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I'm trying to set a default path in the windows command prompt but my CD command seems to be ignored. I'm not getting any error/warning either. What am I doing wrong? The contents of the prompt -after 2 attempts- are:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Work>cd "D:\Downloads\xlrd-0.9.0.tar\dist\xlrd-0.9.0\x
lrd-0.9.0"

C:\Documents and Settings\Work>cd D:\Downloads\xlrd-0.9.0.tar\dist\xlrd-0.9.0\xl
rd-0.9.0

C:\Documents and Settings\Work>

Here's a screenshot of what has been going on:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/116120595/command_prompt_trouble.jpg

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  • @Karan: you're right, that's the same misunderstanding.
    – RubenGeert
    Feb 16, 2013 at 15:56

2 Answers 2

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Your cd command worked just fine, but you're still looking at the wrong drive.

Type: d: to switch to that drive.

Or, include /D to change the drive in addition to changing the folder:

cd /D D:\Downloads\xlrd-0.9.0.tar\dist\xlrd-0.9.0\xlrd-0.9.0
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  • great, it's working now! But I don't really understand why. A path is just a path, right? Why am I looking at the wrong drive if I explicitly pointed to the D:\ drive? Or am I looking for logic where there isn't any?
    – RubenGeert
    Feb 16, 2013 at 15:48
  • True, but on Windows (and in the old MS-Dos) drives are really separated using that odd c: prefix. On Linux, for example, one would "mount" physical drives into the same file system path, where the path /abc/123 could be a different harddisk than /xyz/456, which in Windows would then be c:\123 and d:\456
    – Arjan
    Feb 16, 2013 at 15:51
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    On Windows every drive has its own path scope.
    – gronostaj
    Feb 16, 2013 at 17:41
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This is intended behaviour for windows.

On just about any operating system 'cd' (change dir) changes to the new directory.

On windows it only does that for a volume, but it does not change to that volume.

If you are on the C: volume (as in your screenshot) and then do a cd d:\foo then you stay in your current folder. You will need to follow it up with d: to actually change to the newly set place.

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