Good file management means you (and your programs) can find, protect and back up data quickly. The operating system organises storage as a tree of drives, folders and files.

• A path describes where a file lives, e.g. C:\School\IT\PAT\notes.docx.
• Meaningful file and folder names plus a consistent structure save time.
• File properties include size, dates, and read-only or hidden attributes.
• Operations: copy, move, rename, delete, compress, and search.
• Backups should follow a routine (e.g. weekly full + daily changes) and be kept off-site or in the cloud.

• Folder/directory — a container that groups files.
• Compression — reducing file size for storage or transfer (e.g. ZIP).