Chapter 19: Disk Operating System (DOS)
Disk Operating System (DOS)
Its the first operating system from Microsoft which is designed by Bill Gates.
Some of the popular versions of MS-DOS and their features were:
Version and Release Date Features
MS-DOS 1.0 (Aug '81) Distributed on one floppy; required 8KB of RAM
Supported 106KB single-sided and 320KB double-
MS-DOS 1.1 (May '82)
sided disks
Supported hard disks, directories, background
MS-DOS 2.0 (Mar '83)
printing and additional device drivers
Supported hard disks greater than 10MB and
MS-DOS 3.0 (Aug '84)
1.2MB floppies
MS-DOS 3.1 (Mar '85) Supported networks and file sharing
MS-DOS 3.2 (Jan '86) Supported 3.5" floppy disk drives
Provided new commands and international
MS-DOS 3.3 (Apr '87)
support
Supported hard disk partitions greater than 32MB;
MS-DOS 4.0 (Feb '88)
provided the MEM command and DOS shell
Provided extra memory management tools, Help,
MS-DOS 5.0 (May '91) Undelete, Unformat, added task swapping to DOS
Shell
MemMaker, multiple boot configurations,
MS-DOS 6.0 (Mar '93) Windows utilities: Unformat, Undelete, virus
protection, and Backup
MS-DOS 6.2 (Oct '93) Provided ScanDisk
Command prompt interface
DOS provides a text-based interface called the command prompt.
From the command prompt, commands can be issued to perform file and disk
management, and to run programs.
The results of these commands are presented to the user as text messages.
DOS Utility programs
DOS provides a number of utility programs (files with .EXE and .COM extensions
in the C:\DOS\ directory) to achieve various file and system management tasks.
Examples of DOS utilities are FORMAT, EDIT, MSD (Microsoft Diagnostics), and
SCANDISK.
DOS Editor
DOS 5 and 6 is bundled with DOS Editor, which is a text editing application that can be used
to edit DOS configuration files as needed.Several functions can be performed on text files.
These can either be selected from the menu bar or be activated using 'hot keys'.There are
two ways to open a file from within EDIT:,Either use the mouse to select File and choose
Open from the menu Or press Ctrl+X on the keyboard
Note: DOS editor is best used with mouse so make sure that the AUTOEXEC.BAT loads a
DOS mouse driver.The alternative to EDIT is the Windows utility called Notepad.
Directory Structure
The top-most level of every disk or drive is called a Root directory.
The root directory is represented by a backslash.
Therefore the root of C: drive is C:\.
The root directory can contain files and sub-directories under it.
Sub-directories can further contain files and sub-directories.
Like this, a tree-like directory structure is formed in every drive recognized by DOS.
The root directory normally contains the following files:
o MSDOS.SYS (hidden file)
o IO.SYS (hidden file)
o COMMAND.COM
o AUTOEXEC.BAT
o CONFIG.SYS
Default Drive
Each drive has a unique drive letter.
The default drive of the hard disk, from where DOS is loaded, is usually
C:
However, DOS can also be loaded from a floppy disk, which is A:
Directories and the DOS Prompt
The greater than symbol (>) separates the DOS prompt from the commands typed by
the user.
The default prompt is usually C:/>, which indicates the root directory of the C: drive.
Changing from the root directory to, say, the DOS directory under it, will result in a new
prompt to appear: C:\DOS\>.
Going further down one level in the directory structure, say to the SYSTEM sub-directory,
will cause the prompt to change to C:\DOS\SYSTEM\>.
Changing the current directory
Use the CD (change directory) command at the DOS prompt in order to
change directories.
Command Action
Sets the current directory to DOS; the prompt changes
C:\>CD DOS
to C:\DOS\>
C:\DOS\>CD Sets the current directory to one level above (the root
.. directory, in this case)
C:\DOS\>CD
Changes the current directory to the root
\
Getting System Information
The DIR command displays a listing of all the files and sub-directories in the current
directory.
It also gives information on the file sizes, number of files present, and the available
free space in the drive.
Command Action
Lists out all files and sub-directories in the current
C:\>DIR
directory
Lists out files and sub-directories in page-by-page
C:\>DIR /p
format
C:\>DIR a:\ Lists out files and sub-directories in A:
C:\>DIR Lists out files and sub-directories whose names begin
a*.* with 'a'
The TREE command is used to display directory structure starting from the current
directory and including any sub-directories.
Command Action
Shows the directory structure from the current
TREE
directory and below
TREE | MORE Shows the directory structure one page at a time
TREE /F | Shows the position of files stored within the directory
MORE structure
Shows the version of DOS (or Windows) that is
VER
running
Getting Memory and Program Information
The MEM command shows information, such as the distribution of RAM as
conventional, upper, reserved, and unreserved memory.
This can be useful while troubleshooting memory problems and
optimizing memory to run more applications.
The MEM command used with the /C switch also shows programs that are
loaded into the first 1 MB of RAM.
DOS File Management
Copy
Files in DOS can be duplicated from one directory in a drive to another. This is known as
copying. Copying of files is done using the COPY command
C:\>COPY AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\TEMP\AUTOEXEC.BAK
Move
When a file is copied from one location to another and is deleted at the earlier location,
the procedure is known as Moving.
Moving of files is done using the MOVE command
C:\>MOVE AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\DOS\
Moves the AUTOEXEC.BAT file from the current directory to C:\DOS\
Xcopy
The XCOPY utility allows a user to copy the contents of more than one directory at a
time and retain the directory structure.
C:\>XCOPY source [destination] [parameters]
Some of the parameters of the XCOPY command are:
Parameter
How they help
s
/A copies only those files with archive file attributes
/M same as /A but turns off archive attribute after copying
/D:date copies files modified on or after the specified date
prompts for confirmation before every destination file is
/P
created
copies contents of (sub)directories unless they are
/S
empty
/E copies and (sub)directories even if they are empty
/V verifies each file as it is written to the destination file
/W prompts for continuation before copying files
Ren
The REN command is used to rename a file.
C:\>REN *.TXT *.DOC
Renames all files in the current directory with any filename and extension .TXT to
extension .DOC
Del
The DEL command is used to delete a file
C:\>DEL *.TXT
Deletes all files with the extension .TXT. Exercise caution while using the DEL command.
Dir
A directory can be created under the root, or a subdirectory within another directory, using
the MD (make directory) command:
C:\>MD [drive:]path
RD
To remove a subdirectory, use the RD command
C:\>RD directory
The RD command can only delete empty directories. Before using it, delete all files
within the directory and go at least one level above it.
Attrib
Every file in DOS can have up to four file attributes that indicate something about the
actions that can (or cannot) be performed on the file:
Read only (R)
The file can be accessed by any program, but it cannot be modified or deleted.
Archive (A)
The file has changed since it was last archived using the BACKUP or XCOPY utilities
Hidden (H)
The file is hidden and cannot be seen when a normal directory listing is done using DIR
System (S)
The file is used by DOS and should not be edited or deleted by users
To view the attributes of a file, use the ATTRIB command
C:\>ATTRIB filename
Note :Minus (-) with the switch is to Remove the attrib, plus (+) with the switch is to Add the
attrib
Configuring DOS Drivers
When an external device, such as a mouse or printer, is attached to the system, a
software called device driver must be loaded for DOS to be able to recognize it.
The device driver is usually loaded during the boot-up process by making an entry
into the CONFIG.SYS file.
There are two ways to specify a device driver:
Add a DEVICE parameter in CONFIG.SYS
Add a DEVICEHIGH parameter in CONFIG.SYS (this loads the device driver in the
upper memory area)
