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Using a single diskette drive system, L-16 – Epson Endeavor User Manual

Page 32

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Caution

Never remove a diskette or reset or turn off the computer

while a diskette drive light is on. You could lose data. Also,

remove all diskettes before you turn off the computer.

Using a Single Diskette Drive System

Most operating systems expect the computer to have at least

two diskette drives and display prompts and messages

accordingly. MS-DOS, for example, recognizes the first diskette

drive (the top drive) as drive A and a second diskette drive as

drive B. If you have only one diskette drive, MS-DOS can treat

it as both A and B when you need to perform operations that

normally would use two diskette drives.

For example, if you enter a command to copy data from A to B,

MS-DOS copies the data from the first diskette you place in the

drive (which would be drive A) to the computer’s memory.

Then MS-DOS prompts you to insert another diskette (for

drive B) and copies the data from memory to the new diskette.

When copying is complete, you see a prompt to insert the

original diskette (A).

Because you may often swap diskettes this way, it is important

to remember which diskette is which. It is also a good idea to

write-protect your original diskette. (See “Write-protecting

Diskettes,” above.)

If you have a hard disk and one diskette drive, you can load the

operating system and application programs from the hard disk,

create and store your data there, and use the diskette drive just

for copying data to or from diskettes.

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Using Your Computer