Strange DOS behavior

[Stormlifter]

Okay I've got no clue why the command prompt is being such a bitch.
If anyone has a clue let me know. Here is the screen shot of what it's done.

 

[Stormlifter]

crazy thing is driving me nuts... I want it to stop.

If I type "c:"
it goes to "c:\windows\system32"

 

[GushpinBob]

C:\> X:
(where X is your drive letter)

Those two quirks have almost always been the nature of MS-DOS and the command prompt that's included with NT-based operating systems.

edit: You can always type
C:\> X:
to change the drive letter, then
X:\> CD \
to go to the root of that drive or partition.

 

[Stormlifter]

Well how about going to a specific directory. This is odd I've been using DOS for a long time and haven't noticed it acting this way before. I had batch files that aren't working now that I had working years ago.

 

[Joe Average]

The thing you need to realize first and foremost is DOS is dead, has been for a long long time. The Command Prompt ain't DOS, but we all get the meaning, even so.

Define what the hell you're trying to do and then go from there. By default, if you Start - Run (on XP or whatever) or just Start and type cmd and press Enter, by default you should get a Command Prompt that opens to your Documents and Settings folder (in Vista it's just User Accounts now, that's what changed).

Regardless of where you are, if you want to change to another drive completely, you simply type the drive letter, a colon, and press Enter, like d: or x: or whatever. That would change the working directory to the root of the drive you specified. If, however, you type the letter of the drive you're already on, it won't do Jack Shit© and you'll simply get the same prompt again like typing c: at that prompt would simply leave you at the same directory.

You don't use the cd command to change to another drive, it doesn't work that way, it only works from the current root. You have to use d: first, then cd "Document Files" to get to D:\Document Files if you started off in C:\Windows\system32 as you apparently did in that image.

As noted, to get to the root of the current drive you're looking at, it's cd \. cd .. moves up one level; the cd ... command isn't supported in the Windows Command Prompt.

If you're writing batch files, to move to a directory on another drive, you'll need to use the drive letter/colon first then the cd <directory> command next.

Hope this helps...

 

[Stormlifter]

Gosh this is really odd. I have these batch files that used to work. That's so dang strange.
Yeah I know it's not DOS. But most people don't know that so I figured I'd get more interaction if I called it DOS, the people who know it's the command prompt I'm talking about get it when I say DOS, so I get the most people who get what I'm saying when I say DOS

this just seems odd

 

[Joe Average]

So the rule of thumb to go on is:

"Assume intelligence is present until the fucktard does something truly stupid to prove otherwise..."

Edit...

I don't see anything odd. You changed to the d: drive, then changed to the proper directory on that drive. Then you changed back to the c: drive where the Command Prompt remembered where it was last time you were on that drive (C:\Windows\system32) and then you tried the cd command all the way back to that directory on d: again - which I just said you can't do. If you had typed d: right after that above, you WOULD have been returned to that directory because it's where you just came from previously... just like typing c: jumped you right back to the last directory open on that drive...

 

[Met-AL]

Gosh this is really odd. I have these batch files that used to work. That's so dang strange.
Yeah I know it's not DOS. But most people don't know that so I figured I'd get more interaction if I called it DOS, the people who know it's the command prompt I'm talking about get it when I say DOS, so I get the most people who get what I'm saying when I say DOS

this just seems odd

It is working as it whould be. Now if you were to do the D: command next, it would change to the d: drive and and be in the folder you specified in the previous cd D:\ command.

 

[Stormlifter]

That's so odd to me. For some reason I recall it allowing me to type in commands like that and it would go to that directory. I have batch files from a long time ago that are written like that.
Oh well.

 

[Met-AL]

That's so odd to me. For some reason I recall it allowing me to type in commands like that and it would go to that directory. I have batch files from a long time ago that are written like that.
Oh well.

The only thing I can think of is that the Windows Command Processor is not quite the same as DOS was, even though it's supposed to be emulating DOS.

 

[Demon10000]

Put a /D on your CD command and it will change the drive at the same time and your commands will start working.

So at the C:\Windows\System32 promt, you could enter

cd /d d:\document files

and it will change to d:\document files.

 

[BinarySynapse]

As everyone has said, DOS/CMD.exe has always behaved this way. "CD" is the shortened form of the "CHDIR" command, which means for "change directory" not "change drive". In UNIX-like OS's all drive are mapped into one big filesystem, so you can use "CD" to access data on other drives. However, in DOS, you can't CD to another drive without using a utility that extends the basic DOS capabilities (similar to how DOSkey used to let you remember and edit previous command lines). I don't know of any that do that, though I'm sure there's one somewhere.

(EDIT: didn't see the above comment, that's something I didn't know)

Why is their a lower case 'D' on the third line?

 

[Stormlifter]

Put a /D on your CD command and it will change the drive at the same time and your commands will start working.

So at the C:\Windows\System32 promt, you could enter

cd /d d:\document files

and it will change to d:\document files.

You are a winner.

 

[Ranma_Sao]

You can also used pushd/popd, very useful in batch files...

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