Windows Related

×

I can't find a file on my hard drive. How do I find my files?

Click on the Start button and select Files or Folders... from the Find menu. The Find dialog box will appear on your screen. Type in the file name in the "Named:" box and set the "Look in:" to the drive you want to search. Click on the Find Now button you should see something similar to the following (if a file is found):

The dialog box will list every instance of the filename it finds. The In Folder column will show you what folder the file is located in.

If you are having trouble finding the file, either the file is not on the drive you selected or you mistyped the file name. You can use "wildcard" characters if you do not know the exact file name. For example, let's say you have a file and you know that name starts with "Smith" and it has some other ending characters but you do not remember what they are. In the "Named:" box, you can type in Smith*.dw2. When you click the Find Now button, every DW2 file that starts with "Smith" and ends with anything will be listed. Another example could be that you know the file name starts with something, Smith, and ends with some other numbers. You could type *Smith*.dw2 in the "Named:" box. It will then list every DW2 file that has "Smith" in the file name. When you use the * you are basically saying that anything could be here. If you search for *.dw2, every DW2 file in the Look In: drive will be listed.

Back to All Topics