The write-protect device is a small switch on the lower-right corner on the back, shown in the figure below. To write- protect the diskette, slide the switch down toward the edge of the diskette so there is a hole where the switch used to be.
write-protect switch
To remove the write-protection, move the switch up toward the center of the diskette so the hole is covered.
Using a single diskette driveAn 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 the single drive as 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.
You may swap diskettes this way often, and you don’t want 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 write-protect your source diskette so you don’t accidentally copy on to it. For more information on using one diskette drive with MS-DOS, see Chapter 4.