How Your Computer Stores Information

Your computer stores information on a hard drive. The hard drive appears as an icon on your desktop with a name under it, such as Hard Drive. If you insert a floppy disk (which isn't floppy) or a CD, it also appears as an icon on your desktop.

A file is a way to store some sort of data or information. A file always havs a name. It has a picture icon which helps identify the file type. A file can be a document you created or it can be part of a program you use to create documents. A document file can contain text, pictures, sounds, or a combination. A program file can be used only as part of the program. You usually can't open it up and see what's inside because it's written in programming code. Everything on your computer is stored in files.

Most program files are already organized for you when you install the program. It's up to you to organize your document files so you can find them when you need them. For that reason, you create folders for them and possibly folders inside of folders.