Directories are essential for organizing files on a hard disk, and you might even want to create directories on a 1.44MB diskette. However, you may not need to create directories if you use lower capacity diskettes-especially if the diskette contains only a few large files.

Whenever you format a disk, MS-DOS automatically creates one main directory. This directory is called the root directory. Any directories you later create are logically subordinate to the root directory; that is, they are subdirectories of the root directory. Here is an example of a simple directory structure:

Root directory

I

WORDPROC DOS SPDSHEET

In this example, you keep your word processing programs and data files in a directory called WORDPROC, your spreadsheet programs and data files in a directory called SPDSHEET, and MS-DOS files in a directory called DOS. The few files that MS-DOS needs to find as soon as you turn on your computer (such as COMMAND.COM, CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC . BAT) remain in the root directory at the top level of the structure.

As the number of files in your WORDPROC and SPDSHEET directories grows, you can create additional directories subordinate to those two-like this:

Root directory

WORDPROC DOS SPDSHEET

I II I

BUSINESSPERSONAL SALES PROJ

Using MS-DOS with Your Equity 386SX 4-17