Practical PC, 3e

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Chapter 5 Organizing Files and Folders
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Organizing Files and Folders

• In this Chapter, you will learn
• How to get a list of your files
• How to find a file
• How to change a files name
• How to best organize my files
• How to copy files from one disk to another
• How to deal with a full disk
• About hard disk drives

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Creating a list of your files

• Windows Explorer (WE) contains a full set of
  tools for listing and organizing your files
• WE comes with your Windows Operating system
• Use WE, you can sort files by
• Alphabetical order by name
• By date created
• By size
• By date created

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Creating a list of your files

• You can also use WE to
• Change file or folder names
• Create new folders
• Move files between folders
• Delete files or folders
• Move or back up files to another storage area
• You can start Windows Explorer from the
  Accessories menu.

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Creating a list of your files

• Clicking the right mouse button is called
  right-clicking.
• Right-clicking a file or folder, displays
  shortcut menu that will allow you to (among
  others)
• Rename the file
• Open it
• Create a shortcut to it
• Delete it
• Move or copy it

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Creating a list of your files
A Windows Explorer Window
The file list can be sorted by clicking the
column heading
List of storage devices and folders
Right-clicking an object displays this menu
The open folder
File list from the open folder
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Changing the Name of a File

• Changing the name of a file is called renaming
  it.
• When renaming a file , you should be careful to
  keep the same file extension.
• If file extensions do not show in your list, you
  can go to folder options from the tools menu and
  change the Windows display option.

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Changing the Name of a File
Renaming file options
You can rename a file, by clicking on it twice
and retyping the name
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Choosing the best file organization

• Files should be organized into a structure of
  folders.
• When the files in a folder become unmanageable,
  create a sub folder and group files in categories
  within the main folder.
• Moving a file temporarily cuts the file to the
  Windows clipboard and then pastes it to its
  permanent position.

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Choosing the best file organization

• Good file organization hints
• Store all files in folders
• Store data files separately from programs
• Store data in an organized way that makes sense
  to you. For instance, all of the files for each
  college course should be in separate folders

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Choosing the best file organization
Moving files and folders using WE
Then right click the destination folder and
select paste
Right-click the file to be moved and select cut
Select the right folder
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Copying files to other disks

• When you copy a file, Windows makes a copy of the
  file and puts it on the Windows Clipboard.
• The original file is not affected.
• If you wish to copy an entire floppy disk,
  Windows has a Copy Disk feature.
• Copy Disk copies all of the files from the disk
  to PC memory, cues you to insert a blank disk,
  and then copies the files to the new floppy disk.

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Copying files to other disks
Using the Copy Disk option
Right-clicking the floppy device and selecting
Copy Disk will copy the entire disk contents.
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Running out of disk space

• When a disk is full, Windows will display a Disk
  Full message.
• There are several things you can try to clean up
  some disk space on your hard drive
• Empty the recycle bin which holds all files you
  delete until you tell Windows to permanently
  delete them.
• Uninstall software you no longer use.
• Delete or back-up and remove files you seldom use
  or no longer need.

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Running out of disk space
Deleting a file to the Recycle bin
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Hardware Hard disk drives

• A hard disk is a circular storage medium (rather
  like a CD), made of glass or aluminum. Hard disks
  are called platters.
• A hard disk drive usually contains 2 to 4
  platters.
• Hard disk drives are usually connected inside the
  PC system unit.
• A PC can have more than one hard drive.

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Hardware Hard disk drives

• Hard disk drives are sealed and the platters
  cannot be removed.
• The sealed drive units keep the environment
  around the platters neat and clean, allowing data
  to be more tightly compressed.
• Disk drives operate very efficiently and modern
  units store a lot of data in very small spaces.
• A typical drive might store 80 to 160 GB of data.

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Hardware Hard disk drives
Inside a hard drive
Read/write head
Platters
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Hardware Hard disk drives

• Access time to locate and read data for today's
  disks is about 9 milliseconds.
• Removable hard disks are also available. They
  require a base station. Each disk cartridge
  stores 10 or 20 GB.
• Removable hard disk units provide extra security
  for large files, but tend to have reliability
  problems.

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Hardware Hard disk drives

• Over time, your hard drive can become less
  efficient and normal file operations can slow
  down.
• This happens when the files on the disk become
  fragmented.
• Windows writes large files in segments using up
  the first available space. The more sections a
  file has, the more time it takes to read or write
  the file. This is called fragmentation.

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Hardware Hard disk drives

• The more you delete or rewrite changed files, the
  more fragments occur on the disk.
• Windows has a defragmentation utility program
  that will rewrite the disk and put all of the
  files back together in one piece.
• This utility should be run periodically as part
  of normal disk maintenance.

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Hardware Hard disk drives
Defragmenting your hard drive
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Finding files
Using Explorer to find files
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What do you think?
Are deleted files legally garbage?

• If you receive a disk from a friend or client,
  would it be ethical to use special software to
  see the contents of deleted sectors?
• Do you agree with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling
  that curbside garbage is in the public domain?
• Are you familiar with the laws in your country or
  state that limit access to the data on your
  computer and on any disks that you send out?

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Chapter Summary

• You should now be able to
• Create a listing of your files
• Rename a file or folder
• Organize your files into folders and subfolders
• Copy or move files
• Clean up your hard drive
• Understand how your hard drive operates