Quickie question - periodically, I go through my files and delete unnecessary stuff - photos sent from friends, stuff I dowloaded and printed, and so on. Fonts, too. So I have a bunch of zip files that are unzipped, which results in two folders. One with a zipper, obviously, and then the unzipped folder with all the stuff in it.
Once I unzip something, can I then delete the zipped folder? Or will I lose the contents of the unzipped one at the same time?
You can delete the zip file.
I personally like to keep the zips things come in, especially if they are software updates or something like that, for when I reformat or get a new C drive or something. The originals are still all there, complete, and in their right places.
But effectively, regarding your question, they are a duplicate copy of your stuff, not a mirrored file listing (as you’re implying). So yes, you can delete the original zip (after dearchiving) if you want to.
You, apparently, don’t really understand the whole point of compressing a directory (that’s what the zipper means: the most common file compression tool under Windows is called zip): You can turn a whole directory into one file, compressed to make it smaller, and make that file available online, so people only have to grab one small (relatively) thing rather than multiple larger things.
When the zip file is processed, the compressed directory is re-created. The zip file is, from now on, simply a backup: The directory can stand alone and doesn’t need to be treated any differently from any other directory on the system.
You’re right, I really don’t understand how it works. I’m a kind of intuitive computer user, rather than an educated one, but for the most part I muddle through without having to call techie people and ask them WHY I am an idiot. I just thought I’d throw this one up there and eliminate the potential aggravation.
Thanks, all!