Difference between file or folder

He can then place all such folders in a folder called My Documents. Folders are also called directories, and they are used to organize files in your computer. One big difference between folders and files is that while folders take up no space on hard drive, files have a size ranging from a few bytes to kilobytes as in word files to gigabytes in case of files containing music and video content.

Imagine a system with no folders and it would become almost impossible to manage hundreds of files in your computer. Folders allow one to organize his files by storing similar files in a folder and naming the folder so that he can retrieve files whenever required. If someone says that he downloaded photos from the net but cannot find the files they are in, he is using incorrect term.

Photos are in themselves files and so he cannot say which files they are in. The writer used very concise language helping to learn concerning the difference between folders and files.

Your email address will not be published. Thank you for the explanation. It basically states the application program it belongs to.

The computer recognizes the application program or file by the extension of the file or program which can be further used to retrieve the contents of the file. The filename clearly describes the contents of the file.

A folder or a directory is basically a hierarchical structure of other directories or files for organizing them under a common heading.

Each folder can have a number of entries. In a nutshell, a file is a collection of related data or information that is stored in a secondary storage device in a given order whereas a folder or a directory is like a manila folder in a office file cabinet used to store a set of related files or other folders into groups for better organization and retrieval.

A file basically stores data or information in a given order in a single unit whereas a folder can hold different types of files or other folders within folders. Difference Between File and Folder. Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects.

MLA 8 Khillar, Sagar. Name required. Email required. Please note: comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. Written by : Sagar Khillar. Print [1]Stokes, Abby. New York City: Workman Publishing, User assumes all risk of use, damage, or injury. You agree that we have no liability for any damages. What is a File? What is a Folder? The operating system can store files in hard drives, optical drives or other storage devices.

The user can perform operations such as open, read, modify and close on files. There are various types of files. There are also mp3, mp4 format video files. There are document files created in word processing software such as MS Word. The text documents created with Notepad are txt files. Those files hold plain text information. Furthermore, some files are compressed into folders but they are still considered as files.

One example is ZIP file. It is a folder with many related files and folders but it is considered as a single file. It is also possible to convert a file from one format to another. For example, a doc format file can be converted into a pdf file. Overall, all the above types of files help to store information at one particular location. A folder stores files and folders.

It is also called a directory. If all the files are in the same place, it will be difficult to identify a specific file. Therefore, folders help to arrange files.