Inside your computer you have a hard drive. It is a round cylinder that stores information magnetically with a binary code, using the numbers 0 and 1 in many different combinations. Files are stored on your hard drive in folders. These files can be documents, programs, libraries, scripts and many other kinds of computer files. Folders can also contain other folders.
Think of a filing cabinet with 4 drawers. In each drawer you have multiple hanging folders (main folder) and within each hanging folder you can have many other folders. Let's uses tax records for each year as an example. Your hanging folder is labeled Taxes and inside are manila folders name 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Inside each of these yearly folders are the files and W2 forms for the taxes. On a computer you may have the same main folder named Taxes and sub-folders names 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Folders allow you to look in a specific folder for specific files.
Your computer has a FAT table, or a File Allocation Table. It simply means that your computer keeps a record of where files are located. This makes your files easier to find.
A directory is the computers way of organizing information, similar to a telephone directory.
on my computer the C drive has a directory (a listing of the main folders)
C://
Big Fish Games
Bills
DELL
doctemp
Downloads
Drivers
Games
Intel
Office XP Professional
PerfLogs
Program Files
Temp
Users
Windows
This is a directory of my main folders, and inside each can be one or many sub-folders.
Going back to the analogy of a filing cabinet, let's say that in the top drawer, the first drawer, is where my tax information for year 2008 is located.
The directory would be the directions you give to someone to get to it.
Top drawer, hanging folder named Taxes, folder named 2008.
There are more technical answers, but usually people want an easier explanation. Hope this helps answer your questions.
Think of a filing cabinet with 4 drawers. In each drawer you have multiple hanging folders (main folder) and within each hanging folder you can have many other folders. Let's uses tax records for each year as an example. Your hanging folder is labeled Taxes and inside are manila folders name 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Inside each of these yearly folders are the files and W2 forms for the taxes. On a computer you may have the same main folder named Taxes and sub-folders names 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Folders allow you to look in a specific folder for specific files.
Your computer has a FAT table, or a File Allocation Table. It simply means that your computer keeps a record of where files are located. This makes your files easier to find.
A directory is the computers way of organizing information, similar to a telephone directory.
on my computer the C drive has a directory (a listing of the main folders)
C://
Big Fish Games
Bills
DELL
doctemp
Downloads
Drivers
Games
Intel
Office XP Professional
PerfLogs
Program Files
Temp
Users
Windows
This is a directory of my main folders, and inside each can be one or many sub-folders.
Going back to the analogy of a filing cabinet, let's say that in the top drawer, the first drawer, is where my tax information for year 2008 is located.
The directory would be the directions you give to someone to get to it.
Top drawer, hanging folder named Taxes, folder named 2008.
There are more technical answers, but usually people want an easier explanation. Hope this helps answer your questions.
