Practical PC, 7 th Edition Chapter 4: File Basics

File Basics FAQs – What is a computer file? – What are file properties and tags? – What do I need to know about file names and extensions? – How do I open data files? – How does Windows know which application to use when I open a file? – How do I create and save files? Technology: Hard disk drives 2Practical PC, 7th Edition

What is a computer file? A computer file is a collection of data that has a name and is stored on a hard disk or portable media Two types of files: executable and data – Executable file Computer program containing instructions written in a programming language – Data file Contains words, numbers, and pictures that can be manipulated, i.e., a word processing document Practical PC, 7th Edition3

What is a computer file? Practical PC, 7th Edition4 Figure 4-1

What are file properties and tags? Every file has file properties that describe its name, type, location, and size Additional properties are assigned to certain types of files – JPEG files have a dimensions property – Music files have a length property Properties and tags can generally be viewed from the operating system’s file manager – Utility for Windows 8 is called File Explorer Practical PC, 7th Edition5

What are file properties and tags? Practical PC, 7th Edition6

What is a file? Practical PC 6th Edition

What do I need to know about file names and extensions? Every computer file has a file name – Effective file names describe their contents – File names in Windows are not case sensitive – Some words and symbols cannot be used in file names Practical PC, 7th Edition8 Figure 4-3

What do I need to know about file names and extensions? A file extension is a set of characters added to a file name to indicate the file’s contents and origin – Windows does not display file extensions by default – Software automatically adds the correct file extension when a file is saved Practical PC, 7th Edition9

What do I need to know about file names and extensions? Practical PC, 7th Edition10 Figure 4-4

What do I need to know about file names and extensions? – Operating systems usually hide file extensions because novice users find them confusing Files extensions can be easily revealed Practical PC, 7th Edition11

What do I need to know about file names? Practical PC 6th Edition

What do I need to know about file names and extensions? Practical PC, 7th Edition13

What do I need to know about file names and extensions? Practical PC, 7th Edition14 – Windows displays a file type (or file format) based on the extension Figure 4-6

How do I open data files? Open files from: – Start screen Practical PC, 7th Edition15 Figure 4-7

How do I open data files? – Desktop Double-click file’s icon – Application software Use the Open command – File Explorer Practical PC, 7th Edition16

How does Windows know which application to use when I click a file? Windows keeps a list of file types and their corresponding default programs – A default application is the one Windows uses when a particular type of file is opened XLSX file type identifies an Excel file – The link between a file type and its default application is sometimes called a file association Practical PC, 7th Edition17

How do I open files? To view or modify a file, you have to first open it – Open command in application software – Double-click icon on Windows desktop – Type all or part of a file name in the Start menu’s Search box – Click a file located on the application’s jump list on the Start menu Practical PC 6th Edition

How do I open files? Practical PC 6th Edition

How does Windows know which application to use when I click a file? – You can open files using an application other than the default by: Right-clicking the file name and selecting the Open with option Changing the default application that Windows uses Practical PC, 7th Edition20

How does Windows know which application to use when I click a file? Practical PC, 7th Edition21 Figure 4-9

How do I create and save files? The most common way to create files is by using application software – Click New to open the work area – Enter desired data – When ready to save, use Save or Save As to give the file a name and specify a storage location Practical PC, 7th Edition22 Figure 4-10

How do I create and save files? – Save As also allows user to save a file using a different name or in a different place while retaining the original file – Once a file has been named, using Save will replace the currently saved version of the document with the new version Practical PC, 7th Edition23

How do I create and save files? Practical PC, 7th Edition24 Figure 4-11

How do I create and save files? Practical PC 6th Edition

Technology: Hard Disk Drives A hard disk is a circular, rigid storage medium typically made of aluminum or glass and coated with metallic particles –The hard disks and their read/write heads are stored inside the drive and are called platters –Most PCs have two to four platters Practical PC, 7th Edition26

Technology: Hard Disk Drives Practical PC, 7th Edition27

Technology: Hard Disk Drives Hard disk drives use magnetic storage technology – Utilizes a read/write head that magnetizes tiny metallic particles on the disk’s surface – Is fast and inexpensive Typical hard drives hold 500 GB of data—500 billion letters, numbers, symbols They can fill up quickly – Access time How long it takes the read/write head to locate and retrieve data from the disk—average is about 9 milliseconds Practical PC, 7th Edition28

Technology: Hard Disk Drives Drive icon’s Property window – Shows how much used/free space is on the hard drive Practical PC, 7th Edition29

Technology: Hard Disk Drives External hard disk drives – Connect to a USB port – Best option for portable and all-in-one computers – Can be used to transport large amounts of data from computer to computer – Cost a little bit more than a hard drive Practical PC, 7th Edition30

Technology: Hard Disk Drives Hard disk drive efficiency – Decreases over time – Each disk is divided into tracks – Each track is divided into sectors Each sector is a fixed size PC must use more than one sector for large files and sometimes those sectors are non-adjacent sectors This can result in data being scattered all over the disk A file stored in non-adjacent sectors is referred to as a fragmented file Practical PC, 7th Edition31

Technology: Hard Disk Drives Hard disk drive efficiency continued: – A disk containing many fragmented sectors is known as a fragmented disk and is not operating at peak efficiency – Run a defragmentation utility to reorganize the disk and put data for each file in adjacent sectors This enables the read/write head to locate and retrieve the data much more quickly Practical PC, 7th Edition32

Technology: Hard Disk Drives Practical PC, 7th Edition33

Hardware: Hard disk drives Practical PC 6th Edition