bytes, how large is the RAM slack in bytes introduced by this file?

1. 1000

2. 901

3. 512

4. 389

Answer 1

Option (2) is the correct answer.

Slack space can be defined as the leftover space after storing a file in the cluster which has a smaller size than the allocated space.

File size = 123 Bytes

Size of one sector in FAT 12 = 512 Bytes

Number of sectors in one cluster = 2

So, size of one cluster = (512 * 2) Bytes = 1024 Bytes

So, the RAM slack = (allocated size - file size) = (1024 - 901) bytes = 901 Bytes

Option (1) is incorrect as it provides wrong answer (901 is correct).

Option (3) is incorrect as it provides wrong answer (901 is correct).

Option (4) is incorrect as it provides wrong answer (901 is correct).

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