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The computer stores its files, folders, and subfolders on a hard-drive. Think of the hard drive as a single drawer in your home filing cabinet. There may be multiple hard drives on your system, just as there are multiple drawers in a filing cabinet. Hard drives are often referred to as fixed media implying that they cannot be easily removed from the computer. In conjunction with that is something called removable media, implying that it can be easily moved into or out of the computer. Like hard drives, the CD-ROM drive and the floppy disk drive are examples of fixed media, whereas the CD-ROM itself, or the floppy disk, are examples of removable media. Prior to the popularity of the Internet, removable media was the source of most virus infections. These viruses were said to spread by SneakerNet, implying that they were transmitted from person to person as they shared files and programs contained on floppy disks.

Fixed media such as hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and floppy disk drives are assigned drive letters by the operating system. Typically, the floppy drive is assigned drive letter 'A', the primary hard drive (also referred to as the local drive) is referred to as drive letter 'C', and subsequent hard drives or CD-ROM/DVD drives are referred to as drive letters 'D' through 'Z'.

The Windows operating system is a graphical user interface (GUI) designed to allow manipulation of the files, folders, and subfolders and to allow easier manipulation of the hardware associated with the computer. Years ago, in the days before Windows, PCs used DOS. DOS was not a graphical interface and users were required to memorize the commands necessary to move through the folders to locate and execute (run) the desired program.

Consider the two screenshots below, both depicting the Windows\System subfolder as found in DOS and Windows Explorer, respectively. Which do you find easier?

Terms to know:

• Fixed media
• GUI
• Local drive
• Hard drive
• Removable media
• %windir%