Copying Folders or Files From One Location To Another

Note: Print this tutorial by clicking file, then print. You can then use it as reference while practicing the procedures below.

Copying folders or files requires a little understanding about how you computer file storage system works.

All computers have what is called a hard drive which is usually called Drive C. Drive C will contain any number or folders which may also contain additional folders that are called sub folders. Folders and sub folders usually contain files.

In addition to drive C you will also have a Drive A which is for 3.5 inch disks which are also referred to as "floppy disks" which they no longer are because they are rigid plastic. The older ones were flexible and thus termed "floppy". Also, most computers will have a CD drive (compact disk) that is usually designated as drive D.

Navigating and manipulating folders and files:

References to all mouse clicks mean the left mouse button unless the word right is specified.This tutorial is using Windows 98 but the procedures are essentially the same for Win 95, ME, and XP.
Start by finding the My Computer Icon on your computer screen and double click the image. You can also click once (will highlight) and press the enter key.

Next double click the Drive C Icon. It will have a different name but will have the (C:) You can also click once (will highlight) and press the Enter key.

You will now see folders that are on your drive C. Your folder names will be different than the names shown here.

You can scroll through your available folders by draging the scroll bar (top arrow) or clicking the scroll arrows (bottom arrow).You can also scroll left to right with the bottom scroll bar and arrows.

Copying a folder

right click on a folder, and then move the cursor down and click Copy. The folder is prepared for copying.

right click in the white area between folders, and then move the cursor down and click Paste. The folder is copied and named Copy of... whatever the folder was named.

You could also pull down the Address picklist, double click 3 1/2 Floppy (A:), insert a disk in drive A:, right click in the white space of drive A and Paste the folder onto a disk in drive A.

Now pull down the Address picklist, double click Drive (C:)

You should now be looking at your drive C folders.

If you double click on any of the above folders you will see a display of the files contained within the folder that you selected. The files will look similar to the ones on the right. Files can be copied using the exact same procedures as copying folders above.

Creating a new folder

If you right click in the white area between folders, a list of options will open. If you move the cursor down to New another list of options will open. Move the cursor to the right (follow the arrow next to New) into the new list of options and then up to the top and then click, a new folder will be created.