Lesson: Create A Personal Boot Disk Plus Programs

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Floppies come in two physical sizes and four capacities: 5.25 inch (360K or 1.2M bytes) and 3.5 inch (720K and 1.44M bytes). You can put a 360K floppy in a 1.2M drive and a 720K floppy in a 1.44M drive, but not the reverse. Your goal is to make a floppy disk which can boot the computer and run some club programs. Obtain a formatted floppy disk of the same physical and logical size as your computer's disk drive, then get to the DOS prompt. 
c:\>dir a:
c:\>help sys
c:\>sys a:
c:\>dir a:
c:\>help dir
c:\>dir /a a:
c:\>a:
Check the contents of your floppy with DIR--it should be empty. If you have HELP, use it to study SYS, which copies the files for booting the system to your floppy. Two of the files are hidden, so you need DIR /A to see them. How much free disk space is left? We will fill it with programs. 
a:\>md adv
a:\>cd \adv
a:\adv>copy c:\clubmenu\adv
a:\adv>adv430.exe
Copy Adventure into the ADV directory. Remember to give each program its own directory. Now run the program by typing adv430.exe to ensure that it works. 
a:\adv>cd \
a:\>edit autoexec.bat
echo off
prompt $p$g
path=a:\;c:\dos\;c:\windows\command
cd \adv
adv430.exe
Use the DOS EDIT program to create the a:\autoexec.bat file, which tells the computer what to do when it starts up: don't echo comands, do prompt with the directory name, do search several directories for things to run, switch to the ADV directory and run Adventure! 
a:\> ALT-CTL-DEL

a:\>echo off
Welcome to Adventure.
When you reboot by pressing the CTL, ALT and DEL keys at the same time, you should be in Adventure. Use this floppy in any PC with a matching drive. 
a:\adv>cd \
a:\>dir
a:\>md tme
a:\>cd \tme
a:\tme>copy c:\clubmenu\tme
a:\tme>tme.exe
If DIR shows 100,000 bytes free space, add Typing Made Easy in A:\TME. Don't forget to test it. As long as there is room, install the Spreadsheet in A:\ASEASY and Googol Math in A:\GOOGOL (to run it you type MENU).
Reboot your PC again with ALT-CTL-DEL. Notice that you still run Adventure automatically, but must CD to and run the other programs by hand. In the next lesson you will learn how to build a menu in a BAT file, so you will need this diskette again. Have an instructor check your work, then label your diskette and turn it in for safe-keeping.

Warning: Never write directly on a diskette. They are fragile! Do not fold or bend. Keep out of sun and dust. Store in a Ziploc bag. Backup important data with the DISKCOPY command.