9 Copying System Diskettes

Now that you have set up your system and loaded MS-DOS, it is important that you make copies of your three system diskettes right away. Use only the copies (usually called “working copies”) for daily use and store the originals in a safe place.

The procedure for copying a diskette depends on whether your computer has one or two diskette drives. Follow the instructions given for your model. You will need three blank, double-sided, double-density, 3%inch 720KB diskettes.

Before you copy your system diskettes, write-protect them so you can’t accidentally erase data. See Chapter 3 for instructions on write-protecting diskettes. Also, label each copy you make right away.

Copying with two diskette drives

1.insert the Startup/Operating 1 diskette in drive A if it is not there already.

2.Insert a blank 3%inch 72OKB diskette in drive B, the bottom drive.

3.Type the following and press Enter:

DISKCOPY A: B:

The screen displays this message:

Insert SOURCE diskette in drive A:

Insert TARGET diskette in drive B:

Press any key when ready . . .

4.Drive A already contains the diskette you want to copy (the source) and drive B contains the blank diskette (the target), so just press any key.

If the diskette in drive B is not formatted, the DISKCOPY program formats it. Then the program begins copying the data from drive A to the formatted diskette in drive B.

5.When the copy is complete, the screen displays this prompt:

Copy another diskette (Y/N)?

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Setting Up Your System