Using a single diskette drive

An operating system expects the computer to have at least two physical diskette drives, and it displays prompts and messages accordingly. If your system has only one diskette drive, MS-DOS treats your single drive like two logical drives. This helps you perform operations that normally require two diskette drives.

For example, if you give a command to copy from one drive to another, MS-DOS copies from the first diskette you place in the drive to the computer’s memory. Then MS-DOS prompts you to insert another diskette and copies from memory to the diskette you place in the drive. When copying is complete, you see a prompt to insert the original diskette.

Because you may swap diskettes this way often, it is easy to forget which diskette is which. One way to avoid accidentally losing data is to hold the diskette for one drive in your left hand and the diskette for the other in your right. You should also label the diskettes so that you know which is the original and which is the backup copy. Another safeguard you should take is to write-protect your source diskette so you don’t accidentally copy to it.

Using a Hard Disk Drive

Unlike a diskette, a hard disk is rigid and fixed in place. It is sealed in a protective environment free of dust and dirt, so you cannot see it. A hard disk stores data the same way as a diskette, only it works faster and has a much larger storage capacity.

Using a hard disk reduces the number of diskettes you need and eliminates much of the diskette-swapping you do when you use diskettes. You can do almost all your work on the hard disk and copy your files to diskettes whenever you need to make backups or transfer data to another computer system. However, to ensure you always have plenty of space available, keep only files you use regularly on the hard disk. Store your other files on diskettes.

There are certain things you must do to prepare a new hard disk. These are explained in Chapter 2. Make sure you have completed all the procedures in that chapter before using your hard disk for the first time.

3-8

Using the Equity Ie