Organizing Your Hard Drive

 

Organizing Your Hard Drive Why bother? The Default Windows system of organization Your Documents and Settings Program Files How to organize (directories, subdirectories, etc.) Special tip section  How to Add Notes to Your Files and Folders Drafts

 

[version 20071008a]

 

What does it say about a librarian, who is supposed to organize information, if the librarian can't even organize what's on their computer?

 

Why bother?

 

    a. Finding things -- both for you, and knowing the organization so you can help students find files

    b. Moving things (especially when changing computers and finding things again)

    c. Finding downloads when you need to have them

    d. Saving RAM (memory)

    e. Saving time (faster loading!)

 

Yes, saving memory.  A little bit of your active RAM (Random Access Memory) is required for each icon on your desktop.  The more you have on your desktop, the more memory that is used up just keeping it there.  And it spoils the pretty picture, too...

 

* Click on My Computer then Tools then Folder Options.

 

* Under Folder Options, click on the View tab.

 

* Be sure the following ARE checked:

    Display the full path in the address bar.

    Display the full path in the title bar.

    Show hidden files and folders.

 

* Be sure the following are NOT checked:

    Hide extensions for known file types.

    Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)

 

* Go up and click on the Apply to all folders button.

 

Yes, this does contradict a Microsoft recommendation in one case.  However, it is helpful to see such files when you need them.

 

 

The Default Windows system of organization

 

Your Documents and Settings

 

* Click on My Computer and then on drive C: so you can look at the layout.

 

In order to allow multiple users of the computer, Windows has the Documents and Settings directory, which is subdivided into a directory for each person using the computer.  That means that everyone can set up their own Desktop, have their own bookmarks in the browser(s), customize programs for each person, etc.  Of course, that also means that every person who sits down starts out with very little, and what you want them to see is irrelevant.

 

Under that C:\ root directory are things like Application Data and Local Settings.  Any change you make for the person logged in is made here.  It has no effect on the Application Data and Local Settings directories under other people.  That's why, when you change logons, the same icons don't appear all over again.  You have to set them up for each person, or copy them over.

 

The default place to save anything is C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents and the folders under that.  Yourname is whoever is logged in.

 

* Go to C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents and see how it is arranged.  Open the My Documents subdirectory and see what's there.  Some of the subdirectories may be empty, but you probably have My Music and My Pictures, even if you don't have much in them.

This is the area where everything is most often saved if you don't specify another place.  When a student saves something to the hard drive, it will be somewhere in here.  For example, scanned documents go into C:\Documents and Settings\studentname\My Documents\My Pictures since the computer assumes anything scanned is probably a graphic of some kind.

 

Remember, however, that you can always save files someplace else, and tell Windows to look there instead to find something.  Many programs allow you to specify a default place to look and to save, which can be different.

 

Program Files

 

This hold most of the files for running programs.  However, some other files may be stored in other places by certain programs, and some files may be shared by programs and therefore put in other places.

 

Information which customizes programs may be in your Documents and Settings or it may be in Program Files.  It all depends on where the program decides to store it, but it normally stays where that program expects to find it.

This can make it tricky to change computers, since you have to find where that information is hidden and move it as well.

 

For example, OCLC Connexion settings for the way you customize your version (the icons at the top, for example) are in C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Application Data\OCLC\Connex\Profiles\My Profile.  This allows several people to use Connexion on the same computer, each with their own setup.

 

The data for the Wasp Bar Code, such as the label formats you save, on the other hand, are in C:\Program Files\Wasp Bar Code\Labeler .

 

How to organize (directories, subdirectories, etc.)

 

It's not only neater, but safer and faster to keep too many things from cluttering up your root directory. 

 

Remember, every time the computer goes to search for something without a specific location given, the root directory is the basic place to check first, and if it's loaded up with every document you've done for years, it has a LOT to search through.

 

Plus, if you mix documents with program and system files, it's very easy to lose your documents or corrupt your system files.  Keeping your documents in a separate directory, even if they're all in the same directory, is safer and allows the computer to avoid searching document files for programs so often.

Then, when changing computers, you have only the specific data directories to copy, along with everything under each one, to move your files.

 

One way to do this is to group all your documents under one directory, and then divide that by the type of document, such as Word, Excel, etc. 

 

* Let's try putting all your word processing documents in a directory.  Call it 1Data.  Why put a 1 at the start?  Because, when you display a list of directories on drive C:, that will put it up at or near the top of the alphabetical list, so it's easy to find quickly.    Izzat cool or what?

 

If you already have your word processing documents together, look for other files you might like to collect, such as graphic files (bmp, jpg, gif, and others).  Again, if you put a number at the start of whatever you name it, it will be listed near the top in My Computer and in the popup list when you save it.  You can call the graphics file 1graphics or you can invent your own conventions.

 

Here are the steps:

 

* Using My Computer, call up the C:\ drive -- this is called the "root" directory of the drive -- and right-click inside it.

 

* From the menu, choose New and then Folder.

 

* Name the folder 1Data.

 

* Now, inside that, let's specialize a little more.  Click inside that folder to enter it. 

 

* Use the same method to create subdirectories inside 1Data and call them Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and whatever else you might use -- Camtasia, videos, whatever you create.

 

* Now, collect all the files that go in each subdirectory and use highlight, then Ctrl-X to cut them from where they are.

 

Remember, you can just hold down the shift key and click the first and last ones to get all the files in consecutive order.

If the files are scattered, however, you can use the Control key with the mouse click to select them.

 

*Then open your new directory and use Ctrl-V to paste them into the directory.

If you're nervous about losing them, just use Ctrl-C to copy them, and paste them with Ctrl-V.  Then, once you're sure they are safely in place, you can go back and delete them.

 

Remember: you don't really lose the files at any time during all this.  They go into the Trash section, so you could retrieve them from there if necessary.  Actually, you're not really moving the files at all.  You're just changing the directory that points to them.  They're still sitting on the same place on your hard drive.  It's kind of like going down the street and swapping the house numbers around, but the houses stay put, and so do the people living in them.  (Well, what did YOU do on Halloween, then?) 

 

Okay, now you have your documents together.  Is that enough?  Maybe you could divide them into smaller groups.

 

* Look for some logical smaller groups to divide your documents, and create subdirectories with a right-click and select New, then Folder and name it for the new group within documents.  For example, you could put all your pdf format documents into one subdirectory.  Or group by subject.  It's your choice.

 

* For example, I put all the files for certain subjects together: all the emergency and disaster planning files in a subdirectory, and all the orders in another, and all the letters I write in another, and ... you get the idea. 

 

* Okay, now you're on a roll.  You can organize your data which YOU place according to any logical system.  However, do NOT change where programs are until you know more about computers. 

 

* Changing names is possible.  It's the extension (the 3-character part after the period) that is critical, as this tells the computer what kind of file to expect and how to handle it, so don't change that.  Just changing the extension doesn't change the actual arrangement and format of the data in the file, so it will confuse the wits (so to speak) out of the computer if you tell it that a pdf file is a doc file.

 

* Now bear this is mind: if you do this on a shared computer, such as the one between references desks, or the one in 202, all those files are quickly visible to everybody.  Otherwise, if you wanted somebody to see what you did, you'd have to have them drill down through your C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents and directories below to find it.

 

That's why we can all see all the files on the N: drive.  They're all in the same place, and everyone has authorization to see that.

 

Now, let's see if we can make it even easier and keep it consistent so this happens all the time, without having to remember it.

 

  Yeah -- I knew you'd like that.

 

* Open Microsoft Word 2007.  Click on the round button in the upper left as if you were going to save a file, and look at the bottom of the popup window.

 

* Click on the Word Options.

 

* Click on Save.

 

* The default file location is C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\,right?  Long way to dig down to it.

 

* Change it to your new location: C:\1Data\Word\.    No, don't worry - it won't lose your files or destroy the system.  It just says this is the place that it should save documents to in the future when you tell it save.  You can change the AutoRecover location to this, too, if you like.

 

* While you're at it -- go up to Save files in this format and change that to Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc) so it won't keep trying to save in the new docx format.

 

BTW (By The Way): this is also where you can customize Word, under the Customize function.

 

Now, this same thing works in Excel and PowerPoint, although you have to go into each of them and change them to do it.  You can save your files in the 1Data subdirectories and use the old 97-2003 formats by default on all of them.

 

Don't be afraid to do this on a shared computer.  After all, the settings you use should be saved in your C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Application Data\Microsoft\Office area just for you.  Everyone else has to create their own settings.

 

 

Now for a bonus:

 

Special tip section 

How to Add Notes to Your Files and Folders

 

(from TechSupportAlert email newsletter -- this has some great tips and links)

 

The average PC contains so many files it's pretty easy to forget what a particular file contains or what it does. Most users try and get around this by using descriptive file names. So rather than call a file something like "list.doc" they might call it "thanksgiving acceptances 2007.doc"

 

In principle this should work pretty well as Windows will accept file names up to 255 characters in length. However in practice, lists of very long file names are difficult to quickly scan and are often truncated by Windows Explorer. And there are other problems. The maximum file name length in the Joliet system commonly used to burn CDs is 128 characters. Worse still, the maximum Joliet path length (including file name) is only 160 characters. This means that many really long file names will be lost when you burn your data to CD.

 

But there is another way of documenting files using an inbuilt but little-used Windows feature.

This involves the use of the "Comments" field. It's an attribute of all files and folders in Windows just like name, size and date created. Most users don't know about this field as the Comments field is by default not displayed in Windows Explorer in XP.

 

Turning it on is easy. Open any folder in Windows Explorer and right click on a blank space in the field title bar. That's the grayed out area that says "Name Size Type" etc. When you right click you will see a list of fields displayed with some checked. To display the Comments field, simply check that field. Once checked you now see that field on the right hand side of your Explorer window, though you may have to scroll to the right to see it.

 

The Comments field will be blank, as we haven't added any comments. I'll get to that later but first we have to tell Windows to now add the Comments field to every window. To do that select Tools / Folder options / View from the window where you just added the Comments field. Then press the "Apply to all folders" button. NOTE: If you have customized folder views for different folders you may want to skip this step as it will give all your folders the same view.

 

Now here's how you add comments: Just right click a file, select "Properties" then click the "Summary" tab. You can then enter your comments directly in the Comments box at the bottom of the Windows. Whatever you enter will then be displayed in the Comments field in Windows Explorer.

 

Neat eh? But here are a few additional tips that make the comments field even more useful:

 

When searching for a particular file you have commented, remember, you can sort on the Comments field in Internet Explorer by clicking on the title, just like any other field. Sorting will group all your annotated files together, which makes them easier to scan when looking for a particular file. Sorted comments are also in alphabetical order, so try to annotate systematically using meaningful keywords at the start of your comments.

 

Many desktop search programs index the Comments field. That makes searching your comments even easier.

 

Finally, you can comment your files even more quickly by using the free HobComment Explorer Extension utility that makes the Comments field available directly off the context menu when you right click a file. You can get HobComment from here:

 

http://www.dr-hoiby.com/CommentExt/index.php  (14KB)

http://www.dr-hoiby.com/CommentExtXP/ (12KB) <= XP users may need this as well

 

 

 

Drafts

 

 

Draft 1

Draft 2