If you have only one diskette drive and no hard disk, you need to use that drive to load the operating system as well as the application programs you are using. First load the operating system; this copies it to the computer’s memory (RAM) so you do not need to leave the system diskette in the drive. Then you can remove that diskette and insert the program diskette you want to use, and load that into memory too. See your application program manual for detailed instructions.

If you have a hard disk and one diskette drive, you can load the operating system and application programs from the hard disk, create and store your data there, and use the diskette drive just for copying data to or from diskettes.

Using Two Diskette Drives

If you have two diskette drives, you can use the top drive (A) for loading the operating system and application programs and the second drive (B) for creating data. If you have a hard disk, you will probably need the diskette drives just to copy files to and from the hard disk and to copy diskettes.

Using a Hard Disk Drive

Working with a hard disk is similar to working with a diskette. However, the hard disk provides several advantages:

The 40MB hard disk can store as much data as 33 1.2MB diskettes and the 90MB hard disk can store the equivalent of approximately 75 1.2MB diskettes.

Your computer can perform all disk-related operations faster.

You can store all your frequently used programs and data files on the hard disk, eliminating the inconvenience of swapping diskettes to access different files.

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4-18 Using the Equity 386