Chapter 1
Introduction
1-8
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Files and Directories Installed on Your Hard Drive
Your hard drive includes a directory called
images
in its root that
contains software and soft copies of manuals for the operating system
and peripherals. The directory structure under the
images
directory is
logically organized into several levels.
In the
images
directory itself, you will find a
manuals
directory,
an
os
directory, and directories for each of the peripherals of your
computer.
The
manuals
directory contains quick reference guides, technical
reference manuals, and National Instruments software manuals, all in
Adobe Acrobat format. To access any of these manuals, change your
directory to
c:\images\pxi8170\manuals
and list the contents of that
directory. You will see several files, one corresponding to each peripheral.
The
os
directory contains a subdirectory corresponding to the operating
system installed on your computer. That subdirectory contains an image
of the CD from which your operating system was installed, so you do not
need to insert the CD when you install a new peripheral. When the software
prompts you to insert the CD, direct the system to look in the
images\os
directory instead.
For example, if your system has Windows 98 installed, you should find an
image of the Windows 98 CD in
c:\images\os\win98
.
The rest of the directories correspond to each peripheral in your system.
Within each of these directories are the drivers for the peripherals. These
files and directories are copied exactly from the distribution disks of the
manufacturers, so the naming conventions vary from peripheral to
peripheral.
Because the naming conventions may not be completely straightforward,
National Instruments provides a text file named
drivers.txt
in the
c:\images\pxi8170
directory. The
drivers.txt
file explains how
to install support for each peripheral. You may want to print this file for
reference when you install your peripheral device drivers.