Disk Path Specifier

A directory can be specified by a full or relative path. A relative path uses the current directory; it specifies the location relative to the current directory (e.g. a subdirectory of the current directory). A full path is totally independent of the current directory; it specifies all necessary information to reach the directory.

Full Disk Paths

There are two types of full paths. The first, so-called local path, uses drive letters (e.g. C:\WINDOWS). The second, so-called UNC path, uses UNC (Universal Naming Convention, e.g. \\SERVER\SHARE\WINDOWS). You can see all available drive letters in the Change Drive Menu. The first two parts of UNC paths (server and share) are listed in the Network window which is accessible from the Change Drive Menu.

Relative Disk Paths

Relative paths can be specified relative to the current directory (e.g. SUBDIR) or to the last visited directory on a drive (e.g. C:SUBDIR is relative to the last visited directory on drive C:). If a relative path begins with a backslash, it specifies a path relative to the root. A relative path can contain special names: two dots (..) and one dot (.). Two dots stand for the parent directory, and one dot stands for the current directory. See the following table for examples of relative paths.

Relative Disk Paths:

Current Directory	Relative Disk Path	Resulting Full Disk Path
C:\WINDOWS	SYSTEM	C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM	D:	D:\WORK (provided that last visited directory on drive D: is D:\WORK)
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM	D:TEST	D:\WORK\TEST (provided that last visited directory on drive D: is D:\WORK)
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM	\TEMP	C:\TEMP
\\NTSERVER\BIGDISK\MEDIA\PICTURES	..\MOVIES	\\NTSERVER\BIGDISK\MEDIA\MOVIES
\\NTSERVER\BIGDISK\MEDIA\PICTURES	.	\\NTSERVER\BIGDISK\MEDIA\PICTURES
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM	COLOR\..\..\HELP\.	C:\WINDOWS\HELP (easier and equivalent relative path is ..\HELP)