Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional in 10 Minutes

By Dorothy Burke and Jane Calabria

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • About the Authors
  • Introduction
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Lesson 1. Navigating Windows 2000 Professional
  • Lesson 2. Working with a Window
  • Lesson 3. Using Menus
  • Lesson 4. Using Windows 2000 Professional Help
  • Lesson 5. Using Dialog Boxes
  • Lesson 6. Working with Multiple Windows and Applications
  • Lesson 7. Copying, Moving, and Linking Between Windows and Applications
  • Lesson 8. Using My Computer
  • Lesson 9. Managing Files with My Computer
  • Lesson 10. Using WordPad
  • Lesson 11. Understanding File Properties and the Recycle Bin
    • Filenames
    • File Size
    • File Creation Date and Time
    • File Attributes
    • Viewing Properties
    • Managing the Recycle Bin
    • Opening the Recycle Bin
    • Emptying the Recycle Bin
    • Restoring Files
    • Recycle Bin Properties
  • Lesson 12. Printing
  • Lesson 13. Using My Network Places
  • Lesson 14. Using the Control Panel
  • Lesson 15. Using Outlook Express Mail
  • Lesson 16. Sharing Workstations and Setting Passwords
  • Lesson 17. Using Internet Explorer 5
  • Lesson 18. Web Site and Document Searching
  • Lesson 19. Troubleshooting, Restarting, and Disaster Planning
  • Lesson 20. Customizing the Windows 2000 Environment

File Size

All storage media (hard disks, floppy disks, CDs) measure their capacity in bytes. A byte is approximately the size a one character. Roughly a thousand bytes is a kilobyte (1024 bytes) abbreviated K or KB , a million bytes is a megabyte (abbreviated MB, called "Meg"), and a billion bytes is a gigabyte (abbreviated GB, called "Gig").

File sizes are measured in bytes. That doesn't mean that a 1,000 character essay is going to be 1,000 bytes. All the formatting directions in a document also take up space. You can see the size of your files by looking in My Computer or the Windows Explorer, where the size of the selected file is displayed in the left side of the My Computer window or Explorer Contents pane. When you use the Details view (see Figure 11.1), the size of all the files is listed.

Figure 11.1 My Computer using the Details view.

If you know the size of the files you want to store and you know the storage capacity of the disk you want to store them on, you can tell if the disk is large enough to hold all the files. You have to take into account whatever files are already on the disk. It's the free space of the disk that must be large enough to hold your files. When you select a drive in My Computer or Windows Explorer, the capacity of the drive and the amount of free space appear on the status bar and on the left side of the My Computer window (see Figure 11.2).

Figure 11.2 The disk capacity and free space appear on the status bar.

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