Module 1, Concepts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

When you have a number of related files stored on your computer, you may want to store them in a directory.

You can think of a directory as being like a drawer in a filing cabinet.

• An empty directory does not contain any data. However, as a directory usually contains a number of files, the combined size of these files may mean the directory contains several thousand kilobytes (or many megabytes) of data.
  
  
• If you have several hundred directories, each containing a number of files, the total amount of space required to store all the data may run into several thousand megabytes (or several gigabytes). It is therefore easy to see how the space on storage devices, such as hard disks, can be used up.
  
  
• Since Microsoft Windows, however, directories have become widely known as folders.