OverviewFiles
Information on computers is stored in files. A file is simply a collection of data that a computer stores under a specific name, known as the filename. (In other words, a file is a bunch of data that the computer stores as one unit and that you can access by name.)
When you save a file, the data that makes up the file is written out to the hard drive, and whatever name you provided for the file is assigned to that collection of data on the hard drive.
When you load a file, you provide the name of the file that you want to load, and the corresponding data is read off the hard drive.
Warning: It's important to take special care when saving files. If you provide the name of a file that already exists, the new file will replace or "overwrite" the old file. Most applications will warn you before this happens, asking you to verify that you really want to overwrite the existing file. Be sure to heed the warning; once a file is overwritten, it can't be restored.
Files vary in size and can contain all sorts of data, from text, images and sounds, to database records and the "machine language" code that programs are made of.
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