If you find you can’t copy or move a file or folder, especially one on a network drive, you probably don’t have the necessary permission. Because moving a file involves deleting its original from the folder it’s in, you need permission to change a folder in order to move a file from it. You may be able to create a copy instead, because copying doesn’t involve deleting the original. Likewise, you need permission to create a file in the destination folder; if you don’t have this permission, neither moving nor copying will work.

Deleting a File or Folder

Deleting a file or folder is easy once you understand the two-stage process that Windows uses to help prevent you from deleting any files or folders unintentionally. Windows has a holding area called the Recycle Bin for files or folders that you’ve deleted. If you’re familiar with Mac OS, you’ll find similarities between the Recycle Bin and the Trash. When you tell Windows to delete a file or folder that’s stored on a local drive, Windows confirms that you’re sure about the deletion, and then moves the file or folder from its current folder to the Recycle Bin. When a file or folder is in the Recycle Bin, it hasn’t been deleted yet, and you can retrieve it easily. Windows calls this restoring a file or folder - restoring it from the Recycle Bin to its previous folder. Files or folders stay in the Recycle Bin until either you empty it or the Recycle Bin grows to occupy its full allocation of disk space, at which point Windows starts discarding the oldest files or folders in the Recycle Bin without consultation to make space for further files or folders you delete. When you tell Windows to delete a file or folder on a network drive, Windows deletes it imme- diately without moving the file to the Recycle Bin. Unless you work strictly with files or folders on local drives, it’s a bad idea to rely on the Recycle Bin to rescue you from careless Delete operations. If you want, you can turn off the confirmation of deletion, and you can stop Windows from using the Recycle Bin. That way, when you delete a file or folder, it’s deleted instantly without confirmation, and there’s no easy way of restoring it. You can sometimes restore deleted files or folders with third-party undelete utilities, but you shouldn’t rely on being able to do so.