DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

ANDHRA PRADESH
Name : Swathi K.N
Designation : Lecturer
Branch : Computer Engineering
Institute : Kamala Nehru Polytechnic For
Women,Hyd.
Year : I year
Subject : Computer Fundamentals and Office
Automation
Subject Code : CM-105
Topic : DOS & Windows Operating System
Duration : 50 minutes
Sub. Topic : External commands
Teaching Aids : PPT, Images, Animation.
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 Objective:

On completion of this period, you would be

able to know:

External commands-FORMAT,
CHKDSK, SCANDISK etc

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 Recap

What are internal commands?

Internal commands are built – in

commands

Examples: COPY, DEL, DIR, TYPE, CD, MD,

RD, MODE, PATH, DATE, TIME, COPY CON
etc.

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 Prerequisite:

What is meant by commands

Instructions used to communicate with the

computer system.

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 External Commands

 External commands are included in a set of

programs called utility programs that are stored
on a disk.

 When these commands are used, DOS loads

appropriate utility programs from disk and then
executes them.

 As a result, external commands are executed

much more slowly than internal commands.

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 External Commands (contd)

 CHKSDK [d:]
• This command is used for checking the
disk and reporting back the status of the
system.
• It checks for the memory and gives the
detailed information about the memory
consumed as well as free memory.

Example :
CHKDSK A:

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 External Commands (contd)

 DISKCOPY [d:] [d:]

used to copy a diskette into another. This
makes the diskette in the first drive on the
diskette in another drive.

Example:

DISKCOPY A: B:

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 External Commands (contd)

 DISKCOMP [d:] [d:]

• Compare the contents of two diskettes on the
drives specified.
• If there is any difference in the contents of the
disks, it gives the message.
• Otherwise it asks to compare any other disks.

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 External Commands (contd)

 TREE [d:] [/F]

This is used to display all the directories and
subdirectories. /F displays all files if specified.

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 External Commands (contd)
 PRINT: [d:] [path] filename

• This command is used for printing the

contents of documents or files.
• This command sends the document or the
file specified to the printer for printing.

Example:
C:\>PRINT D:\DOS\LETTER\MY
LETTER.LET
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 External Commands (contd)

 FORMAT [d:] [\S] [\V]

• This command is used to prepare a fresh

diskette to be used by the DOS for all its
storage purposes.

• It divides the disk into tracks and segments

so that the data can be stored.

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External Commands (contd)

• If we want to create a system diskette

.i.e., a booted diskette which can be
used to boot a system as it has the basic
operating system in it, use ‘\S’ as option.

• This \V to create a label.

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 External Commands (contd)

 DEL TREE [d:] [path]

This command is used to delete the directory

including all the sub directories and the files.
This command has to be used carefully as it is
dangerous such that it deletes all the files and
subdirectories permanently.

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 External Commands (contd)
 XCOPY [drive1:] pathname1 [drive2:] pathname2

It copies files and directories, including

lower level directories.
Where drive1 & pathname1 is the source
file or directory, drive2 & pathname2 is the
target file or directory.
It is similar to copy command but it also
copies all the subdirectories including
empty directories.
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 External Commands (contd)

Example
C>XCOPY A: /S

Result
The above command is used to copy all files
and subdirectories on the disk in drive A to the
disk in the drive C.

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 External Commands (contd)

 ATTRIB [+R | -R] [+A | -A] [+S | -S] [+H | -H]

[drive:] [path] [filename] [/S [/D]]
It displays or changes file attributes.

+ Sets an attribute
- Clears an attribute
R Read-only file attribute
A Archive file attribute
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 External Commands (contd)

S System file attribute

H Hidden file attribute

[drive:] [path] [filename] It specifies a file for

attrib to process.
/S Processes matching files in the current folder
and all subfolders.
/D Processes folders as well.

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 Summary

In this class, you have learnt about

 External commands – FORMAT, CHKDSK,

SCANDISK, XCOPY, ATTRIB, DISKCOPY,
PRINT, TREE, DELTREE etc.

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 Frequently Asked Questions

1. List any four DOS external commands.

3. What is DOS external command?

5. Explain any four external commands in DOS.

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 Quiz

 C>XCOPY A: /S - This command is used to copy

all files and subdirectories on the disk in
a. drive A to the disk in the drive C.
b. drive C to the disk in the drive A.
Answer: a

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 Quiz

 The command used to copy a diskette into

another
a. DISKCOPY
b. XCOPY
Answer: a

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