BCA – 105: Lab on MS- Windows and DOS
Rahul Kumar Singh
In today's Lab Class we have discussed on Disk Operating
System (DOS).
What is DOS?
A disk operating system (DOS) is an operating system for
x86 based personal computers mostly developed by
Microsoft.
A disk operating system doesn't have a graphical user
interface (GUI). Its interface is character-based, so users
must type commands in the command line to indicate
what actions they want.
DOS is not case-sensitive so that commands can type in
either uppercase or lowercase.
DOS was the main operating system for IBM PC
compatible personal computers during the 1980s. It was
gradually superseded by operating systems offering a
graphical user interface (GUI) in various graphical
Microsoft Windows operating system generations.
DOS is also used to describe several similar command-line
disk operating systems. Early computers, such as the
Commodore 64, Atari 800, and Apple II, all featured a disk
operating system, including Commodore Business
Machines DOS, Atari DOS, and Apple DOS, respectively.
DOS/360 was an OS for IBM mainframes, which first
appeared in 1966, but it is unrelated to the 8086-based
DOS of the 1980s.
Several competing products were released for the x86
platform during its lifetime, and MS-DOS went through
eight versions until development ceased in 2000. Initially,
MS-DOS was targeted at Intel 8086 processors running on
computer hardware using floppy disks to store and access
the operating system, application software, and user data.
Progressive version releases delivered support for other
mass storage media in ever greater sizes and formats and
added feature support for newer processors and rapidly
evolving computer architectures. Microsoft's development
was the key product from a programming language
company to a diverse software development firm,
providing essential revenue and marketing resources. It
was also the underlying basic operating system on which
early versions of Windows ran as a GUI.
How DOS works?
When a computer is powered on, it goes through various
steps called the boot process. For a computer running a
disk operating system in the following six steps, such as:
1. The read-only memory (ROM) bootstrap loader reads
the Master Boot Record and passes control over to it.
2. The boot record loads the disk operating system into
memory, and it takes control of the machine.
3. The computer transfers data stored on a magnetic
disk to its main memory, the random access memory.
4. It also transfers data to external devices attached to
the computer, such as a computer screen or printer.
5. The computer provides various applications
programming interfaces for programs like character
input/output, memory management, program loading,
termination, and handling input from the user through
a keyboard.
6. The OS also provides file management that organizes,
reads, and writes files on storage. The files are
organized in a hierarchical structure of directories,
subdirectories, and files.
Features of DOS:-
Here are some of the distinguishing features of a disk
operating system, such as:
DOS does not offer GUI (Graphical User Interface) and
doesn't accept mouse inputs. It is a character-based
interface system where all commands are entered in
the text at the command-line prompt.
A disk operating system manages files, folders and
allows program loading and execution. It can control
hardware devices such as disk, memory and allocate
resources.
DOS offers a file system to organize, read and write
files to the disk storage.
It is a single-user operating system and performs
various tasks to ensure the proper operation of
systems.
It uses a 16-bit file allocation table (FAT16), and a 16-
bit interface is used to define the location of the
memory of each file uniquely. These identifiers are
stored in a tabular format with the name File
Allocation table.
DOS does not support a multiuser operating system,
and it is less secure and does not have a concept of
user roles. It is very lightweight due to its basic
interface and limited features.
Limitations / Drawbacks of DOS:-
Here are the following limitations of the disk operating
system, such as:
Built-in security: DOS does not have built-in security,
such as file ownership and permissions.
No multiuser or multitasking: It also does not support
multiuser or multitasking. It can only run one program
at a time, but it provides direct access to the basic I/O
system and underlying hardware.
Challenging interface: A user must type in commands
and remember commands to run programs and other
OS tasks. For example, typing the command cd
\directory_name changes the current working
directory to the named directory, and typing the
command dir lists the files in the current directory.
This approach makes it difficult for beginners to use.
Types of DOS Commands:-
An instruction given to a computer to perform a specific
task is known as a command. The DOS has many
commands to perform each task, and these commands
are stored in the DOS directory of the disk.
The DOS commands are of two types, internal command,
and external command.
1. Internal Command: Internal commands are built-in
commands of MS-DOS, stored in the command
interpreter file (COMMAND.COM). These commands
reside in memory if the system is at prompt (C:\>)
level. Some of the internal commands are DIR, MD, CD,
RD, COPY, DEL, VOL, DATE, TIME, CLS, PATH, TYPE,
PROMPT etc.
2. External Command: External commands are separate
program (.com) files that reside in the DOS directory.
Some of the external commands are CHKDSK, XCOPY,
PRINT, DISKCOPY, DISKCOMP, DOSKEY, TREE, MOVE,
LABEL, APPEND, FORMAT, SORT, FDISK, BACKUP,
RESTORE, EDIT, MODE, ATTRIB, HELP, SYS etc.
DOS Files and Filenames:-
One of the primary functions of the OS is to handle disk
files. A file can contain only data, or it can contain a set of
instructions, called a program, telling the computer how to
perform a particular task. Every file has associated with it
a unique filename which is used to identify it on the disk.
A filename in DOS has two parts; the name and an
extension.
The name can contain up to eight characters. Each
filename can have a three-character extension. The
extension is separated from the name by a period. The
period serves as a delimiter, indicating where one portion
of the filename ends, and the next begins. An extension is
usually used to identify files that are related in some way.
DOS allows the following characters to be used in a
filename and extension:
Uppercase and lowercase case letters A through Z
Numbers 0 through 9
Special characters $ # & @ ( ) ! ^ ` ~ { }
Any other character used in a filename, including spaces,
will cause the name to be terminated at that character. It is
generally good practice not to use special characters in
filenames because some programs may use them as
delimiters or other special purposes.
In addition, the extensions BAT, COM, EXE, and SYS have
special meanings in DOS and should therefore normally
not be used with your data files. Below are examples of
both valid and unacceptable filenames.
Valid MS-DOS Filenames:
BEERSLAW
DAT
1
EXP
Invalid MS-DOS Filenames:
EXP 1.DAT (space is not allowed)
BEERSLAWDATA (too many characters in the name)
EXP1 (too many characters in the extension)
HG>HE (> is an invalid character)
