Chapter 6: Managing Your Data

The Windows XP File System File system task on DOS or UNIX Vs. Windows XP –cd or chdir would change your current directory (or folder) –md or mkdir would create a new directory (or folder) –Del or rm would delete a file and rd or rmdir would delete a directory (or folder)

My Computer And Windows Explorer The Windows Explorer and My Computer folders display the files, folders and drives of the computer as objects. Both My Computer and Windows Explorer display the objects in a hierarchical tree. The tree can be expanded to show the items within another object, or collapsed to show a top level view

Windows Explorer Windows Explorer can be opened in several ways: –Right click on the Start button to open the Start menu shortcut menu. –From that menu select Explore Or, –Right click on the My Computers desktop icon, to open its shortcut menu. –From that menu select Explore Or, –Click the All Programs Start menu item –Select Explorer from the Programs menu My Computer is Root directory Current Folder Navigation pane Folder pane

Navigating the File Hierarchy Parent object, can be expanded… Also a child of the Help folder Child object, can NOT be expanded… Parent object, can be expanded… Parent object, can be collapsed…

Windows Explorer – Available Views The available views are: –Thumbnails –Tiles –Icons –List –Details

XP File Systems Before you format any drive think about the type of data you want to store on the media and select the file system accordingly. Windows XP can use three types of file systems; these are considered native Windows file systems: –NTFS (New Technology File System) – this is the standard XP file system, it provides the most efficient storage and the best data security. This is the recommended files system to use with Windows XP. –FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32 bit) Windows 95 introduced this enhanced 32 bit version of the old DOS file system. This system is compatible with Windows applications written for Windows 95 and later versions of Windows. –FAT (File Allocation Table) DOS used this 16 bit file system almost since its first release. It suffers from poor security, inefficient storage methods and a filename limit of 11 characters (8 characters with a 3 character file extension). Many older programs still require this file system.

Formatting a Disk To format a floppy disk: Open Windows Explorer or My Computer and right-click on the Floppy drive name or icon. Make sure there is a floppy disk in the drive! Select the Format menu item. This displays the Format dialog From the Format dialog select the formatting options you require: –Capacity refers to the capacity of the media. Set this to the size of the disk. –The only file system you can use on a floppy disk is the FAT system. –The Allocation Size is set by the FAT system, it cannot be changed –Enter a Volume Label if you like. This is optional and does not affect the file system. –Quick Format is a faster way of formatting the disk; it erases all the data and recreates the file system on the disk. Using the Full format instead will also check the disk for damage and mark any damaged areas as unusable. –The Create an MS-DOS startup disk option will format the disk and place the files necessary to start the computer from the floppy. –You can select to use Disk Compression on a hard disk or other media that will use NTFS as the file system. Press the Start button and the process begins. A full floppy format usually takes several minutes to complete.

Formatting a Disk Format command Floppy drive icon Media type or Capacity File System Volume label (optional) Enable disk compression, this is not available for floppy disks

Working With Files Names You can pretty much name a file whatever you wish under Windows XP as long as it adheres to these standards: You cannot use the following characters \ / : * ? " |. If you are using the FAT file system, you are restricted to a filename of eight characters and a three character file extension (8.3) FAT32 and NTFS filenames can be up to 215 characters long.

Working With Files The content of a file can be identified by its file extension, that is, the trailing letters of the filename after the “.” A file that is not an executable file must be opened by an associated program. File associations are generally created during a program’s installation, but you can change any association by changing the Opens with property in the file’s property dialog A file’s Properties dialog displays most of the information a normal user would need pertaining to a specific file File name File Type and description Location and Size in bytes Modification and Access dates File Attributes: Read Only and Hidden File Association change button

Selecting File System Objects There are three basic types of object selections; a continuous range, one or more random objects, and every object within a drive or folder. To select more than one object within a continuous range: –Select the first object then hold down the Shift key… –Click on the object at the end of the range you want selected. –Clicking a highlighted object again causes it to become the end of the range. To select more than one object randomly from the folder: –Select the first object then hold down the Control key… –Click on the other objects you want to select. –Clicking a highlighted object again will deselect it. To select every object in the folder you are currently viewing: –Click on Select All on the Edit menu or use the Ctrl+A shortcut… –All the files in the folder become highlighted, or selected.

Creating Files and Folders Creating Files: Files can only be created by a program Or, You can use the desktop shortcut menu’s New command and then select a file type from the list –This is not an exhaustive list and you may not find the file type on it. To create a file of a type not on the list you will need to open a program you know will create and save that particular type of file. Create a new file from these listed types Create a new Folder or Shortcut

For example, to save a file using WordPad: –Select Save As… from the WordPad File menu, or the Save icon on the toolbar –This displays the Save As dialog box. From there you need to make a few choices: Select the folder in which you want to save the file. Do this by selecting from the drop down list box above the current folder pane, or by selecting a folder from the Places Bar at the far left. Next, name the file in the text box labeled File name: Finally, check the entry in the Save as type list box to ensure the file will be saved in the format you want. You can select from the drop down list box to see more choices. Most programs have a default file type so check this option before you save the file. Press the Save button, and the file is now saved in the selected folder. Creating Files and Folders Place s Bar Current folder File name Current folder pane File type

To create a folder: Select the New command from Explorer’s main menu and then the Folder menu item. –The new folder will be placed in the current or highlighted folder, so make sure you know what is the current folder, or you may have to do a Search to locate the newly created folder. –A new folder is created, named “New Folder”. The name is highlighted so if you begin typing you will enter a name for the new folder, or, you could keep it named New Folder. …or Right click within the folder pane of Explorer to open the shortcut menu (this is the same menu used for creating a file or a shortcut). –Select the New command and then Folder item. –The new folder will be placed in the current or highlighted folder. –A new folder is created named “New Folder”. Rename the folder as you like and you are done. Creating Files and Folders

Deleting Files or Folders To delete a file or folder: Select an object or range of objects you want to delete. Press the Delete key. This will start the deletion process and display a confirmation window Clicking the Yes button will send the object(s) to the Recycle Bin... You can restore it to its original location by pressing the Crtl+Z shortcut keys or using the Edit menu to select the Undo command. This must be done right after you delete the object, otherwise you will need to go to the Recycle Bin to recover it.

Copying Files and Folders

Renaming Files and Folders To Rename a file or folder: –Select the object (one at a time), –Right-click to bring up the pop-up menu shown –Select the Rename command, –The text box next to the icon is now active and you can type in a new name, –Press the Enter key and the object has been renamed.

Screen Captures

A screen capture is a copy of what is displayed on your computer screen (or monitor). This is very useful when writing papers or documenting the steps or stages of computer procedures A screen capture is placed in the clipboard until you paste it somewhere. You can put it directly into a document or in a graphics program like Paint Screen Captures

Creating a Screen Image File There are two types of screen captures that Windows XP provides, –The active window capture and, –The desktop capture (or the entire screen capture). Windows provides two ways to capture your screen: –Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard: This will copy the desktop or the entire screen area. –Press the Alt key and the Print Screen key at the same time (Alt+PrintScreen) This will copy only the active window and not the entire screen.

After you capture the screen it must be pasted somewhere to be used. You can paste it into another file such as a spreadsheet or word processing document (you can even paste a screen capture to WordPad) or it can be pasted into a graphics program such as Windows Paint so that it may be saved as a graphics file. –Selecting the Paste command from a program’s Edit menu or using the Ctrl + V shortcut will paste the screen capture into a document Creating a Screen Image File

Saving Screen Capture as a Graphic File To save a screen capture as a graphics file: Select Save As…from Paint’s File menu, This displays the Save As dialog box. From there: –Select the folder in which you want to save the file. Do this by selecting from the drop down list box above the current folder pane, or by selecting a folder from the Places Bar at the far left. –Next, name the file in the text box labeled File name: –Finally, check the entry in the Save as type list box to ensure the file will be saved in the format you want. You can select from the drop down list box to see more choices. Paint uses the 24- bit bitmap as the default file type, so check this option and change it if necessary before you save the file. –Press the Save button and the file is now saved in the selected folder.

The Recycle Bin The Recycle Bin is actually just another folder on your computer. It provides you with a second chance, a sort of safety net, for storing the objects you have deleted. –So in reality when you delete objects they aren’t really deleted, they have been moved and stored for safe keeping until they are purged. –Objects deleted from your floppy drives or network drives are deleted and not sent to the Recycle Bin on your desktop.

To change the properties of your Recycle Bin: Right-click on the Recycle Bin desktop icon, From the shortcut menu Click Properties From the Properties dialog: –To Change the amount of disk space allocated to the Recycle Bin folder: Move the slider to increase or decrease the amount of disk space –To prevent delete confirmation messages from appearing: Uncheck the Display delete confirmation dialog check box –To delete items permanently when you delete them (instead of sending them to the recycle Bin: Check the Do not move files to the Recycle Bin check box. –If you want to use the same Recycle Bin settings for all drives: Click Use one setting for all drives. The Recycle Bin

To permanently Delete Single items from the Recycle Bin: Right-click on a specific object you want to delete From the shortcut menu that appears select Delete Or, Select a specific object you want to delete Press the Delete key Or, Select a specific object you want to delete Select the Delete command from the File menu

The Recycle Bin To permanently Delete All items from the Recycle Bin: Right-click on the folder window to open the shortcut menu From the shortcut menu that appears select Empty Recycle Bin Or, Select the Empty Recycle Bin command from the File menu

My Documents The My Documents folder is XP’s standard location for storing documents, images, music and other data files. –Many Windows programs use this folder to store their data files. When you save a file using Word, Excel, Paint or WordPad the files are placed in the My Documents folder by default. My Documents has two subfolders in it that are created by Windows XP, My Music and My Pictures –These folders are the default data file locations for programs that use graphics and music (audio) files such as Paint and the Windows Media Player.