Basically, FAT, FAT12/16/32, and NTFS are just ways that data is organized on the disk.
FAT systems are limited because the rules don't allow for things like large modern disks, or large files. Plus the indexing and stuff is less efficient.
NTFS also allows for encryption and compression natively. hence if you go to "Security" you can find "NTFS Permissions".
Now there is even NEWER stuff where you can "Basic Disk" or "Dynamic Disk", which basically means you've got a basic disk... or a disk that can have different types of volumes on it.
A volume is like a partition except that a volume can span multiple disks.
It's almost like RAID except not.