Windows Tutorial - File System
Files
A file is a collection of data stored under a filename. This can be a document, a picture, an audio, a video or any other type of data. A file is the basic unit of storage that enables a computer to distinguish one set of information from another. It is a collection of data that a user can retrieve, change, delete, save, or send to an output device, such as a printer or e-mail program.
File Extensions : A file extension is the suffix at the end of a filename indicating the type of data stored in the file. Usually the suffixes are of three characters. Some examples of file extensions are :
- .exe file: An executable file for a program or application. These files on double click execute the program.
- .txt file : A text file and is opened by any text reader program /application like Notepad, Wordpad, Ms Word etc.
- .pdf file : A portable document format file is opened by Acrobat Reader or other PDF reader program/application.
- .doc file : A MS Office Word document file and is opened by MS Word.
- .xls file : A MS Office Excel worksheet file and is opened by MS Excel.
- .ppt file : A MS Powerpoint presentation file and is opened by MS Powerpoint.
- .htm or .html file: An HTML (Hyper Text Mark up Language) file. These files are opened by a Web browser.
- .zip file : A compressed file. The file can be extracted by using Winzip or other unzip program/application.
- .mp3 file : A music file and is played by Windows Media Player or other MP3 player installed by the user.
Folder or Directory
A folder or directory is a container. It may contain only files or sub folders or files and sub folders. Folders or directories are used to store files in an organized manner (to keep track of them) on storage devices such as hard discs, floppies, CDs etc.A folder cannot have two files with same name and extension. A file with the same name and extension can be stored in two or more different folders.
Drive
A drive refers to a storage disk or partition on the disk. A Hard Disk is a non-removable disk while floppies, ZIP or USB drives, Compact Disks (CDs), Digital Video Disks (DVDs), tape drives etc. are all examples of removable disks. Drives by default are named by alphabets followed by colon. First two alphabets 'A' and 'B' are conventionally reserved for floppy drives and alphabet 'C' is for the first partition on the Hard Disk drive. Subsequent partitions or additional hard disks are named as drive 'D', 'E', 'F' and so on. After all partitions on all Hard Disk(s)are named, the next alphabets refers to the CD Rom drives and further next alphabet is used to name Zip or USB drives when it is connected to the computer. For example, if a computer's hard disk has four partitions, the computer will have under noted drives:
- Drive A: First Floppy drive
- Drive B: Second Floppy drive.
( Note: If a computer has no or only one floppy drive, the alphabet 'A' and/or 'B' will remain unused and will not be shown by Windows. ) - Drive C: First partition on the Hard Disk.
- Drive D: Second partition on the Hard Disk.
- Drive E: Third partition on the Hard Disk.
- Drive F: Fourth partition on the Hard Disk.
- Drive G: CD ROM/ DVD Drive
- Drive H: USB or Zip drive, when connected to the computer. This drive is shown as 'Portable' disk by Windows.
File System :
File System is used in computers to organize storage of files on a disk. The file system is created when a disk is formatted. It creates the root directory and subsequent directories are created under the root directory.
File Path :
The file path describes the location of file on a computer. It starts with name of the drive followed by folders and ends with file name. The drive, folder and file names in file path are separated by forward slash ' \ '. The file path of a file named chimes.wav located in sub folder Media in folder Windows on drive C: will be as under:
C:\Windows\Media\chimes.wav
Important : In Windows drive, folder and file names are not case sensitive.