Managing files and folders | Working with files
Making backup copies of entire disks |
Working with a valuable document
Windows NT Explorer is the program used for managing files. Explorer is used for backing up, copying, deleting and looking at files. Explorer is started by clicking on the Explorer icon in the start menu (found under the Accessories sub-menu).
The main Explorer window is divided into two panes. The Folder pane on the left-hand side displays the hierarchy of the drives and main folders (directories), whereas the File pane on the right displays sub-folders and files. To see the files in a folder, click on the folder name. To select multiple files in the File pane hold down the <Ctrl> or <Shift> keys whilst clicking on the file icons with the left mouse button.
Folders are expandable if they contain further folders - this is indicated by a plus sign next to the icon in the Folders pane. Click on the plus sign to expand the contents. A minus sign on a folder denotes that the folder is expanded and therefore collapsible. A folder icon bearing neither a plus or minus sign doesn’t contain any sub-folders.
Files can be named using up to 255 characters, including spaces, but excluding certain punctuation characters. (Note that if you later use the files on a computer running MS-DOS, or Windows 3.1 you will not be able to see the long filenames. Files with long filenames will have truncated names on these older operating systems, thus My-document.doc will be displayed as MY-DOC~1.DOC). Files with excessively long filenames may cause problems if saved onto the M: drive.
Windows NT Explorer allows you to do a number of useful things:
To delete a file, click on it, then press the <Del> key on the keyboard. You will be warned before you delete a file – click on the Yes button on the Confirm file delete window to confirm the delete.
To rename a file, click on it with the right mouse button, then click on the option rename. A cursor will appear next to the item’s name, allowing you to change the name of the file.
Click on the required disk in the folder pane with the right mouse button, then select the option properties at the bottom of the menu that appears.
Double-clicking on a file with the left mouse button will open that file in the package in which it was created. For example, a word processor file will automatically load into Microsoft Word.
To move files from one location to another, the file(s) may be dragged from the right hand file pane to a location in the folder pane.
This is a useful procedure for taking files stored in your user space on the M: network drive and putting them onto floppy disks. To do this, select the file(s), then click them with the right mouse button. Place the mouse pointer over the Send To option, and an extra set of options will appear. Click on 3½ Floppy (A) and the file will be copied onto the floppy disk (ensure that you have previously placed a disk into the disk drive).
Floppy disks are not a very reliable medium for storing valuable data, so it is essential to keep one or more copies (backups) of important files. An easy way of doing this is to make a copy of an entire disk. To do this you will need an empty disk on which to copy the contents of the first disk. Insert the first disk into the floppy disk drive, and click on the A: disk icon in the Explorer window with the right mouse button. A menu will appear under the mouse – select the option Copy Disk… from this menu. The disk copying window will appear – click on the button labelled Start to start the process. After a while, you will be prompted to insert the empty destination disk when required, so remove the source disk, and place the destination disk into the drive. Note that all previous files on the destination disk will be deleted.
Every year at deadline time we get distraught users coming to us with the same complaint: "I've got my whole dissertation on a file on this disk and now I can't read it. Can you help me?". Unfortunately, the answer is often No.
THINGS WILL GO WRONG WITH COMPUTERS - ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE IN A RUSH OR PANIC.
If you take heed of the following advice then the consequences of such a disk or file failure will be lessened:
Occasionally the computer you are using may lose a network connection to your M: drive, resulting in you being unable to save files onto the disk. It is also inadvisable to work with files directly on the floppy disk. It is therefore sensible to use C:\TEMP as the working directory. To do this, use the procedure described below:
