Disk Operating System (specifically) and
disk operating system (generically), most often reveal themselves in abbreviated form as
DOS, refer to an
operating system software used in most computers that provides the abstraction and management of
secondary storage devices and the information on them (e.g.,
file systems for organizing
files of all sorts). Such software is referred to as a
disk operating system when the storage devices it manages are made of rotating platters, such as
floppy disks or
hard disk drives.