The A+ Exams Guide: (Exam 220-301), (Exam 220-302) (TestTakers Guides)

Operating System Fundamentals Test Tips

The following operating system fundamentals test tips will assist you with your final test preparation. Although some of these tips are not explained in detail in this chapter, they are important facts that may prove valuable to you in the exam room. Remember them.

• A corrupt or very old version of the file COMMAND.COM can lead to the error message “bad or missing command.com.” To correct this issue, you can boot to an emergency repair disk and use the SYS.COM to correct the error.

• In Windows 95, a duplicate copy of COMMAND.COM can be found in C:\WINDOWS.

• The operating system Windows 3.x used a utility called File Manager to manage folders and files. Early versions of Windows 9.x used this File Manager instead of Explorer, which is found in newer versions of Windows. It should be noted that File Manager does not support long file name structures. File manager will truncate long file names to 8.3 names.

• If you are installing a program and it cannot make changes to files such as AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS, you should verify that their attributes are not set to read-only. From a DOS prompt, type ATTRIB -R and the file name. Or right click the file and select Properties, and uncheck the read-only box in Windows Explorer.

• To hide a file while at a DOS command prompt, enter: ATTRIB +H (FILENAME).

• If you receive error messages that state that there is not enough disk space while trying to install old DOS legacy programs (FAT16) on newer operating systems (FAT32), it is likely that the old DOS programs do not recognize the FAT32 file system. The maximum size of a FAT16 logical drive is 2GB. FAT32 has a 2TB limit.

• In most Windows operating systems, you can type SYSEDIT or REGEDIT in at the Start > Run command line to troubleshoot SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI, AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, or Windows registry-related issues.

• If you ever receive the message “sector 0 bad, disk not usable” while formatting a hard drive, it is very likely that you have a bad or defective hard drive.

• The tool EDIT.COM can easily be used to edit text files from a command prompt.

• To easily display the current running operating system in Windows, right-click on the My Computer icon, then select Properties.

• FDISK/MBR will repair a master boot record.

• The proper syntax for formatting a floppy disk from a command prompt would be FORMAT A:

• If you want to edit MSDOS.SYS from a command prompt, you must first enter ATTRIB –S –H -R MSDOS.SYS.

• With protected mode memory, the operating system manages memory resources and controls application access to memory.

• Disk Defragmenter is used to improve hard disk access time, which results in faster data transfers.

• The command line utility SCANREG can be used to restore a backed-up copy of the registry if the registry has become damaged or corrupt.

• If your system’s BIOS is set to boot from a floppy disk, and you boot with an unformatted floppy disk inserted in your floppy drive, you will receive the error message, “No operating system found.”

• Using the /? Switch after a particular DOS command will list the possible switches available for the DOS command as well as their functions.

• If you want to check your C drive for surface disk errors before Windows 9.x starts, you can enter SCANDISK C:/SURFACE from a command prompt. Also remember, SCANDISK fixes cross-linked files.

• To truly be considered plug-and-play, an environment requires a plug-and-play operating system, BIOS, device drivers, and peripheral devices.