ORGANIZING A HARD DISK February 16, 1987 Is your hard disk well organized? Is your root directory full of files? Are all related files kept seperate from other files? Do you know which directory you are in at all times? Here are some tips on getting your hard disk organized that I have learned along the way. 1. Your root directory need only have 3 files in it at minimum. a. COMMAND.COM b. AUTOEXEC.BAT c. CONFIG.SYS And Any drivers accessed by CONFIG.SYS. These may be files such as ANSI.SYS 2. Create a directory for all other DOS files you may need and name it something like "DOS". Put all other DOS files in this directory. 3. Create a directory for your utility programs. Call it "UTILITY". Put utility files such as LIST.COM, ARC.EXE, VTREE.COM, WHERE.COM, FINDUPE.COM, FREE.COM and any other COM or EXE files you frequently use. I have about 80 files in this directory on my hard disk. 4. Create a directory called "BATCH" for batch files which I'll explain later. 5. Now create directory's for related files. PROGRAM DIRECTORY CONTENTS Wordstar WS All Wordstar files Framework FW All Framework files Lotus 123 All Lotus 1-2-3 files Etc. Etc. 6. And under these directory's put related directory's, such as tutorials for Framework and Lotus and all the games under games directory, each in its own directory. 7. Your directory structure should resemble this: ------------- | | | ROOT | | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | DOS | |UTILITY| | BATCH | | 123 | | WS | | GAMES | | FW | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- | | | --------- | --------- | | | | | | TUTOR | | | TUTOR | | | | | | --------- | --------- -----------|---------- | | | --------- --------- --------- | | | WHEEL | | | | RIBBIT| | OF | | CHESS | | | |FORTUNE| | | --------- --------- --------- 8. Now to work on the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, mine looks like this: echo off DONT ECHO path c:\;c:\dos;c:\utility;c:\batch SET PATH prompt $e[40;35;1m$p$g$e[33;40;1m SET PROMPT AND COLOR cls CLEAR SCREEN nu-epson CALL MEMORY RES. PRINTER CONTROLLER cls CLEAR SCREEN spooler 63 CALL MEMORY RES. PRINT SPOOLER cls CLEAR SCREEN timer/s SET DATE AND TIME FROM MULTI I/O I have more than the above in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file but this is representative of it. 9. The PATH command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT is a very powerfull command, it will allow you to find an EXE, COM or BAT file from anywhere. Lets say your logged into the A: drive and type FORMAT B:. But FORMAT.COM is not on the A: drive. The PATH command will search the C: root directory followed by the DOS directory and find FORMAT.COM and execute it. Another example, you can be logged into any directory or drive and type LIST FILENAME and the program LIST will be found in the UTILITY directory by the path command. So the sequence of events caused by the PATH command is as follows: You type in the name of an EXE, COM or BAT file, first DOS looks in the default drive or directory for it. If it is not found, it then searches the ROOT of C: followed by DOS of C: followed by UTILITY of C: followed by BATCH of C:. 10. Now to the BATCH directory. In my batch directory I have files such as this, they can be created with EDLIN or a text word processor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DC.BAT allows me to exec. DISKCOPY A: B: echo off ECHO OFF diskcopy A: B: CALL DISK COPY WITH PARAMETERS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WS.BAT executes Wordstar from anywhere echo off ECHO OFF cd \ws GO TO THE WORDSTAR DIRECTORY ws EXECUTE WORDSTAR ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHESS.BAT executes CHESS game from anywhere echo off ECHO OFF cd \games\chess CHANGE TO CHESS DIRECTORY chess EXECUTE CHESS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ UTIL.BAT allows me to go to the utility directory from anywhere echo off ECHO OFF cd \utility CHANGE TO UTILITY DIRECTORY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ C.BAT Does a directory of C: echo off ECHO OFF dir c: EXECUTE DIR COMMAND ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CW.BAT Prints wide directory of C: echo off ECHO OFF dir c:/w EXECUTE DIR /W COMMAND ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have about 50 batch files in my BATCH directory. Can you see the power of this? By just typing in "WS" from any DOS prompt, you can execute Wordstar. By just typing in "DC" from any DOS prompt, you can execute DISKCOPY A: B: 11. You MUST have DEVICE=ANSI.SYS in your config.sys file for the prompt command to work properly. The prompt command: prompt $e[40;35;1m$p$g$e[33;40;1m $e[40;35;1m = set prompt colors for DOS $p$g = show directory at DOS prompt $e[33;40;1m = set text colors for DOS $e[ is an escape sequence for ANSI 40;35; is black backround and magenta forground 1m selects high intensity $p$g $p shows directory, $g shows > $e[ is an excape sequence for ANSI 33;40; text colors of yellow on black backround 1m selects high intensity If you were in the CHESS directory as shown in the directory structure above your DOS prompt would look like this: C:\GAMES\CHESS> <------anything typed after the prompt will be yellow. ^ ^ ^-------------^ | This will be in Magenta My config.sys file looks like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ files=25 buffers=40 device=ansi.sys ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you have a color monitor, try the prompt command and see it work. It is just great!! DONT FORGET, DEVICE=ANSI.SYS MUST BE IN YOUR CONFIG.SYS FILE. If you have a monochrome monitor you only need "prompt $p$g" this will give you the directory you are in at the DOS prompt. I think I found this out in PC magazine. It's also in the DOS technical reference manual. 12. Clean up your directory's by erasing files that are not needed on the hard disk, these are usually INSTALL programs and print or monitor drivers for monitors and printers you dont have. They also may contain batch files you really dont need. I hope you can use some of this information.... I sure could have when I first got my PC/XT compatible with 20 Meg. hard disk. If anyone has more information that will be of use, just drop me a line and I'll update this file after trying your ideas. Thanks, Lawrence H. Lund 179 Studley ST. Brentwood, N.Y. 11717