Prompt

A message displayed on the screen that tells you what action you need to perform next.

RAM

Random Access Memory. The portion of the computer’s memory used to run programs and store data while you work. All data stored in RAM is erased when you turn off the computer; so you must store any data you want to keep on a diskette or hard disk.

Read

To move data from one area to another. For example, when you open a text file stored on disk, the computer reads the data from the disk and displays it on the screen.

Read/write head

The physical device inside a disk drive that reads and records data on the magnetic surface of a disk.

Real-time clock

A battery-powered clock inside the computer that keeps track of the rime and date, even when the computer is turned off.

Relative pathname

A pathname that does not begin with the backslash character. A relative pathname tells MS-DOS how to find its way to a given directory, starting at the current default directory. See also Absolute pathname.

Reset

To reload a computer’s operating system so you can retry task or begin using a different operating system. Resetting erases all information in RAM.

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