CertiGuide to A+ (Operating Systems)  9  Chapter 0011:  DOS       9  IV  COMMAND.COM and Basic DOS Commands

The 8.3 Filename Limit and Common Extensions 1 REN (RENAME)

Both DEL (Delete) and ERASE mean the same thing, they delete files. DEL is more popular than ERASE, simply because there are fewer keystrokes. Typing DEL *.* would delete everything, period. Due to user feedback, starting with DOS 3, when DEL *.* was typed, DOS offers the following prompt:

“Are you sure?Y/N”. Y (YES) N (NO)

You can see examples of this in Figure 141.

Yes, this author quickly and solidly erased the root entries of a 10MG hard drive, thinking I was logged to the A drive, and cleaning up an old diskette.

In a few keystrokes, COMMAND.COM, and the DOS program extensions (.sys files) along with a painfully created CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT file were sent to never-never land.

This sad fact in DOS 2.x made Peter Norton a great deal of money with the 3^rd party utility, Norton Unerase, whose functionality (as you might expect) was to recover files lost by errant “del” or “erase” commands. Microsoft purchased Unerase from Norton and included it with DOS 5.

For the Practice exercise, create a text file in Notepad by going to start, programs, accessories, Notepad and creating a bit of text, then Practice DEL (deleting) the file in DOS.

8 Practice DEL/ERASE

The 8.3 Filename Limit and Common Extensions 1 REN (RENAME)