Win Folder organization

Managing your computer requires a knowledge of how folders are organized on your hard disk so that you can locate the file you want to retrieve. A Windows disk folder is a simulated paper file folder, except that it is not fixed in size and is only limited by the remaining room on your hard disk. The route to every file or program stored in a folder on your hard disk is known as the "path."

You navigate your hard disk visually with a file manager utility known as Explorer, which shows the folder hierarchy on all your drives in its left Window pane. As you move down layers of folders, you are following the path (address) to a specific file. See Win Explorer.

Folders in Windows

Windows folders even look like manila file folders. There is no limit to the amount of data you can store in a folder as long as there is room left on the disk.

Your Hard Drive Is C:

The path hierarchy in Windows is drive-folder-file. The beginning of the path is always the hard drive itself. Your primary hard drive is given the name C followed by a colon (c:). Additional hard drives, as well as all other drives such as CD-ROM and Zip drives, are named d:, e:, and so on.

Drive Letters

This Explorer view of a computer shows four drives: floppy (A:), hard drive (C:), Zip drive (D:) and CD-ROM (E:). The hard drive is highlighted in this example and its folders are shown in the right window pane. There can be hundreds of folders on a hard disk.

Folder Hierarchy

Explorer displays all the folders on a storage device (floppy, hard disk, etc.) in a column in the left window pane. In this example, the 0DRAW folder contains two subfolders (New and Test). Note the Address field. The c:\0draw\test is the actual path to the folder.

More Folders Within Folders

You can store folders within folders, and the deeper the nesting, the longer the path. Note the long path (Address) to the Internet Explorer folder in this Windows 98 example. The folder is stored in the Microsoft folder, which is stored in the Application Data folder, which is stored in the Windows folder. It even goes one layer deeper, because Quick Launch is yet another folder inside Internet Explorer.

The Root of the Problem

Every storage medium has a root folder (root directory) that has no name other than the drive letter. You are able to store files in the root folder of your hard drive, but it is generally not done by the user. Instead, application files are stored in folders that have names. They can be directly off the root folder, or more likely, within the Program Files folder, which itself is off the root.

In contrast, the root folders of removable media such as floppies and CD-ROMs are often used to store files.

Files in the Root

This Explorer view of the Encyclopedia CD-ROM shows several files stored in the root folder of the CD-ROM disc, which is D:. The files in the root are immediately available as soon as the CD-ROM is inserted. Note the autorun file, which tells Windows to automatically run the install program. The files in the LESSON and PICTURES subfolders are one level down the hierarchy.