If you want to copy the entire contents of one disk to another, you need to use the DISKCOPY command. This command copies the contents of the floppy disk in the source drive to the floppy disk in the destination drive. On a PC-XT with a single floppy drive, the same drive will have to be the source drive as well as the destination drive.
The command for copying the contents of one floppy disk to another is:
C>DISKCOPY A:A: <Enter>
This command copies the contents of the entire disk in drive A (source drive) to the disk in the destination drive, i.e. drive A. Here, drive A acts as the source drive as well as the destination drive.
When you issue the DISKCOPY command, the following message is displayed on the screen:
Insert SOURCE diskette in Drive A:
Press any key to continue...
DOS will wait for you to insert the source diskette and press any key, before continuing. After a while, the following message will be flashed on the screen:
Insert TARGET diskette in drive A:
Press any key to continue...
Here, you are prompted to remove the source disk and insert the target disk.
After the process of copying is completed, the display on the screen is
Copy complete
Do you wish to write another duplicate of this disk (Y/N) ?_
If you press Y, DOS will prompt you to insert another target diskette and another copy will be made. If you choose N, the display will change to C>.
The target diskette can be formatted or unformatted. If the target diskette is not formatted, DISKCOPY formats it. In case of a used floppy, the original contents are lost because DISKCOPY formats the disk before copying.
The DISKCCOPY command works only with floppy disks and cannot be used with the hard disk.
DISKCOPY is an external command. The file DISKCOPY.COM must exist in order to execute this command.