MS-DOS

Operating System

Yaseen H. Rashid
 INTRODUCTION
MS-DOS is a disk operating system that enables you
to create and keep track of files, run and link programs,
and access peripheral devices (for example, printers
and disk drives) that are attached to your computer.

MS-DOS stands for Microsoft Disk Operating

System. MS-DOS controls the computer’s hardware
and provides an environment for programs to run

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 DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Date Version Release
August 12, 1981 DOS 1.0 – IBM’s release
Used Patterson’s 86-DOS
May 1982 DOS 1.1
IBM’s release of DOS to handle new double-
sided drives
August 1982 DOS 1.25 Microsoft’s own release of DOS 1.1
March 1983 DOS 2.0 for IBM’s PC-XT
Support 10MB hard drives, 3-internal expansion
slots, hierarchical tree structure

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 DEVELOPMENTS
Date Version Release
March 1984 DOS 2.1 IBM’s release
Handled hardware errors called PCjr
1984 DOS 2.11 Microsoft’s release
Added international time, date, currency, and
keyboard support.
1984 DOS 3.0 for IBM’s 16-bit PC-AT system
Support 1.2MB diskettes and hard drives over
10MB. Designed by Microsoft to support IBM
network hardware
November 1984 DOS 3.1
Provided better aliasing – made DOS treat
directories as drives. Handled network
hardware
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 . DEVELOPMENTS cont

Date Version Release

January 1986 DOS 3.2
Introduced and provided support of 3-1/2
floppies and 720K disk
April 1987 DOS 3.3 IBM’s release
FDISK can be used to create 32MB or smaller
logical drives from extended partitions
1987 DOS 3.30 Compaq’s release
Support 1.44MB diskettes and multiple 32MB
disk partitions
November DOS 3.31 Compaq’s release
1987 Support drives greater than 32MB
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 DEVELOPMENTS cont.

Date Version Release

July 1988 DOS 4.0 IBM’s release
Added a DOS Shell interface and support for disk
partitions greater than 32MB. Provided support for
mouse and graphical interfaces.
November 1988 DOS 4.01- Fixed bugs introduced in 4.0
June 1991 MS-DOS 5.0 Microsoft’s release
Allowed DOS to reside in area above 640K memory.
Provided support for loading device drivers. Provided
an improved DOS Shell
March 1993 DOS 6.0 Microsoft’s release
Introduced DoubleSpace disk compression

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 .DEVELOPMENTS cont
Date Version Release
November 1993 DOS 6.2 Microsoft’s release
February 1994 DOS 6.21 Microsoft’s release
Removed DoubleSpace disk compression
June 1994 DOS 6.22 Microsoft’s release
Introduced “DriveSpace” disk compression
April 1995 DOS 7.0 IBM’s release
August 1995 DOS 7.0 Microsoft's release

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Command Syntax and punctuation
• Brackets In the command items enclosed in
square brackets are optional, i.e. the
command will work in its basic form without
entering anything in the brackets.
• Command Name The DOS command name is
always entered first before any parameters or
switches but it is not case sensitive. You can
use upper or lower case or even combinations
of both. The command name must be
followed by a space.
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• Drive Designation the option "drive:"
in the following command list. The
colon ‘:’ following the drive
designator must also be used, it
cannot be omitted. Note: If the
parameters you are using are in the
current directory you can omit the
drive designator and colon.

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 • Filename A filename is the name of a file
stored on disk. In MS-DOS, unlike
Windows, a filename can only be eight or
less characters long followed by an
optional three character extension. The
extension can be used after the filename
to identify its type, e.g. exe means an
executable file. The extension must
follow a period ‘.’ and must be three
characters or less.
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 • Pathname You use pathnames to indicate the route
the command processor must follow from the
current directory to reach the required parameters.
The MS-DOS directory structure is really the same as
the folder structure in Windows, i.e. directories and
folders are synonymous.

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 Types of commands
There are two types of commands
 Internal commands
These are the commands which reside in the portion of computer’s memory
and are loaded along with the operating system in to the memory. These
commands are always available for execution.

 External commands
these are the commands which have to be loaded from the disk into the
memory of the computer before we want to execute

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 Internal commands
Call Dir Rmdir (rd)
Chcp Dos Set
Chdir (cd) Driveparm Time
Cls Fcbs Type
Copy Mkdir (md) Ver
Ctty Mode Verify
Date Path Vol
Del Rename

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 External Commands
Attrib.exe Extract.exe Mscdex.exe
Cfkdsk.exe Fc.exe Scandisk.exe
Choice.com Fdisk.exe Scanreg.exe
Cmdinit.bat Find.exe Sort.exe
Cscript.exe Format.com Start.exe
Cat.exe Iextract.exe Subst.exe
Debug.exe Label.exe Sulfnbk.exe
Deltree.exe Mem.exe Sys.com
Diskcopy.com Mode.com Xcopy.exe
Doskey.com More.com Xcopy32.exe
Edit.com Move.exe Xcopy32.mod
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 The Command Prompt
When you first turn on your computer, you will see some
cryptic information flash by. MS-DOS displays this information to
let you know how it is configuring your computer. You can
ignore it for now. When the information stops scrolling past,
you'll see the following:
•C:\>
•This is called the command prompt or DOS prompt. The
flashing underscore next to the command prompt is called the
cursor. The cursor shows where the command you type will
appear.
•If your command prompt looks like the sample command
prompt above, skip to the following section, "Typing a
Command."
•If your command prompt does not look like the example,
type the following at the command prompt, and then press
ENTER:
• cd \
• Note that the slash leans backward, not
forward. You will learn more about the cd
command later in the tutorial. If your
command prompt still doesn't look like the
example, type the following at the command
prompt, and then press ENTER:
• prompt $p$g
• Your command prompt should now look like
the example.

Yaseen H. Rashid
 Typing a Command
• To type a command at the command prompt

• If you make a typing mistake, press the

BACKSPACE key to erase the mistake, and then
try again.
– Press ENTER. You must press ENTER after every
command you type.
• The following message appears:
• Bad command or file name
• The "Bad command or file name" message appears
when you type something that MS-DOS does not
recognize.
– Now, type the following command at the command
prompt:
• ver
• The following message appears on your screen:
• MS-DOS version 6.22
• The ver command displays the version number of MS-
DOS.
• Continue to the next section, where you will use the
dir command to view the contents of a directory.

Yaseen H. Rashid
 Difference
Windows Dos
• GUI – icons n menus • Command based ( CUI )
• Multi – tasking • Single tasking
• Clipboard • Not available
• Drag n Drop • No pointer
• Multiple fonts • Default font
• Multimedia capability • Textual medium
• Dialog boxes • No dialog boxes

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 .The general form of an MS-DOS command

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 Accessing the command prompt through the
.Windows Start menu

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 .The initial MS-DOS prompt

Figure 7.5 Changing the default drive to A.

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 .The FORMAT command

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 The FORMAT command guides the user through the
.formatting process

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 .The rules for defining a file name

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 .continued

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 .Subdirectories help to organize the data stored on a disk
ROOT

LETTERS BOOK WS

DOC1 CHAPT1 SS1

DOC2 CHAPT2 SS2

DOC3 SS3

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 .The rules for defining a path name

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.Directories can be subdivided into lower-level subdirectories
ROOT
...
LETTERS BOOK

BUSINESS PERSONAL CLUB

ROTARY JCC

MEMBER.1

MEMBER.2

MEMBER.3

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 .Make the C drive your default drive

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.The directory (DIR) command displays a directory’s contents

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 The last page of a directory list.

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.A directory command with a pause option

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 .A wide mode directory list

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 The make directory (MKDIR) command
creates a new directory.

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 the commands to create and list three
.subdirectories

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The COPY command copies one or more files from a
source to a destination.

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 Copy these three files from the console to
directory LETTERS.

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.The contents of subdirectory LETTERS

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 Use a change directory command to
.change the working directory

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 Command Stands for Action to be performed
DIR Directory List what’s in this directory.
CD or CHDIR Change Directory Change working directory.
COPY Copy Copy a file. Append one to another.
DEL or ERASE Delete Delete the following file or files.
RENAME Rename Rename a file.
TYPE Type Display text file on screen.
PRINT Print Print one or more files on printer.
DATE Date Display and/or change system date.
TIME Time Display and/or change system time.
MD or MKDIR Make Directory Create a new directory or subdirectory.
FIND Find Find a string. Search files for a string.
FORMAT Format Disk Logically prepare disk for file storage.
CHKDSK Check Disk Check disk for disk/file/directory status.
PROMPT System Prompt Change system prompt symbol.
DEFRAG Defragment Disk Compact fragmented files.
(filename) Run, execute, file.

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