Personal Computer User Manual

Directories are essential for organizing files on a hard disk, and

you might even want to create directories on a 1.44MB diskette.

However, you may not need to create directories if you use

lower capacity diskettes-especially if the diskette contains only

a few large files.

Whenever you format a disk, MS-DOS automatically creates

one main directory. This directory is called the root directory.

Any directories you later create are logically subordinate to the

root directory; that is, they are subdirectories of the root

directory. Here is an example of a simple directory structure:

Root directory

WORDPROC

DOS

SPDSHEET

In this example, you keep your word processing programs and

data files in a directory called WORDPROC, your spreadsheet

programs and data files in a directory called SPDSHEET, and

MS-DOS files in a directory called DOS. The few files that

MS-DOS needs to find as soon as you turn on your computer

(such as COMMAND.COM, CONFIG.SYS, and

AUTOEXEC.BAT) remain in the root directory at the top

level of the structure.

As the number of files in your WORDPROC and SPDSHEET

directories grows, you can create additional directories

subordinate to those two-like this:

Root directory

WORDPROC

DOS

SPDSHEET

I I I

BUSINESSPERSONAL

SALES PROJ

Using MS-DOS with Your Equity 386SX

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