What Files Are?
What Files Are?
Files are a collection of data onto a permanent storage structure. They are
stored on a permanent storage media such as a computer hard drive, CD ROM
drive, floppy disk drive or sometimes even a tape drive. Files take a certain
amount of room to store. For example if you have two text files and one file
has one sentence in it while the other file has 200 sentences in it, the file
with 200 sentences will use more room on the storage media. File Functions
Different files have different purposes. Files are used to do one or more of
the following functions:
- Provide machine executable
code which is used to run application programs and the operating system.
- Store application program or
operating system configuration information.
- Store data used by the user
such as Microsoft Word document files.
Therefore there are three types of information that files contain:
- Executable code.
- System or program
configuration information.
- User data.
These files are read by an
application program or the operating system.
File Characteristics
Files have the below characteristics:
- Name
- Optional extension name -
Part of the name, it is used by Windows operating systems to identify an
associated program that can be used to read it
- Size - Shows the space
the file requires for storage normally showed in kilobytes (Kb) which is
1000 bytes
- Type - Indicates the
program used to access the file. The next section will talk more about
file types.
- Date Modified - Shows the
last date the file was created or changed.
- File structure - This
characteristic is not viewable by the computer user but some programs can
examine file structure to determine the type of file it is even when the
file extension is changed.
The main items to remember include the facts that all files take a certain
amount of room on their storage media and all files have a type which indicates
whether they can be run by your computer. The file extension is one indication
of the file type but not the only way to determine type.
If you are browsing your files using "My Computer" and click on "View" and "Details" you will see a window showing the file characteristics like the one below. Folders only take a little room on the hard drive and do not normally take as much room as files.
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