Note that if you change from one drive to another and then try to access a file on the previous drive, MS-DOS remembers which was the default directory when you were last logged onto that drive. For example, suppose the last time you were logged onto drive C, the default directory was the root directory. Now you are logged onto drive A and enter the following command to delete the file JEAN1204.DOC:

DEL C:JEAN1204.DOC

MS-DOS tries to find the file you want in the root directory of drive C, but the file is not there and an error message appears on the screen. For this case, you would need to enter the complete pathname as in the previous example.

If you do not know what the default directory on another drive is, it is a good idea to include the full pathname whether you need it or not. You can never give MS-DOS too much information.

If you want to change to another directory on another drive, just include the drive designator in the command-like this, for example:

CD C:\WORDPROC\PERSONAL

Using MS-DOSWith Your Computer 4-21