Creating a Directory(MS-DOS)

In this section, you will create two directories. Creating a directory is helpful if

you want to organize related files into groups to make them easy to find. Before

you begin this section, make sure the command prompt looks like the following:

C:\>

To create a directory, you will use the md command. The md command stands

for "make directory."

o To create and change to a directory named FRUIT

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

md fruit

You have now creat ed a directory named FRUIT. You won't see the new FRUIT

directory until you carry out the dir command in the next step.

2. To confirm that you successfully created the FRUIT directory, type the

following at the command prompt:

dir

or

dir /p

Look through the directory list. A new entry somewhere in the list should look

similar to the following:

FRUIT <DIR> 09-25-93 12:09p

3. To change to the new FRUIT directory, type the following at the command

prompt:

cd fruit

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\FRUIT>

You will now create a directory within the FRUIT directory, named GRAPES.

o To create and work with a directory named GRAPES

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

md grapes

You will not see the new GRAPES directory until you carry out the dir command in the

next step.

2. To confirm that you successfully created the GRAPES directory, type the following at the

command prompt:

dir

A list similar to the following appears:

Volume in drive C is MS-DOS-6

Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2

Directory of C:\FRUIT

. <DIR> 09-25-93 12:08p

.. <DIR> 09-25-93 12:08p

GRAPES <DIR> 09-25-93 12:10p

3 file(s) 0 bytes

11534336 bytes free

Note that there are three entries in the FRUIT directory. One is the GRAPES directory

that you just created. There are two other entries---one looks like a single period (.) and

the other looks like a double period (..). These directory entries are important to MSDOS,

but you can ignore them. They appear in every directory and cont ain information

relation to the directory structure.

The GRAPES directory is a subdirectory of the FRUIT directory. A subdirectory is a

directory within another directory. Subdirectories are useful if you want to further

subdivide information.

3. To change to the GRAPES directory, type the following at the command prompt:

cd grapes

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\FRUIT\GRAPES>

4. To switch back to the FRUIT directory, type the following:

cd ..

The command prompt should now look like the following:

C:\FRUIT>

When the cd command is followed by two periods (..), MS-DOS moves up one

level in the directory structure. In this case, you moved up one level from the

GRAPES directory to the FRUIT directory.