MS-DOS is a disk operating system. It means it is a system for operating disks.

It enables
the user to organize data files, load and execute program files, control input and output
devices attached to the computer.
Booting: To run DOS on a computer, it should be the first program to be executed when
computer is switched on.
Common primary boot loaders
• BIOS
• EFI
• OpenBIOS
• Open BOOT
• SLOF
Restarting a computer or its operating system software.
It is of two types (1) Cold booting: when the computer is started after having been
switched off. (2) Warm booting: when the operating system alone is restarted (without
being switched off) after a system crash or 'freeze.' Both types of booting clear out (for
the time being) the bugs, bombs, memory conflicts, and other idiosyncrasies of the
operating system.

DOS is entirely text based system. It provides for users in prompt

C:\>

Where we can type commands from keyboard. The system is entirely case insensitive.
Dos works within a file, directory and disk drive structure. All programs and data files
are named, grouped together in named directories on disks.

Fomat: 1-8 letter filename followed by period(.) followed by 3 letter extension

Example: hello.txt
When any text is typed at dos prompt, dos in instructed to run a program. First it checks
whether there is an internal command with that name, if so runs the command. If not it
checks if there is a file in disk with that name. If it finds an external file with that name
and extension .exe or .bat then program is loaded and run. Dos looses control of computer
until the program has ended.

IO.SYS:
This is an essential part of MS-DOS. It contains default ms-dos device drivers and dos
initialization program. In PC boot up sequence ,the first sector of boot disk in loaded into
memory and executed. If this is DOS boot sector, it loads first three sectors of IO.sys into
memory and transfer the control to IO.SYS. then
1. loads the rest of itself into memory
2. initializes each default device drive
3. loads DOS kernel and calls its initialization routine kernel is stored in
MSDOS.SYS
4. processes the MSDOS.SYS
5. processesCONFIG.SYS
6. loads command.com

MSDOS.SYS: It is an important system file that runs after io.sys. msdos.sys is an ascii
file containing configuration directives.

CONFIG.SYS: It is an text file containing dos commands that tell operating system how
the computer is initially setup. Config.sys commands specify memory device drivers and
programs hardware devices. It loads at start up before autoexec.bat. since it is a text file,
it is editable in any text editing program.

COMMAND.COM: This is a filename of default operating system shell for DOS. As a

shell command.com has two modes of work.
 1. Interactive mode: User types the command which are immediately executed.
2. Batch Mode: Sequence of commands are stored as a text file with .exe or .bat as
extension

Internal commands:

Dir-list the files in directory

cd-changes the current directory
copy – copies the content of one file to other.
Ren, rename- renames an existing file
Del-deletes the file
Md, mkdir- make directory, cretes a directory
Rd, rmdir-removes a directory
Type-displays the contents of file
Cls-clear the screen
Date-displays the current date
Time- displays the time
Ver- displays the versio of operating system.