Exercises: Organising and archiving information

In your downloads folder, you have the following files: "cat_photo.jpg", "volcanoes_project.odt", "techno_notes_topic2.pdf", "song.mp3", "volcanoes_project_final.odt", and "volcanoes_project_final_DEF.odt". Propose a folder structure to organise them and rename any files with problematic names, explaining the criteria you follow.

Explain the difference between saving a file on the computer's hard drive and saving it in the cloud, and give one advantage and one disadvantage of each option.

The diagram shows part of the folder hierarchy on a student's computer, who has just downloaded the file "quixote_essay.odt" and has not yet archived it.

State which folder you would archive the file in, and what subfolders you would create inside "Spanish" following the same criteria used in the "Technology" folder.

Explain what the Recycle Bin is and in which two cases you will NOT be able to recover a deleted file from it. Think about a file deleted from a USB flash drive and what happens when the Recycle Bin is emptied.

State which program would open each of these files: "essay.odt", "form.pdf", "photo.jpg", and "trip_photos.zip". Then explain what happens if you manually rename "photo.jpg" to "photo.odt" and why it is not a good idea.

In addition to files, it is also useful to organize browser bookmarks or favorites. Design a bookmark folder structure for this academic year (subjects, resources, leisure) and place these four pages in it: an online dictionary, your math teacher's notes, a browser game, and the virtual classroom website.

Explain the difference between copying and moving a file, and reason what happens in each of these two cases: dragging a file from one folder to another on the same drive, and dragging it from that drive to a USB flash drive.

Your cell phone has $2\ \text{GB}$ free and each photo takes up about $4\ \text{MB}$. Calculate approximately how many photos fit into that space, and explain what you would do when it runs out, without losing your old photos.

The 3-2-1 backup rule recommends having three copies of your data, on two different media types, with one of them kept offsite (away from home). Explain in your own words what each number means and apply the rule to the photos on your cell phone: what copies you would make, where, and how often.

A group's shared folder contains ninety files with names like "document1", "new (3)", or "untitled". Propose a naming convention that includes date, topic, and version, and rewrite three example file names using it.

A group saves their project only in a school cloud folder, and on the day before the deadline, the account runs out of storage space and they cannot upload the final version. Explain what went wrong with their organisation and design a minimal archiving plan to prevent it from happening again.

The diagram shows a student's backup system for their photos: they store them on their laptop and copy the folder every week to an external hard drive kept in the same desk drawer.

Explain what this system lacks to comply with the 3-2-1 rule and what risk remains unaddressed while the only two copies are in the same room.

Some cloud services automatically save previous versions of a document for a period of time. Compare this "automatic versioning" with manually saving "project_v1", "project_v2", "project_v3": give one advantage of each system and a situation where automatic versioning would save you.

You are going to copy $4.5\ \text{GB}$ of photos to an external hard drive that writes at about $30\ \text{MB/s}$. Calculate how many seconds the copy will take, and express it in minutes with one decimal place. Remember that $1\ \text{GB}$ is approximately $1000\ \text{MB}$.

Having your "Documents" folder synced with the cloud is not the same as manually uploading a copy from time to time. Explain the difference and reason what danger synchronization poses if you accidentally delete a file on your computer.

Your cell phone camera roll has accumulated three years of photos, screenshots, and duplicate videos. Propose an organizing strategy (by year, events, or albums), decide what to do with screenshots and duplicates, and plan how often you would carry out this cleanup.

Design your complete digital organisation system for this academic year: folder structure, file naming convention, backup plan, and regular cleanup. Justify each decision with an example of what problem it prevents.

A classmate says: "I have all my Technology files synced with my Google Drive account on my computer and my phone. That means I already have three copies, I don't need to do anything else, and it's impossible for me to lose anything."

1. a) Refute their statement by analyzing what would happen to their files in two real-world situations: if ransomware encrypts their computer or if the service provider temporarily suspends their account due to an authentication issue.
2. b) Design a complete strategy based on the 3-2-1 rule adapted for a 2nd year ESO student: specify what the three copies would be, which two different physical media they would be stored on, and which one would be off-site, justifying how this plan protects you against the two previous problems.

Late yesterday, your team saved the project's technical report on a workshop computer, but today it does not appear on the desktop or in the usual folder. You only remember that the file was a LibreOffice Writer document (.odt), contained the word "engranaje", and was modified between 16:30 and 18:00.

1. a) Design a systematic three-phase search strategy using the file explorer's advanced tools (filters by extension, wildcards, date, and content search). Justify why starting directly with a content search across the entire hard drive would be an efficiency mistake.
2. b) During the search, you find two files: "memoria_temp.tmp" (0 KB) and ".~lock.memoria.odt#" (1 KB). Technically interpret what these two files represent in the operating system and predict whether your work can be recovered from them or where you should look next.

The computers in the IT room are shared by all year groups and are 'wiped' every term. Design rules for using and filing files on these devices: where each student should save their work, what will be deleted and when, and how to make sure nobody loses their work at the end of the term.

The 1 TB mechanical hard drive (HDD) where the Technology department stores student projects is emitting a periodic metallic clicking sound ("click... click") and its read speed has plummeted to 0.1 MB/s. Faced with this situation, two students propose different courses of action:

• Alejandro wants to immediately run a full antivirus scan and a disk defragmenter to "repair the damaged files".

• Irene proposes connecting another drive and starting to copy the entire 800 GB folder of school festival videos in bulk.

1. a) Technically refute Alejandro's and Irene's proposals: predict what physical effect each will cause on the read/write head and the magnetic platters of the damaged drive.
2. b) Design the emergency rescue protocol you should follow: what must you do with the computer's power supply, what specific files must you prioritise copying first (considering size and importance), and what two actions are strictly forbidden until the critical data has been saved.

A group project lasts three months and has three interim submissions before the final one. Design the folder structure and versioning system for the project: what is saved in each folder, how the files for each submission are named, and who is responsible for archiving what.

Compare these two backup strategies for a home computer: (a) a scheduled local backup every night to an external drive, and (b) a continuous automatic backup to the cloud. Evaluate cost, space, recovery speed, and privacy, and recommend a justified combination.

The school has found in the archive a CD-R burned in the year 2004 containing the report of a technology project. When attempting to open it on a modern computer, two problems arise:

1. The modern computer does not have an optical drive, and when connecting an external USB drive, several sectors return a read error ("unreadable disc").

2. The recovered files are in proprietary .wpd (WordPerfect) format and contain old .cdr vector graphics that no current program opens by default.

1. a) Based on this case, interpret the difference between physical medium obsolescence and logical format obsolescence, and explain what physical phenomenon has caused the CD to fail after 20 years despite having been stored in a drawer.
2. b) Design a 20-year digital preservation plan for the projects you make today in class: what physical media would you choose and every how many years would you plan the migration, and what type of file formats would you require using (justifying why open and standard formats avoid the problem of the previous case).