File Management in the i Mac GATCF Labs

What is a file?
Disk/Hard Drives
Home Drives
Temporary Storage
Folders
Why do files need to be managed?
Creating Folders
Saving Files
Copying Files or Making Back Ups
Moving Files
Deleting Files
Deleting Folders (directories)

 

What is a file?

Computer information is stored in a file. When you create data on your computer, at your direction the computer will save it as a file. You designate the file name. You should give your file a name that not only has meaning now, but will also have meaning in the future.
(eg CP1010_Designing_a_Multimedia_Page.)

Disk/Hard Drives

A disk/CD/hard drive are the storage devices for your files. In the GATCF*, you will be required to store your data on:

• 3 1/2 inch Floppy Disk. (when you put your disk in it shows as an icon on your desktop)

• CD/CD-Writer. (when you put your CD in it shows as an icon on your desktop) NOTE: The name of the CD will vary depending if it's blank or has already been named.

• Home Drive. (this is in the Launcher under Home Drive go to HomeDrive for details)
• Temporary Drive. (this is in the Macintosh HD icon on the desktop. Double click on this icon and you will see the Temporary storage Folder)

NOTE: when you log out of an i-Mac you will lose anything you have left on the Temporary Drive (this is different to PC)

Home Drive

Each Student has 10 megabytes of storage space on the central server known as Home Drive. When using the GATCF you can save files to your Homes Drive. These files can later be retrieved from another GATCF machine.

NOTE: On PCs this Homes Drive is also represented asI:\.

On an i -Mac you can access your Homes drive by clicking on the 'Home Drive' button on the Launcher. Double Click on the 'Home Drive' icon

and a Log in screen will appear.

Enter your Account Code (also know as Username or Login) in the field labled Name and password in the Password field then click Ok. This will put your Homes Drive icon on the Desktop. The icon will have your computer Account Code underneath it.

To access your Homes Drive just double click on the icom above.

Temporary Storage (ZIP SHARE)

There is a temporary storage space, which has a maximum capacity of 1 Gigabyte that is available to all students.
This space is temporary and all files and documents will be DELETED after you log out of your i-Mac.
This space can be found in the I -Mac HD icon.

Folders

Folders (directories) are storage units, in which you can create folders to store your files, to make them easier to locate. The concept is similar to that of a filing cabinet. If files were placed in a filing cabinet in no particular order, then they would be difficult or even impossible to find. They are therefore placed in drawers, folders and subfolders.
Equivalently, your disk can be broken up into a series of folders and subfolders

Why do files need to be managed?

Computer files need to be found. If they are not stored in an ordered, methodical way you may never be able to find them again or a lot of time may be wasted trying to find a particular file. For instance, you may create a folder called 2001, to store all your data for the year 2001. Within that folder you could create folders for each of your subjects, by subject codes. Inside your subject folder, say CN3300 you could then create other folders such as Assignments and Notes. You could then save your first assignment for CN3300, in the Assignment directory within the CN3300 directory (which is in 2001 directory). You could it save as One_AssignmentTitleName. Finding this file should then be relatively intuitive.

Computer files need to be backed up - it is easy to lose an entire assignment or your thesis due to a corrupt disk. It is also really easy to delete a file or forget to save it properly when you are very tired or in a hurry. When you insert a disk into the drive, a disk icon will appear on the desktop. Management , of files on an i-Mac, is done by opening this icon (double clicking on it). The computer normally refers to your disk as "untitled" unless you have given your disk a label when initialising/formatting.
To back up onto a CD you need to burn it on.(Indtructions on this can ce found at TO Be Decided.

Creating Folders

To create a new folder on your floppy drive, open your disk icon. From the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose File and then New Folder. A new folder will appear on your floppy disk. You can now type in the name of the folder. Folder names should have meaning so that it is easy for you to know what is stored in that folder. If you want to rename existing folders click on the name of the folder that you want to rename and type a new name for this folder. If you wish to put a folder within a folder, open the existing folder (by double clicking on it) and create and name a new folder as before.

Saving Files

You should save files regularly. If for some reason the computer shuts down or hangs, while you are in the middle of your work, you will lose everything since your last save. Make sure that you save your files regularly. You can save to your Floppy Disk, CD-W Disk, Homes Drive or Temporary Drive. At a later stage you can make multiple copies of your documentation. (this is covered in Copying Files or Making Backups).

Copying Files or Making Backups

Backups It is important to have more than one copy of a file, since floppy disks are subject to corruption (and you can lose them as well). Backing up your files will prevent the misfortune of lost data, which is equivalent to lost work and time. To place, a copy of your file, onto another disk/CD. Double click on your disk/CD icon (should be on the left-hand side of the Desktop), click on the file that you want to copy. To choose more than one file, hold down the key and click on the files that you wish to select. From the Menu bar choose File, Duplicate. This will produce a copy of your file (or files). If you choose to duplicate a folder than the folder along with all its contents will be duplicated. Drag and drop this duplicate to the desktop. Now you have to close your disk/CD icon window BEFORE you try to eject your disk/CD. With a disk/CD click on the disk/CD icon, go to the menu bar, choose Special then Eject. This will allow you to eject your disk OR eject your CD. Put in the disk/CD that you want to place the copy of the file onto. Open the disk icon then drag and drop the copied file (from the desktop) to the disk/CD. To copy files/folders from disk/CD to Home/Temporary drive follow the same steps only you double click on your Home drive or Temporary drive (this is in the Macintosh HD icon on the desktop).
 

Moving files

Files can be moved to different folders, or from one disk to another. To move a file between folders, you will need to view the available folders. Folders are arranged as a file tree. Your file tree may have a number of branches. To see all the folders available, from the menu bar choose Veiw, as List. You will now need to collapse the branches of your file tree. Each branch (folder) will have an arrow next to it. A sideways arrow indicates that the branch is not collapsed. To collapse it, click on the arrow and it will face downwards when the branch is collapsed. To move a file between folders, click on the file to be moved using the left mouse button, and drag the file to the new folder while holding the left mouse button down. Similarly, if moving between devices i.e. CD and floppy disks.
 

Deleting files

Click on the file that you wish to delete. To delete the file, you will need to drag and drop it into the Trash Can (icon appears on the desktop). If you accidentally delete a file, you can open Trash, choose the file and drag and drop it back onto the disk.

Deleting folders (directories)

You can delete a folder and its contents if you wish. Click on the folder that you wish to delete and continue as per Deleting Files.
Note that deleting a folder will delete all files and folders within that folder. You can also restore a deleted folder from the Trash as per deleting files.