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Turning On Your Computer

Before turning on your computer, DOS must be present on the boot disk. The boot disk is the primary disk from which DOS loads into your computer's memory. This includes loading the boot record and DOS system files BIO.COM, DOS.COM, and COMMAND.COM. The purpose of each of these files is described in Section 1.

A hard drive system is assumed in this blog, where your hard drive is most often designated as drive C. If you have a removable disk system, use A in place of C in the activities contained in this blog. If you have two removable disk drives, the second drive is designated as drive B. 
The following diagram illustrates the two most common computer configurations.



Date and Time Commands

Your computer is equipped with a 24-hour system clock. The clock maintains the date and time as long as power is applied. Most new computers have battery-powered clocks which maintain the current date and time even when your computer is turned off. If you have an 80286-, 80386-, or 80486-based computer, the date and time are initialized when the system is first turned on and configured. Configuration information, including the date, time, disk drive types, the amount and type of memory (expanded or expanded), and the display type, is maintained in a battery-powered CMOS memory devices. If you have an 8086- or 8088-based system  that is not equipped with a clock-calendar board, you may have to enter the date and time every time you turn on your computer. Following is a description of the DATE and TIME commands.

DATE: The DATE command is an internal DOS command; therefore, you do not see the DATE command file when a directory of you DOS file is displayed. The DATE command is run automatically when you insert the DOS disk and turn on your computer. You can also run the DATE command by typing DATE and pressing Enter from the DOS prompt. In either case, a screen similar to the following is displayed.

C>DATE
Current date is Tue 1-01-1990
Enter new date (mm-dd-yy) :
Respond by typing th date notation for the national language in use. For example, if you are configured for the U.S, type the current month, day, and year in the form 09-01-90 or 10/21/91 and press Enter. The date is recorded by DOS. If the date is not important to you, you can respond to the DATE prompt simply by pressing Enter.

You can also enter the date by typing DATE followed by the proper date and Enter. This inputs the date on a single line without displaying the date prompt.

TIME  Like the DATE command, the TIME command is also one of DOS' internal commands and therefore is not seen when a directory of disk file is displayed. The system time uses a 24- hour clock. If you are using DOS  3.3 or earlier, you must enter 1:30 p.m as 13:30. If you are using DOS 4.01+, you can use 12-hour notation. This is described in the last paragraph of this section.

The TIME command is run automatically after the DATE command when you insert the DOS disk and turn on your computer. Automatic execution of the TIME command is suppressed if your system is configured with a hardware clock-calender device or uses an AUTOEXEC.BAT file that excludes a TIME command line.

Entering the TIME Command  You can type the TIME command and press Enter directly from the DOS prompt. When the TIME command runs, a prompt similar to the following is displayed.

C>TIME
Current time is 8:45:11.96a
Enter new time:

The time expression is given in:
         hours:minutes:seconds.hundredths of             a second

Type the current hour and minute in the form 10:45 and press Enter. The time is recorded by DOS. You may use a period in place of a colon to separate the hours, minutes and seconds. Seconds and hundredths of a second may be omitted. However, if you wish to enter the time to this level of accuracy, separate seconds and hundredths with either a period or a comma. If the time is not important to you, you can respond to the TIME prompt by pressing Enter. This sets the system clock to 00:00.

You can also type TIME, the current time notation, and press Enter to set the time. This command form inputs the time without displaying the DOS time prompt.

DOS 4.01 and 12-Hour Time Notation The MS-DOS 4.01 and 5.00 TIME commands support 12-hour time notation. To use 12-hour times, times are entered with an a or p or a.m or p.m. Look at the two following examples.
 
TIME 10:30a
TIME 10:30p

Both of these are valid time entries. If you wish to use the 24-hour time notation, use 22:30 in place of 10:30p and 10:30 in place of 10:30a.

DATE and TIME Activity: In this "hands-on" activity you use the DATE and TIME commands to enter the current date and time. Check to see that  your computer is properly connected and that a DOS diskette is inserted in drive A. If you have a fixed disk system equipped with a clock-calendar option, bypass the option by booting from a floppy diskette, i.e, put a DOS diskette in drive A and turn on your computer.

  1. If your computer is turned on and the DOS prompt is displayed, go to step 3 below. Otherwise, insert your DOS disk and turn on your computer.
NOTE
In the following step, you normally respond to the DATE and TIME
prompts at system turn-on.
However, to illustrate use of the DATE prompt by itself, ignore these prompts
for the time being.

2. Press Enter twice in response to the DATE and TIME prompts. The DOS prompts is now displayed.

  3. Type DATE and press Enter; notice the DATE prompt.


C>DATE
Current date is Tue 1-01-1990
Enter new date (mm-dd-yy) :

4. Type the current date in the indicated form (separate by date, month, year with hyphens or slashes) and press Enter.

5. The current date is now recorded. To verify the current date, you can repeat step 3 above. If you do not want to change the date, press Enter to re display the DOS prompt. Pressing Enter leaves the system date unchanged.

6. Type TIME and press Enter; notice the TIME prompt.

C>TIME
Current time is 8:45:11.96a
Enter new time:

7. Type the current time in the indicated form (separate the hour and minute with a colon) and press Enter.

8. The current time is now recorded. To verify the current time, you can repeat step 3. If you do not want to change the time, press Enter to re display the DOS prompt. Pressing Enter leaves the system time unchanged.
9. If you are using DOS 4.01 or later. experiment with the 12-hour time notation by following the time with an a or p.

VER
 
The VER command is an internal DOS command that displays the version of DOS you are using. To run the VER program, type VER and press Enter. A screen message similar to the following is displayed.

C>VER
MS-DOS Version 5.00 

VER Activity: In this activity check your versions of DOS.
 
1. From the DOS prompt, type VER and press Enter.
2. Check the display to see what version of DOS your system is using.
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