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Q.  I am having problems with DOS Commands and Syntax is there anything you can suggest to help?

A.  MS-DOS can be tricky if it's new or even if you just haven't used it for a while.

Basically for the syllabus there are just a few important commands to remember
and that's it.

1 Format , Formats Disks

2. FDISK , allows us to put partitions on a hard drive

3. XCOPY , allows us to copy files and directories from one place to another

4. DIR , allows us to view the contents of a drive or directory.

There are a couple more as we move on but leave it at this for now.

I'm sure you already know the above and most people have difficulty with
syntax.

DOS Syntax is basically

command target/switches (if needed)

so Format is


Format C:

Format is the command

C: is the Target

Notice we always have a space between them

To add a switch, for example Q (Quick Format) we always use a forward slash /
then the letter

Format C:/Q

Notice we generally don't have spaces between target and switch.

Fdisk does not usually require any syntax as it is a standalone program rather
than a true command, however there are some switches that can be used with
it. A useful one is /MBR this clears the Master Boot Record of the disk,
sometimes this is useful, if a drive will not boot or has some kind of a boot
menu that needs to be removed

FDISK/MBR

Xcopy also follows the general rule of command target/switches, but usually
has two targets

Xcopy A: C:

Again all separated by a space, we add switches the usual way with /

DIR can be used on it's own simply as DIR or we could also use

DIR target

For example

DIR A:

to find the contents of the A: Drive.

A good exercise to get to grips with DOS is to use the DOS Shell supplied with
Windows. To access this:

From START, select RUN then type CMD

Here I would suggest taking a floppy DISK and formatting it using the format
command.

You could then practice copying files from the C: drive to the A: drive.
Later you could also attempt creating a BATCH file to automate the process as
described in the simulation for Task 7ish (the one about the utility disk).

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