Personal Computer User Manual

The Current Drive
At any given time, MS-DOS considers one disk drive to be the
current (or default) drive. The current drive is the drive on
which MS-DOS executes your next command, unless you tell it
to do otherwise. For example, if the current drive is C, and you
enter the DIR (directory) command, MS-DOS lists the files
stored on drive C. If the current drive is A and you type WP and
press Enter, MS-DOS looks on drive A for a file called WP and
executes the instructions in that file. The current drive is the
drive you are logged onto at the time.
The MS-DOS command prompt tells you which drive is the
current drive. The MS-DOS command prompt includes the
current drive’s letter followed by a greater-than symbol.
(Depending on how you installed MS-DOS, it may also include
additional information.) Thus, when you see C> on the screen,
you know the current drive is C. The MS-DOS command
prompt also lets you know that MS-DOS is ready to receive a
command from you.
If you need to access a file or program on another drive, you can
either change the current drive or specify the other drive when
you give the command.
Changing the current drive
To change the current drive, type the letter of the drive you
want to change to, followed by a colon. Then press Enter. For
example, to change the current drive from C to A, type A : at
the C> prompt and press Enter. MS-DOS acknowledges the
change by displaying the command prompt A>. Changing to a
new drive is also known as logging onto that drive.
4-4 Using MS-DOS with Your Equity 386SX