Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Command
Function
This command may be countermanded by issuing a command
of the form:
ATTRIB -R A:
\
PROCESS.DOC
A crude but effective alternative to password protection is that of
using
ATTRIB
to make all the files within a sub-directory hidden.
As an example,
ATTRIB +H C:
\
PERSONAL
will hide all of the
files in the PERSONAL sub-directory.
ATTRIB -H C:
\
PERSONAL
will make them visible once again.
The
BACKUP
command may be used to copy one or more files
present on a hard disk to a number of floppy disks for security
purposes. It is important to note that the
BACKUP
command stores
files in a compressed format (i.e. not in the same format as that
used by the
COPY
command). The
BACKUP
command may be
used selectively with various options including those which allow
files to be archived by date. The
BACKUP
command usually
requires that the target disks have been previously formatted;
however, from MS-DOS 3.3 onwards, an option to format disks
was included.
Examples:
BACKUP C:*.* A:
backs up all of the files present on the hard disk. This command
usually requires that a large number of (formatted) disks are
available for use in drive A:. Disks should be numbered so that
the data can later be restored in the correct sequence.
BACKUP C:
\
DEV
\
*.C A:
backs up all of the files with a C: extension present within the
DEV sub-directory on drive C:.
BACKUP C:
\
PROCESS
\
*.BAS A:/D:01-01-99
backs up all of the files with a BAS extension present within the
PROCESS sub-directory of drive C: that were created or altered
on or after 1 January 1999.
BACKUP C:
\
COMMS
\
*.* A:/F
backs up all of the files present in the COMMS sub-directory of
drive C: and formats each disk as it is used.
BACKUP
The
CHKDSK
command reports on disk utilization and provides
information on total disk space, hidden files, directories, and user
files.
CHKDSK
also gives the total memory and free memory
available.
CHKDSK
incorporates options which can be used to
enable reporting and to repair damaged files.
CHKDSK
provides two useful switches:
/F
fixes errors on the
disk and
/V
displays the name of each file in every directory as
the disk is checked. Note that if you use the
/F
switch,
CHKDSK
will ask you to confirm that you actually wish to make changes
to the disk's
file allocation table
(FAT).
CHKDSK
(
continued
)