Copy, Move and Drag Files - Computer Lab

This section shows you how to copy and move your files from one place to another safely when working in Windows Explorer. The common term for this is 'house keeping', and is the demanding chore of cleaning up your disks and duplicate files or files that are old, outdated, or no longer needed. The drag and drop technique, cut and paste and menu commands will get a workout, but keeping organized is a key for working fast and efficiently.

As you have seen, files, folders and drives are some of the means of organizing data into useful and meaningful hierarchies. As you become more proficient on the computer, file maintenance and house keeping chores of copying, moving, deleting and backing up files will become more second nature.

Cut, pasted, dragged or dropped, deleted or wiped. These terms probably sound familiar, but a deeper look shows some very profound differences in the way the operating system handles the file.

Copying and Moving Files

Copying and moving a file is inevitable. At some point, you'll need to put a file in another folder or disk. Here are some examples of when you would need to do that.

To copy files to removable media. You likely do this on a regular basis to create backup copies of files, to give files to a co-worker.
When re-organizing your system. By default, many programs store documents in the same folders as program files. At some point you might want to move the documents to a separate document folder. By keeping all of the data types of files in the same location, backing up your important data is much easier.
To create a duplicate of a file within the same folder. You would do this, for example, so you could edit one file and keep the other intact creating different versions.
To copy files to other media or from one computer to another. Using external 'jump drives' or if your computer is on a network, you might need to share across distance.

Before beginning, you should understand the difference between copying and moving and deleting objects.

Copying an object is making an exact duplicate of the original file. If the copy is made in the same folder it has to have a different name.
Moving is a 'copy' and then a 'delete' operation. The copy is made to the clipboard and then the original object is moved to the Recycle Bin or removed from the drive.
Delete is moving the object to the Recycle Bin or removing it from the drive completely. No copy is made.

Drag and Drop
Cut, Copy and Paste (covered in the next lesson)
Using the Context Menu: Right click the object and choose 'Send To', and then select the destination (covered in another lesson).

Copying: Prompts the user with a message box "Are you sure you want to copy......". If 'Yes' it makes a duplicate and keeps the original intact including all of its properties. If another object exists in the same folder, 'Copy of' is appended to the name automatically to prevent duplicate names. Otherwise it MUST be renamed for the operation to continue.

Moving: Prompts the user with a message box "Are you sure you want to move......". If 'Yes' it copies the file with all of its properties, then changes the properties of the new file or folder to the settings specified by the folder it is being moved to. It then moves the object to the Recycle Bin or deletes the original with no further warning.

NOTE: Placing the file in the new location does not guarantee that the properties and attributes (settings) of the file will stay the same. This can create some unwanted effects, especially if the file is 'protected' and then sent to another disk or directory.

Remember: Copy creates duplicates of files. If you copy a folder to a new location on the same drive when you meant to move it, you'll end up with duplicates of all the files in the folder on the same drive with 'Copy of' attached to it.

Drag and Drop Files and Folders

You may already be familiar with Drag and Drop, but you may not be familiar with Drag and Drop inside of Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer provides unique side-by-side views in which you can select source file(s) in the right pane and locate the destination in the left. First, we'll Drag and Drop between two folders in your student folder.

You can use the Mouse to click on the file and drag it to a new location. Use drag and drop techniques when you can see the source and the destination folder, drive or other object that you want to move to. You might need to minimize some windows or re-position others before you can drag and drop an object. In the earlier lesson you created folders inside of each other inside of your student folder. We'll experiment with techniques for copying and moving a file in this folder. The same principal applies to files and other objects.

Now it's time to open Explorer and experiment with drag and drop techniques in the dual window pane interface.

Navigate to the Students >> 'Your Name' folder.
If you do not have a folder called [your name] inside of the Students folder, create one.
Select Student Folder >> [your name] on the left.
Click in the right side in any white area, Right click and select 'New' >> 'Folder'
Name the folder 'Personal'.
Click the new Personal folder to open it on the right side.
Create a new folder inside of Personal called Business
Create a new folder inside of Business called Tools

Three folders are created inside of your Students >> [your name] folder

You can now use these techniques on your new folders, and this applies to all folders and files.

Make the Tools folder visible in the left pane and select it with the mouse to open it up in the right side.
Create a text file inside of the Tools folder. (Right click >> 'New' >> text file) and name it Text 1.txt.

To copy or move files by dragging and dropping objects in Windows Explorer, follow the steps here. These techniques apply to any drive or folder.

Remember to expand the folder tree in the left pane that holds your folders to see all of them.
Right Click the Text 1.txt file in the right pane, then drag it over to the Personal folder in the left pane and release the mouse.
Choose 'Copy Here' from the menu to copy the file.

In the picture you see that Business folder is selected in the left pane showing the contents in the right pane, which in this case is the Tools folder. Dragging the folder from the right to the left shows a shadow of what is being copied so there is no confusion about what is happening.

Click the Business Folder in the left pane to open its window on the right side (If you double click the object it will open in a new window).
To move objects directly to the destination, right click and drag the object to the destination and drop the object. Releasing the Mouse button places the object where you left it.
Select the action you want from the drop down menu.

Remember that Right clicking, then dragging the object gives you the context menu with options of what you want to do.

As you are dragging, the outline of the object follows your mouse movement and the symbols tell you what is about to happen, so look at the symbol before you release the Mouse Button.

To cancel the operation, either press the Escape Key, or select Edit > Undo Move/Copy on the menu, or press my Personal favorite, CTL Z (Press and hold the control key and touch the Z key.

Dropping a file onto a Drive opens the Drive and places the file inside. You cannot drag and drop one file on top of another to merge the data or append a file to the bottom of another. If you could, that would be disastrous, because if a mistake was made there would be no way of knowing which file contained the "mistake" and all of them would have to be opened one by one to find the missing data!

Move is the default when you left click and drag an object to a folder on the SAME DRIVE.

Note: the folders on the A:/ Drive and a USB thumb (Flash) Drive are considered the same drive as your Windows Desktop!

Copy is the default when you left click and drag an object to a folder on a different drive.

If you think about it, this is logical. Windows assumes that if you drag an object to the same drive with the left mouse button you probably don't want two copies of it in basically the same location, so Windows moves the object to the new location and deletes the original. However, if you right click and drag to another drive, Windows gives a context menu with a choice of options, assuming you want to move it.

If you really want to copy an object to the same drive, simply right click and drag, then choose the operation you want from the context menu. Another way to copy is to hold the Control Key, then Left Click and drag the object to the destination, but you will see no context menu or warning about what you are doing.

Dragging files from the Desktop to a Folder is similar. We can move the file we just put onto the Personal Folder over into the Business Folder. Left click the file in the Personal folder and drag it into the Business folder.

Notice what happens when the object is moved directly to the destination, not copied! After releasing the mouse, the file or copy of it is no longer in the Personal Folder on your drive! You are not asked to confirm the operation, and you are not shown a menu of options because you dragged the object with the left Mouse button. Depending where you are in the folder structure, it will either Copy (same drive) or Move it (different drive).

The Context menu only appears when you Right Click an object and drag it with the Right Mouse Button.

This technique of dragging and dropping files from the Desktop into a folder can be useful. Suppose, for instance, that the folder 'Personal' contained a template file that held often used text information or page layout used in a Personal letter or memo. Whenever you wanted to create a new letter, you could copy the template from the desktop into a folder where you wanted to create the new letter, then rename and edit it. The Desktop is a good place for shortcuts to often-used templates, but it is better to make a folder for them and keep the template shortcuts on the desktop in their own folder.

Copy, Move and Drag Files - Basic Classes

In this lesson you will learn:

Essential Housekeeping Skills

Copying and Moving Files

Drag and Drop Files and Folders