Copying a File Between Disks on a Single Drive (37642)


The information in this article applies to:
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.1
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.2
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.21
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3a
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.01
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q37642

SUMMARY

If you have two different, and possibly incompatible, floppy disk drive types, you can use one floppy disk drive to copy a file between two floppy disks if you install DRIVER.SYS with the appropriate switches in your CONFIG.SYS file.

MORE INFORMATION

For example, if the line 
   DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /D:0 /F:1
is present in the CONFIG.SYS file, the following message is issued when the driver is installed 
   Loaded external disk driver for drive <x>
where <x> is the new logical drive letter associated with drive A. You can then use the single floppy disk drive and the MS-DOS COPY command to copy files between disks (swapping disks when prompted), as in the following example: 
   copy a:one.txt x:
DRIVER.SYS is only needed if you have two different, and possibly incompatible, floppy disk drive types; however, you still need to use two floppies of the same media type (for example, 360K to 360K).

NOTE: If your PC machine has only one floppy drive, MS-DOS uses a similar method and the B drive letter to allow you to copy files from floppy disk to floppy disk. For example, the following COPY example accomplishes the same results: 
   copy a:one.txt b:
Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/12/2003
Keywords: KB37642
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