sorry to sound dumb but I have had a system crash and need to re-install windows but i have some info and hardware on my computer that i want to save to disk. What commands do i have to use from ms-dos to get the ball rolling...The computer wont let me get into windows so it must be done in ms-dos mode type copy/? that will display help for the copy command.

use cd and cd\ and dir to get around

For example,

dir what's in the current directory
dir/p displayes in several pages, for when you have lots of files
cd windows takes you to the windows folder, if it's at your current directory. However if you're in say your DOCUMENTS folder, you will need to use cd\ to "backup"

Once you've found the file type

copy file.txt a:\saved

... for example

Also note that in DOS, you need to obey a special naming rule. Directorys can have 8 letters max and files 8 letters plus 3 for extantion. No spaces. For example, to get to program files from c:, you type

cd progra~1 the ~1 means that EXTRA letters were removed. It will usually be ~1, sometimes other numbers.

To change DRIVERS, type X: eg a: for floppy.

Trick: use *.xxx for all

eg copy *.txt a:\ copies all txt files to floppy.

Hope this helps. For most commands you can add /? for help.



copy /?