Specifying the Drive Designator

If you want to access a program or file on another drive without first changing the default drive, type the drive designator along with the filename. For example, if you are logged onto drive A and want to use a file named PROGRAM on drive C, you would type the following and then press Enter:

C:PROGRAM

MS-DOS loads and executes the file named PROGRAM from drive C, but stays logged onto drive A.

Types of MS-DOS Commands

Each MS-DOS command is either internal or external. Internal commands are commands that are built into MS-DOS and can be used at any time once MS-DOS is loaded into memory.

External commands are separate program files stored on your hard disk and MS-DOS diskettes.

If you display a directory of the files on your MS-DOS diskettes, you see the names of the external commands but not the internal ones. The following lists show which external commands are on which diskette.

Startup diskette

ANSI.SYS

FDISK.COM

REPLACE.EXE

COMMAND.COM

FORMAT.COM

SELECT.COM

COUNTRY.SYS

KEYB.COM

SYS.COM

DISPLAY.SYS

KEYBOARD.SYS

VDISK.SYS

DRIVER.SYS

MODE.COM

XCOPY.EXE

EGA.CPI

NLSFUNC.EXE

4201.CPI

FASTOPEN.EXE

PRINTER.SYS

 

Using MS-DOS With Your Computer 4-5