Understanding the File Structure of Your Computer
So, you want to learn about the file structure of your computer, so that you can download files from the net, or save those sent to you via email or icq from a friend. You want to be able to find them afterwards. Perhaps you would like to share a poem or story you have written in MS Word or WordPerfect, a photo or a pedigree with a friend via email or via ICQ. but you can't find the file on your computer. You know it is there somewhere, but you just can't find it. This tutorial will help you learn how to do these things.
First let me explain about the hard drive in your computer. I like to explain it this way.
Your hard drive is like a filing cabinet. If you think of it this way, it will be easier to understand. Now we all know that a filing cabinet is a system in which things are put away in an orderly fashion so that you can find them when you need them. Well, your hard drive is exactly the same. A filing cabinet has dividers and folders within/or behind those dividers. Your hard drive [C:] is exactly the same.
How is it the same I can hear you asking?.
Here is how! Think of the C drive as a large File Cabinet drawer. Think of the directories as the dividers in that drawer i.e. (bills, receipts, insurance, etc) Think of the sub folders in the directory as file folders within/behind the dividers in the file drawer. Does this make sense to you now? (i.e. A folder behind the B divider called bills, a folder called receipts, and one called insurance) You get the idea. Now you can have a sub folder within a sub folder.....i.e. in the Bills folder, you may have many folders, each having a name of the bill...i.e. telephone, gas, visa, mastercard etc.
Hopefully I am making things clearer and not confusing you more! I will go on to show examples of this later in this tutorial.
To learn about how the file system of your computer works, and where to locate files, first go to start, then right click on start
example 1
then click on explore
example 2
Now, if you click on your [C:] drive you will highlight it just as mine is highlighted in the diagram shown below
example 3
My C:\ drive has been named....Bellcrest. Yours may have a name or or it may not. It will show as [C:] so you will know you are in the right place. When you highlight C: it shows all the files (directories) contained on the C: drive on the right side of the screen. These files are called directories, or folders.
example 4 |
In this example you will see that when you click on the + plus sign it changes to a - minus sign and shows all the directories or folders on the C drive. When in windows explorer, always be aware of where you are. Watch the 'address' area. This area is outlined in green in this example. |
The next example will show you what happens when you highlight a folder on the C: drive. In the following example I have highlighted the Download directory or folder as some call it. The right side of the screen is empty, showing that there are no files in the Download directory. It also shows that there are no sub folders in the Download directory. (Think of a file cabinet)
Now that you understand about directories and the folders within the directories, we will move on to the next page where we will learn to make a folder within a directory.
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