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One of the great things about NT Explorer is that there isoften several ways to get the same result. None are "right" or "wrong",though some may be faster in some instances than others. In any case, youwill always be faster choosing the method you are most comfortable with,so feel free as you go through this tutorial to remember some methods andforget others. The choice is always yours.
To start NT Explorer, double-click on Start then click onPrograms and then Windows NT Explorer. NT Explorer will now open, showingthe following:Each time you first open NT Explorer in the PIC Lab, you will see thisdisplay with your name instead of mine. The only parts of the left handwindow are the lines with the (A:), (H:) and (Z:). Th first drive, A:,represents the floppy drive. The second drive, H:, is the Handouts drive.The last drive, Z:, is where you will keep all of your files for the quarter.
At the very bottom of the File Manager window are some notes on howbig the files in the current directory are and how much space is left onthe drive. You should only have to worry about disc space when we talkabout floppy discs later.
In many ways, changing directories is much simpler than changingdrives, since there really is only one way to do it If for some reason,you really need to do this with the keyboard, ask a Lab Assistant to showyou.Once the drive you want is current, simply double-click on the littleyellow file that is next to the name of the directory you want. Youcan do this in the right hand side or left hand side of the drive windowwith very little difference. If you want a subdirectory (or a sub-subdirectoryor...) keep repeating this process. As you go down the directory structure,File Manager will continue to draw the "branches" of the directory "tree"to show you the relationship of your subdirectories.
This is even simpler than changing directories. Simply findthe directory that you want the new directory to be a subdirectory of andclick on it. Then, click on the "File Menu" and select New andthen Folder NT will create a yellow folder with a box that says NewFolder next to it. Simply type the name you want and hit <Enter>. That'sit.
Suppose you forgot where you put a file and you want to findit. You could expand all the branches and visually search each directory,but this would be tedious and time-consuming. Instead, NT Explorer givesus a better and faster way to do this.
First, click on "Tools" and then click on "Find->".Then click on "Files or Folders...". A window will come up thatlooks something like this:
Simply type the name of the file in the box labeled Named.Then click on the down arrow next to the Look in: box and select Z:.Then, all you have to do is click Find Now and NT will search yourentire directory structure for the file.
To select just one file, click anywhere on the line thefilename is on. The black bar means it was selected. Easy. To selectmultiple files that happen to be one right after the other, click onthe first file at the top of the group and then <shift>-clickon the last file. Instantaneously, File Manager will mark those twofiles and all files in between them. To select multiple files that don'thappen to be next to each other, click on the first file and then<ctrl>-click on the other files you want. Simple and quick.
To rename a file, right click on the file you want to renameand select rename from the popup menu. The filename will now becomea space where you can edit the file name. Note that you can copy, paste,and highlight, and perform any of the actions you normally can from a wordprocessor in this space. Press <Enter> or click in a blank area of Explorerwhen you are done.
Copying and moving files in File Manager is almost the samething with one tiny difference. In both cases, make sure that the filesyou want to move are on the screen as well as the directories or drivesyou want them to go to. Select the file or files you want and then, carefully,click on one of the black bars and drag the mouse cursor over to thedesired target directory. If you want to copy the files, hold downthe <ctrl> key and then let go of the mouse. If you wantto move instead of copy, you can just drag the cursor on over without pressingthe <ctrl> key.
If you want to copy or move files to your floppy discrather than another directory on the same drive, make sure a floppy isin the drive and then drag the cursor on up to the drive box with the lowercase 'a' next to it. This box stands for the floppy drive, but in all otherways is just like moving or copying to a directory.
Sometimes we want more information about a file than just itsname.To see everything there is to know about your files, clickView and then All File Details. To be a bit more selective, clickon View and then Partial Details.... A window will pop up with fivecheck boxes. Just select the ones you want and click OK. The otherway, is that there are two buttons right below the window menu label thatyou can use to go back and forth between all file details and just filenames.
So, what is all this stuff? Well, the first thing is the nameand just to the right of it, in capital letter, is the new unlimited lengthfile names supported under Windows NT. (It used to be that files couldonly have eight characters before the dot and three after, but that hasall changed now.) After the names is the size, in bytes. A floppy disccan usually hold 1.44 megabytes of data, which is about the same as 1.5million bytes. The next two columns are the date and time the files waslast modified and saved. This means that if you changed something, butdidn't save it, the datestamp will not change. On the other hand, you couldmake no changes to a file and save it over again and it would change thedatestamp. In any case, it is meant to be informative, rather than a perfectsecurity system. The last column is reserved for these arcane codes called'file attributes'. You should never need to worry about these codes, butif you are interested in what they mean here is a little chart:
R - Read-only file, which means it cannot be changed. A - Archive file, which means it has been backed up since it was last changed. S - System file, which means that this is a file that DOS or Windows usesfor running the system. H - Hidden file, which means that in order to protect this file from accidentalerasure, it cannot be seen on normal directory commands.
Sorting changes the way the files in the directories are arranged.For example, when you first open File Manager, they are arranged in alphabeticalorder by name, that is the characters to the left of the dot. If two fileshave the same name, they are sorted in alphabetical order by their type,that is the characters to the right of the dot. File Manager will alsolet you sort by the size of the file in numerical order and the date/timeof last modification in chronological order.There are two basic ways to go about sorting the files. The firstis to click on View and then on the variety of sort you want: Sortby Type, Sort by Size, etc. The other way is to look for the four buttonsthat sit just under the Help Menu and to the right. The leftmost one isSort by Name, then proceeding to the right, Sort by Type, Sort by Sizeand Sort by Date. Click the one you want.
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Often, for tasks such as copying, moving and looking around,it is useful to be able to see more than one drive at once or more thanone part of the same drive, but separated by many directories so that theywon't all fit on the screen. The way around this is to create a new window,resize it and move it next to your other one. Then, using the techniquesdescribed in Changing the Current Drive and Changingthe Current Directory, you can make this new window show what you want.For example, if you are moving a file, you can drag it from one directoryin one window to another directory in a completely different window, evenif both windows are showing parts of the same drive.
To create a new window, either click on Window andthen New Window or click on the button to the right of the Sortby Date button. No problems.
Note: As always, deleting files can be a dangerous pasttime.In some ways, accidentally deleting a file in File Manager is easier thanin DOS, so be careful!First, select the file or files you want deleted. Then, pressthe <Delete> key. A window will come up listing the files to bedeleted. Click OK if the list is right and click Cancel ifthese are not right. A window will come up which gives you a third chanceto decide not to delete these files. Click OK if you want to goahead and delete them, click Cancel if you change your mind. Ifyou click Yes to All, instead of Yes and you have selected multiplefiles, you won't have to click on the Yes button for each file. Otherwise,File Manager will give you a chance to cancel for each file you selected.
If you have your hand on the mouse instead of the keyboard, afteryou have selected your files, click on the "x" button that is secondfrom the right end of the button bar. You will go through the same setof steps as with pressing the <Delete> key. The third way is to selectyour files and then click on File and then Delete.... Again, thesame set of windows will appear.
Most floppy discs these days come preformatted, so you maynever need to do this. In any case, you should never try to format anythingother than a floppy disc. In the lab, you will fail if you try to formatsomething else, because you don't have the right priviledges in your account.HOWEVER, it is still not a good idea, as the hard drive you lose somedaymay be your own.Unlike most other procedures, there is only one way to formata disc in File Manager. First, put the floppy in the drive. Then, clickon disc and then Format Disc..." As might be expected, a window comesup. Your only real options in this window are to put in a name for thedisc in the 'Label:' box and/or select a QuickFormat. Names are strictlyoptional and up to you. QuickFormatting works on discs that have been formattedbefore and as its name suggests, goes faster than normal formatting sinceit doesn't check the physical structure of the floppy disc for errors calledbad sectors. After you have set the options you like, click OK anda few minutes later, the disc will be ready for storing files.
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This page last updated:
April 16, 2003
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