There's a simple way to measure your "computer intelligence": divide the number of folders or directories on your personal computer by the number of files and multiply the result by 1,000. If you have, on average, a hundred files in each folder, your CIQ will be 100, which is enough to function properly. If you have up to 500 files in each folder then it is time to re-organise your hard drive.
Hard drive organisation is important, not just so that you can find things easily, and back them up, but to keep Windows running smoothly. Windows keeps a "swap file" on the hard drive where it stores things when it runs out of real memory. When it starts to run out of this "virtual memory" (swap space), Windows' performance declines dramatically.
Organising a hard drive is like planning a library: you want to have the right number of shelves for different types of book, and you want to be able to find individual books quickly. It makes sense to reserve different folders - or different drives, or different drive partitions - for the operating system, your applications, and your data. You may also want separate sections for any particularly large collections of data, such as MP3 files.
You can then subdivide these main areas by creating folders for different applications and different types of data.
Microsoft has tried to encourage this approach in recent versions of Windows. The system files are stored in the Windows directory, and applications programs in a folder called Program Files. There's also a folder called My Documents where you can store your data (files created with word processors, spreadsheets, paint programs and other applications). This may also include subdirectories such as My Library, My Music, My Pictures, and My Webs.
Highlight the My Documents folder in Windows Explorer, then select File|New|Folder to create as many subdirectories as you like, such as My Downloads and so on. And if you don't like Microsoft's approach to directory names, you can do the same thing independently somewhere else, such as D:\Data.
Keeping all your personal data together makes it much easier to take back ups (security copies) in case of a hard drive failure. The operating system and applications can be re-installed from original copies, but if your data is lost, it has gone for good.
Unfortunately, not many of Microsoft's applications programmers, and very few outsiders, have got the message. Outlook and Outlook Express, for example, do not store your vital mail files in My Mail. They hide them away where you can't see them in files with extensions such as .dbx, .mbx and .pst. My OE5 mail, for example, is stored in C:\WINDOWS\ Application Data\Identities\ {C333B700-C32C-11D3-8602-B49B824D1277}\ Microsoft\OutlookExpress\Inbox. dbx , and how rational is that?
Also unfortunately, Windows is incapable of keeping track of files so you can't easily move them. However, you can make a habit of copying them to (say) My Mail and backing them up regularly.
But many programs can be set up to save files in a particular directory by default. You could, for example, store Word files in a My Word folder in My Documents. And many files - documents, images, MP3 files etc - can be stored anywhere. You can send these to the My Documents folder by right-clicking on the file name in Windows Explorer and selecting Send To then My Documents. Go to My Documents and sort them out later, creating new subfolders whenever a directory gets too big. The aim is to have enough sub-folders so that you can find files easily.
It can, of course, be tedious to navigate to very deep folders. However, you can always add your most frequently used folders to your Favorites list. This was designed to store web links, but you can add folders to the My Computer section.
