How is data stored in Windows 10 folders? What a strange question? Does Windows 10 store files differently in folders? Of course not. Just about how to properly store data in folders is almost never told anywhere, but in vain ... It is because of not understanding this issue over time, many users have all sorts of computer problems.
What folders does it provideWindows 10 to store our data?
As you already know, in windows operating systems there are special virtual storages called "folder" for storing files. Any hard drive is divided into separate folders that are created by installed applications, programs or yourself.
Initially, the Windows 10 operating system provides 6 special folders for storing your data:
- Desktop
- Documents (I have this folder "H: /")
- Images
- Music
- Video
- Downloads
They are all located on the Quick Access Toolbar in the Navigation Pane.
- Do not create folders on your Desktop or store your data in them. It's like storing all your belongings in one big basket. After a while, the system will start to slow down a lot, and it will take you more and more time to find the desired file. Get used to order right away.
It is better to create a folder on another hard drive or in one of the six folders provided by Windows, make a shortcut for them and bring it to the desktop so that you can quickly get into it. Read my article on how to do this (in windows 10, this is done in the same way).
- Create and rename folders correctly. We already talked about how to do it in lesson 10 -.
- Don't forget to delete unnecessary files from the folder Downloads.
- Remove programs and applications correctly. If you do not know how to do this, then read the article,.
- Periodically clean out (delete files) the trash can on your Desktop. unnecessary files take up disk space and slow down the operating system.
- Periodically defragment your hard drive and unnecessary junk.
How to quickly navigate subfolders?
If you have many subfolders (one within another), and you have gone far while searching for the required file, but you need to go back, then you can use the arrows that are at the top left in the open folder window. By clicking on one of the arrows, you can go back or move forward one nesting level.
Or you can click on the name of the previous folder in the address bar of the open folder, and you will again return one level of nesting.
Over time, you yourself will learn to sort everything into folders, and you will understand how convenient it is for working on a computer. Train yourself not to procrastinate. Create, sort and stack your files right after they are created. This will ultimately lead not only to convenience in work, but also save your computer from constant freezes.
Now that you know how files are stored in Windows 10 folders, you can create your own new storages to store files ..
Until you know your computer poorly, it is better to use special programs that will do everything for you.
In the Windows 10 operating system, all folders have properties and can be changed. To do this, you can use the classic Control Panel or Explorer options.
Where can I find folder properties in Windows 10?
In order to open the properties of folders, you should follow these steps:
- Open Explorer and go to the "View" tab, select "Options".
- From the list, select "Change folder and search parameters." A new window will open with three tabs available: "General", "View", "Search". Each of the tabs is responsible for certain properties of the folders.
- In the "General" tab, you can set the opening of folders in a new window or in the same.
- Here you can also specify how to open the folder: with one or double click.
- Depending on the build of Windows 10, in the "General" tab there is still a "Privacy" item, which is responsible for quick access to frequently used folders and files. You can also clear your Explorer history here.
- The View tab has changed little. Here you can set the display of hidden folders and files, menu thumbnails, restore the initial view of the window. This tab gives you more access to folder properties.
- In the Search tab, you can specify how Windows 10 should respond to queries when searching for system files and folders, including non-indexed ones. Here you can also add archives and application folders to the search.
Also, the settings of any folder in Windows 10 can be configured in the classic way. To do this, right-click on the folder and select "Properties".
In this case, the available options will be in the following five tabs: "General", "Access", "Settings", "Security", "Previous versions".
In the "General" folder such folder parameters as size, location, creation date, attributes (hidden or read) will be indicated.
In the "Access" tab, you can specify access to the folder for a single user or several.
In the "Settings" tab, you can optimize the folder for storing documents, music or other files. Or choose a generic type.
The "Security" tab is responsible for security, and in "Previous versions" you can see the presence or absence of previous identical folders (relevant in the case when the folder has been renamed).
In this lesson, Andrey Sukhov will talk about the storage structure of files and folders. Watch and practice the tenth video lesson "The structure of files and folders in Windows".
Usually, many computer users store their photos, videos and other files on the computer. And now the hard drive acts as a cabinet with the storage of all documents, only in electronic form. Usually, in the office cabinet where documents are stored, their own procedure for storing documents is observed.
After installing the operating system Windows 10. Do not know how to install Windows, then watch the video tutorial. How the installation went Windows 10 automatically creates a folder structure convenient for many users. Andrey will tell you about the folder structure, and you yourself decide to create your own or use the standard one from Windows 10.
Now a small digression from Andrey for those who started to master the computer. First, as it was said and written before, all information on the computer is contained in the form of files.
A file is an object containing in your computer, including the Windows operating system, and is a complete object. For example, it can be text, photo or video. So that all files can be somehow systematized, they are placed in another object folder. In this folder, files are grouped according to the principle that you define yourself.
Now let's look at the first three items in File Explorer, and the last two refer to network connections. If your computer has a connection with other computers at home or in the office over a local network, then you have the opportunity to access other files stored there. And also you can unite all computers at home into one home network and thereby move files across any computers. But this will not be discussed yet.
Now let's go back to the left column and select the hard drive or folder we need, and the contents of the selected one will appear on the right side. For example, Andrey chose the section “ This computer»And on the right side, content appears for accessing all files, folders and hard drives. This is the office closet where information is stored.
What can we see on the right side. The first is what is divided into subsections: folders, devices and drives, network locations. We open the folders and there we have a standard structure that was made by the developers of the operating system. The device and disks contain all hard disks, an optical CD / DVD drive, and plug-in flash drives. The network location is where all connected computers are located on the local network.
In the next lesson, you will find out what folders are on.
File history in Windows 10
File history is a data backup mechanism that appeared in Windows 8. Unlike classical backup systems, file history is a rather highly specialized thing. With its help, you cannot create an image of the system or back up a disk, the main purpose of the file history is to provide the user with the simplest and fastest way to restore deleted / changed files.
Interestingly, initially the history of files came to replace the technology ″ sawn out ″ from the eight. However, in Windows 10, Pervious Versions has been returned to its previous place, so that the user has the opportunity to choose between the two technologies. And today we will figure out how to use the file history, and also talk a little about the principle of its operation and the intricacies of setting.
Enabling and configuring
You can open the file history in different ways, the fastest is to click Win + R and execute the command filehistory.
File history is not enabled by default, so the first time you log in, you will be prompted to follow the link and configure it.
The first thing to do is to make sure you have a disk for storing your backups. If the system does not find a suitable disk, then a corresponding warning is displayed, and the power button is inactive.
To select a disk, go to the "Change disk" section and specify the storage location for the backups. For archiving you can use:
Any partition of the current hard disk (except for the system one);
Any partition on another physical disk;
External USB hard drive or USB flash drive;
Network folder.
By default, the backup includes all of the user's profile content — Libraries, Desktop, Contacts, and Favorites — as well as content from the OneDrive cloud storage (if connected). If necessary, some individual folders can be excluded from the backup. To do this, go to the "Exclude folders" section and select folders that you do not need to include in the backup.
Also, in the "Advanced Settings" section, you need to configure the frequency of backups. By default, copies are created every hour, but you can specify an interval from 10 minutes to 1 day.
In the same place, we indicate the duration of storage of backups - from 1 month to infinity. By default, this time is not limited and depends only on the availability of free disk space.
After all the settings, all that remains is to click the "Enable" button and activate the file history.
After switching on, the initial archiving process starts immediately. Then the archiving is performed according to the specified schedule, and you can also start it manually at any time.
You can also configure File History from the new control panel by going to the Start menu -\u003e Settings -\u003e Update and Security -\u003e Backup Service.
Here you can make all the same settings - specify the backup frequency and storage period,
select a drive and exclude unnecessary folders.
And also from here you can add to the backup any arbitrary folder.So for the example I added the C: \\ Documents folder, which is not part of the user profile.
Recovery
You can open the file history recovery window with the filehistory command, or select the file / folder you need to recover in the explorer and click on the icon on the ribbon.
The recovery window is a kind of mixture of explorer with a media player. The content can be arranged as desired, set the desired view (icons, table, etc.), use the search. Backups are sorted by creation date, navigation through them is done using the arrows located at the bottom of the window.
You can navigate between versions both in the main section and within each folder, which is very convenient. Each folder shows the files that were in it at the time of the backup. For example, if the file was in the Documents folder and was deleted at 13; 05, then it can be found in the folder at 13:01.
Once you find the file you need, you can view it right in the recovery window. This is very useful if you want to find a specific version of a file. Preview works for text files, images, and audio and video files (which can be opened by Windows Media Player). If the file cannot be opened using built-in Windows tools, you will not be able to view it, but you will be prompted to open it using a suitable program.
Once you've decided on the version, you can restore the file to its original folder, or choose a different location.
Principle of operation
File history does not use the shadow copy mechanism (VSS) to create backups, a special service is responsible for its work fhsvc... This service is enabled by default and works regardless of whether File History is active or not.
Backups are not done at the block level (like traditional backup systems), but at the file level. Those. instead of scanning all directories and files for changes, the service simply checks the NTFS file system change journal (usn change journal) and lists the changed files to be copied. Accordingly, only files changed since the last backup are included in the backup.
Data is stored on a backup disk in the FileHistory \\ UserName \\ ComputerName \\ Data folder. This scheme allows you to store backups of different users and (when using a shared network storage) from different computers in one location. It is noteworthy that the initial separation is based on username, not computer.
The storage structure of backups completely repeats the structure of folders included in the file history. Each folder contains all available versions of the files. Each file contains the UTC date of the backup in its name. For example, in the original Documents folder there are 2 files - FileHistory1.txt and 01_high.mp4. Looking at the contents of the backup storage, we can conclude that 01_high.mp4 was changed once, and FileHistory1.txt was changed twice.
Please note that no compression is used when storing backups. This approach helps speed up navigation and browsing of content, but requires a lot of disk space. This point should be taken into account when adjusting the backup frequency, especially if you have a large number of frequently modified files.
However, if there is not enough space, you can delete the extra copies manually. To do this, go to the additional parameters section, click on the "Clear versions" link and specify the versions that can be deleted.
In addition to user folders, a Configuration folder is created for each computer, which stores the file history configuration. The EDB file is supposed to contain a list of file paths and names, while the XML file stores the backup settings. Both files have two versions. It has been empirically found that the version with the prefix 2 is the original version, and the version with the prefix 1 contains the latest changes.
Offline cache
Another important point to be aware of. In the event that an external drive or a network folder where backups are stored is not available, File History uses a temporary storage, or offline cache (offline cashe). This cache is located in the user profile, in the C: \\ Users \\ username \\ AppData \\ Local \\ Microsoft \\ Windows \\ FileHistory directory. While the disk is unavailable, the files are backed up in the cache, and as soon as the connection to the disk is restored, then all its contents are transferred to the disk and the cache is cleared. The cache also stores configuration files so that file history can continue to run even when the disk is offline.
Interestingly, in Windows 8.1 there was a setting that allows you to set the cache size as a percentage of the disk size (from 2% to 20%). However, in Windows 10, this parameter is absent, apparently the developers found such information unnecessary for the user. However, if desired, these settings can be found in the configuration file, in the section StagingAreafor the allowed cache size and location.
Control
Oddly enough, there are no tools for centralized file history management, at least I haven't found them. Apparently this functionality is intended solely for individual use, since there is no command line utility, no PowerShell module, no group policies - only a graphical snap-in. The only thing I could find was a Group Policy setting to disable the use of file history. It is located in Computer Configuration \\ Administrative Templates \\ Windows Components \\ File History under Computer Configuration \\ Administrative Templates \\ Windows Components \\ File History.
If this parameter is enabled, then the file history cannot be used, if disabled or not specified (default value), then it is possible.
The same setting is located in the registry, under HKLM \\ Software \\ Policies \\ Microsoft \\ Windows \\ FileHistory. A DWORD parameter named Disabledwhich has two meanings:
0 - file history is available for inclusion;
1 - file history is prohibited.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a few important points to be aware of when using file history:
It is not recommended to store backups on the same physical disk with the original files. if a disk fails, all files will be lost;
File History does not support the use of EFS (Encrypting File System). If encryption is required, you can use BitLocker;
File History does not back up OneDrive content until it is available offline;
Unlike traditional backup systems, file history does not require the user to have administrative rights for configuration and use. Any computer user can configure a backup of their files to a convenient location;
And just in case, let me remind you that file history is not a full-fledged backup system and can be used only as an addition to a full system backup, and not instead of it.