When it comes to computers every one states how good they are. But to be perfectly honest, computers are only as good as the person operating them. We all know, and have possibly experienced our computer crashing at one point in time. If you haven't then you are lucky. When this happens a person can actually lose all files within the computer. To prevent this from happening you should always save your files and/or work. Knowing where to find your files or how to check for files in most software programs, example Microsoft Word or Excel is rather easy and important. By knowing how and where to find the files will help to save all important documents.



The main place to start, knowing what drive your information is saved in. Some computers or as advised by a computer technician, most computers come to you in two partisans. Those partisans are in actually two separate drives. These drives are the C: drive or the D: drive. While some computers may use the D: drive as their main drive most computers use the C: drive when storing or working off a particular drive. Knowing this is most important and it should be written down in case of an emergency (like computer crashing and needing to reboot).

When working with most Microsoft Word or Excel, it is very easy to look up files. A person can start by pulling up the program in which has been used to create the document. Once the program is opened a blank document usually comes up at start up. Once the program is open you will need to go to the top left hand side of the task bar, click on the word FILE, from here you should see the word OPEN, if this does not occur then at the bottom of the drop down box you will see an arrow meaning that the drop down box has to be expanded.

Once OPEN has been clicked on another box will appear. Make sure that the bottom where it states files of type has the words All Files in the box. This ensures that no matter what program was used all of the files will come up that was saved to the area in which you are looking. After making sure that those words are in the box, you will see what files are actually located in the area in which you are looking in. The box also has a spot at the top of the box that has words that state File In next to another drop down arrow. If you click on this arrow you will be able to find another location where more files may be stored.

This is the long way in which to locate files. If you open the program and actually click on the yellow envelope which is located in the second row of the task bar, this will also open the box in which was described above. That is called a short cut.

You can also, when looking for files, click right on your ?MY DOCUMENT? icon that is on your desk top. Simply double clicking will open the folder and show all files that we saved in the folder. Or you can click on the start button which brings up a drop down box which has all folders and/or programs within your computer. You will be able to find your ?MY DOCUMENT? folder in here also. But on top of that you will be able to find your most recent documents that you have used under ?DOCUMENTS? itself.

Lastly, finding certain files may be difficult to locate. When your computer gets a virus or Trojan (a type of virus) they usually are a file in itself. Finding these is hard due to the fast that they are hidden. You can ensure that even hidden files are show taking these steps: click on the start button, from there you will need to open your ?MY COMPUTER? by double clicking on it, then go to ?TOOLS?, from there find ?FOLDER OPTIONS?.

Once this is done another box will open up, you will need to click on the VIEW tab which brings up a lot of writing with boxes with some checks in them. Some boxes may not have the checks. Once this box is open you will need to find the words ?HIDDEN FILES?, under these words are two options, hide hidden files or show hidden files; you will need to make sure that the button next to show hidden files is marked. Once this is done you will need to apply and then hit ok.

After all this is done when ever you open any program or anything it will show all the files even ones that aren't per say from you which mean that some may be viruses. You can always check to see what the virus is by checking websites to see the most popular or even any type out there.

Well, there may be more complicated way in which to search for files but most are done by the above instructions. Computer technicians can use many other options due to the expertise in computers which they have. But unfortunately this goes way above regular intellect. A computer expert in which I have spoken to many times actually stated that one can use a non-Microsoft program called DOS to even search but that is different research all by itself.