CertiGuide to A+ (Operating Systems)  9  Chapter 0011:  DOS       9  V  File-Related DOS Commands

SCANREG 1 Roots

Introduced with DOS version 2 is support for hard drives, sometimes called fixed disks. (the latter name come from the fact that they could not be removed, like a floppy could).

As we learned earlier, FDISK was needed before formatting. After a hard disk was formatted and contained an OS (operating system), a method of creating virtual floppies on the fixed disk was needed.

These virtual floppies are called sub directories or folders.

There are several reasons for this need. One need is a human one. That is to give order to the capability of the fact that thousands of files could be stored.

The second reason was a technical issue. The indexing system that controlled where the magnetic bits were that told DOS what made up a file, was limited to 512 file entries!

SCANREG 1 Roots