MS DOS Files And Directories
When it comes to computers, data is stored in files. When you run a program, MS-DOS processes the data stored in the file and passes it to the system. In MS-DOS a file can be any size, however the file name is more restricted, it can only have a maximum length of 8 characters plus 3 for the extension. 
Supported Characters
Furthermore, the files can only contain the following characters:
- Letters A to Z
- Numbers 0 to 9
- The following special characters: $~! # % & - { } ( ) @ ' _ ^
File Naming
Thus filenames must not contain:
- Spaces
- Commas
- Backslash
- Dot (apart from the dot that separates the name and the extension)
Also, the cannot contain any of the following list of reserved names:
- CLOCK$
- CON
- AUX
- COM1
- COM2
- COM3
- COM4
- LPT1
- LPT2
- LPT3
- NUL
- PRN
Organizing Files in Directories or Folders
A hard drive can contain several thousands of files. However, the more files there are, the more difficult it is to manage them: this is when we need to store them in directories. In MS-DOS, directory names are also subject to the same name restrictions as files.
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