Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
to.hear.that.my.Dad.had.been.doing.some.“cleanup”.on.the.
hard.drive.because.it.was.getting.too.full.
This.was.back.in.the.day.when.a.huge.hard.drive.might.
have.as.much.as.500.megabytes.of.storage,.and.theirs.was.
an. old. computer. with. considerably. less. than. that.. As. they.
added.pictures,.documents,.and.applications.with.little.under-
standing.but.a.great.deal.of.enthusiasm.for.their.brand-new.
computer,.they.began.to.run.out.of.space.
If. they. had. come. to. me. irst,. I. would. have. spent. some.
time.cleaning.things.up.and.could.probably.have.gained.back.
plenty.of.space.by.deleting.temporary.iles,.and.moving.some.
things.off.to.CDs..But.Dad.thought.he.had.it.igured.out.and.
simply. went. through. the. C:. drive. directory. deleting. things.
that.he.igured.were.not.important.
When.he.deleted.sol.exe,.Mom.was.a.little.bummed.out.
that. she. could. not. play. solitaire. anymore,. but. she. let. that.
pass.with.her.typical.stoicism..But.when.he.went.back.and.
decided.that.win.exe.looked.like.an.unnecessary.ile,.things.
went.south.in.a.hurry..Of.course,.many.of.you.are.probably.
giggling.right.now,.at.least.those.geeks.among.you,.because.
you.recognize.that.once.upon.a.time,.win.exe.was.the.appli-
cation.that.started.up.Windows.
Microsoft. has. since. become. a. little. more. human. savvy,.
and.they.now.hide.that.and.other.all-important.system.iles.
so. you. cannot. mess. with. them.. That,. of. course,. brings. up.
another.way.that.data.can.be.made.hard.to.locate,.but.we.get.
to.that.soon.
The.end.of.the.story.with.my.Dad.and.Mom's.computer.
was.that.I.needed.to.go.to.their.home.and.reinstall.Windows.
for. them. before. they. could. use. their. computer. again.. And.
the. point. of. that. story,. besides. entertaining. all. of. you,. was.
to.help.you.understand.how.important.and.indeed.vital.data.
might.become.impossible.to.access.simply.by.virtue.of.a.vital.
application.being.deleted,.corrupted,.or.lost.in.some.way.
In.my.parent's.case,.they.could.no.longer.access.anything.
on.their.computer.even.though.everything.still.existed.on.the.
hard.drive.
