CREATING & MANAGING
PREPARED BY
RICHARD NELSON
Revised 08.02.12
GENERAL
This instruction uses the
names and symbols used in the Windows Vista. There is an instruction that uses
the Windows XP names and symbols.
Note: In the instructions below when it says click it
means left click
ELECTRONIC FILES AND FOLDERS AN ANALOLGY
Electronic file folders
contained on a computer Hard Drive (C:) or
NOTE: USB stands for
Universal Serial Bus. Also Hard Drives are frequently called a Local Disk.
USB Flash drives, also called
USB Quick drives or thumb drives, or removable drives are a unique storage device
that has only been on the market since 2002. They come in various capacities
from 1GB to 16 GB. There cost is very reasonable from $10 for the smaller ones (1.0
GB)to $50 for the larger ones. They are an excellent way to back up your files
and folders from your hard drive (C:) because they use the same procedure as
hard drives. They do not require any new software like burning CDs.
Physically they are small,
about the size of a human thumb, that’s why they are sometimes called thumb
drives. They are easily portable. Because they are small, they are easily lost
so it is a good practice to use the necklace that comes in the package with
many of them
HARD DRIVE FOLDERS
First a few words about hard
drive folders, and then we will talk about Flash drive folders. When Windows
software was installed on your computer it created at least one permanent
folder called “Documents”. The Documents folder is the default folder when you
do a “Save As” command for a newly prepared text documents. On the “Save As”
dialog screen, you will see the Documents folder in the “Save In” box. The
purpose is to keep you from losing your documents, or crashing your computer if
you don’t know what you are doing. You should be aware that the Documents
folder can be found under the C drive, on your Start Menu, or sometimes on the Desktop.
With Windows Vista there are also
default subfolders titled My Pictures, and My Music in the Documents folder
FLASH DRIVE FOLDERS
FINDING YOUR
Flash drives usually get
identified as Removable Disk (F:) or (G:) or (H:)., but they can have many other
names, First plug your flash drive into a USB port. You will see some notices
telling you that your computer has identified the flash drive hardware and some
you will see some notices that it was successfully installed.
Now you will be able to find
and dentify it by clicking on the master Start button in the lower left corner
of your screen and then on the word Computer.
You should see it on the displayed
screen. For the purposes of this instruction we will call the Flash drive F. But it may also be titled Removable disk (F:)
or other names like Travel drive, BACKUP, TDK Transit, Store n Go,
CREATING NEW FOLDERS ON YOUR
There are two basic ways to
create new folders on your flash drive:
One is to create them before
you try to save a document to the flash drive
The other way is to create a
folder while you are saving a document for the first time
CREATING FOLDERS BEFORE YOU SAVE A DOCUMENT TO IT
Click on the master Start
button in the lower left of the screen and then click on Computer.
Now open the Removable Disk
by right clicking on it and then left clicking on Open.
Go to the button that is
titled “Organize” and click on it then
click on “New Folder” and click, you will see the icon for a new folder. Without
doing anything, type in a name for your new folder. Now click on the clear
part of the screen. You have now made the new folder on the
CREATEING A NEW FOLDER WHEN USING AN APPLICATIONS
PROGRAM
CREATEING A NEW FOLDER FROM MS WORKS
I call this method “On the
fly”
Start MS Works word processing,
and create your document. Now click on File on the Menu bar, and then click
Save As.
On the “Save As” screen, you
will see a line that says “Save In”. If F: is not in the Save In box, click on
the little down arrow at the end of the box and select Drive (F:), or Remote
disk (F:), or (F) something.
You will see a little icon
that looks like a folder with a light in the upper right corner on the same
line with “Save In”. Put your mouse arrow on the middle of this icon and a
banner will drop down and it will say “Create New Folder”. Click on that icon
and you will get a dialog box titled CREATE NEW FOLDER
Type a name in the space
provided and click the OK button.
A new folder will appear
ready for you to save a document in it.
WARNING!
I PREFER TO USE ALL CAPS FOR
FOLDER NAMES
CREATING NEW FOLDERS USING WORD 2007
Creating new folders on the
fly using Word 2007 is a whole different ball game. We will cover that later
CREATING SUBFOLDERS
It is possible to create a
new folder under other folders. They are called subfolders. Be careful that
when you go into the “Save As” dialog screen that it says E: in the “Save In”
box before you create a new folder. You could have another folder there, and if
you add a new folder it will create a subfolder and that may not be desirable.
It is best to stick to just one level of subfolders.
RENAMING FOLDERS
If you want to change the
name of an existing folder or messed up on the folder name, RIGHT click on the folder
name and left click on “Rename”, and type in a new name
DELETING FOLDERS
It is extremely easy to
delete folders, so be very sure that the folder is empty before you delete or
that everything in the folder is no longer wanted.
Here is a way to delete a
folder directly on the E: drive without starting an application like Word..
First you must be on your
desktop. Now click on the “My Computer” icon and then peck the Enter key. Then
click on (F:) and peck the Enter key.
Find the folder you want to
delete and RIGHT click on it. You will get a menu. Left click on “Delete” it
will ask you if you really want to delete the folder. Click on Yes.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR
DELETING FOLDERS:
If you are deleting folders
from the C: drive it puts the deleted folder in the “Recycle bin” and removes
it from the location were it appeared. If you deleted it by accident, you can
find it in the Recycle bin and can restore it, by right clicking on it and then
left click on “Restore”
BUT! THAT IS NOT TRUE FOR A
FOLDER DELETED FROM
COPYING FOLDERS FROM YOUR
HARD DRIVE (C ) TO YOUR
One of the most valuable ways
to use your Flash drive is to use it to back up folders on your hard drive. And
it is very easy to do this if you know how. In this exercise the Flash drive is
the F drive.
We are going to use the drag
and drop technique to do this.
DETERMINING HOW MUCH OF YOUR
Since Flash drives have a
limited capacity it is necessary once in awhile to look at how much is being
used compared to how much is spare.
Click on Start and then click
on Computer. On the screen RIGHT click on the flash drive F icon. On the next
screen, click on Properties. Under the “General” tab, you should see a display
showing how much is used and how much is spare.
CHECKING WHAT IS ON YOUR
If you want to see what is on
your Flash drive, click on Start and then on Computer. Then right click on the flash drive, and then
click on Open. You will see displayed all the folders and files on the flash
drive.
PLUGGING AND UNPLUGGING FLASH DRIVES
IT IS BEST TO PLUG AND UNPLUG
FLASH DRIVES WHEN YOUR COMPUTER IS TURNED OFF. However with Windows XP you can
plug and unplug them when the computer is on if you follow the correct
procedure, particularly when unplugging. Look for an icon in the right tray of
the Task bar (System Tray) and click on it and then follow instructions.
COPYING FOLDERS USING THE SEND TO METHOD
COPYING A FOLDER FROM
Plug both flash drives into a
USB port – this may require a USB hub
Click on the Start button in
the lower left corner of your screen
Click on My Computer (XP) or
Computer (
Open the sending flash drive
where the folder exist that you want to sent toe the other flash drive
Find the folder you want to
send to and right click on it – you will get a menu
Put your mouse arrow on Sent
To and you will get another menu
Identify the flash drive you
want to send this folder to and click on it- you should see a picture of files
being sent from one folder to another
To see if everything went ok,
open the receiving folder to see if the files got transferred
Filed in Laptops folder on
Backup flash and Store n Go
COPYING A FOLDER FROM A HARD DRIVE TO
Plug the flash drives into a
USB port – this may require a USB hub
Click on the Start button in
the lower left corner of your screen
Click on My Documents
(xp) or Documents (
Find the folder you want to
send to the flash drive and right click on it – you will get a menu
Put your mouse arrow on Sent
To and you will get another menu
Identify the flash drive you
want to send this folder to and click on it- you should see a picture of files
being sent from one folder to another
To see if everything went ok,
open the receiving folder to see if the files got transferred Filed in Laptops
and
DRAG AND DROPPING FROM THE LOCAL DISK C TO THE
First open your My Computer
screen by right clicking on the Icon, then left clicking on Open.. You will see
the icons for both your Local Disk C: drive and F: drives on the screen. . Open
the C drive by right clicking and left clicking on Open. Drag it to the right
side of you monitor screen by putting your mouse on the Title Bar and holding
down the left button and moving the frame to the right of the screen. Now go
back to your Desktop and open the My Computer screen again and open your Flash
drive F. And drag it to the left side of you monitor screen, again dragging it
from the Title Bar. You should now have both the C: drive frame and the Flash
drive F frame on your monitor screen.
TILE WINDOWS VERTICAL
Now we are going to tile the
two frames vertically which will put the two frames next to each other on the
screen for easy access. Find a spot on your Task Tray that is open. Right click
on it. You will get a menu. Left click on “Tile Window Vertically”. That will
put the two frames one on one side and the other on the other side of your
monitor screen. .
DRAGGING AND DROPPING
OPERATION
On the C: drive frame scroll
the screen up and down with your mouse wheel until you find the folder you want
to drag over to the Flash drive on the other frame. Once you have located the
folder put you mouse arrow on it and hold down the left mouse button and drag
the folder over to the other frame and drop it in an empty place on the Flash
drive F.. That will put a copy of that folder on your Flash drive. You will see
the computer doing this operation.
DRAGGING AND DROPPING IN THE
OPPOSITE DIRECTION
It may be obvious but I have
to tell you that you can also drag and drop in the opposite direction that is
from the flash drive to the local drive and of course from a flash drive to a
CD. Try it!
DRAG AND DROPPING FROM THE
You can do the same operation
dragging and dropping a file or folder from either the local disk C to the CD
drive, or the Flash drive to the CD. In the instructions below, we will open
the local drive C: and the CD drive D: But the procedure for dragging and
dropping from the Flash drive to the CD drive is exactly the same. Instead of
opening the C drive you would open the Flash drive. Note: the word drive and
disk are frequently interchanged in these and other instructions
Filed in
