The etymology of the word Archive comes from the Latin “Archivum”, which means “residence of the magistrates”. Today the word file is designated to refer to the site or destination where documents that could be created by people or institutions are stored and preserved and for this reason the files can be private or public.
The fundamental purpose of any archive is to be able to have documents stored, ordered and classified, so that when they need to be searched they can be found efficiently and quickly.
In the world of computing, the term file (or file, from the English language) is commonly used to refer to a set of data or digital information based on "bits or binary information" that can be saved and later used by existing applications on the computer or any other technological device. A computer file is stored on the computer's hard drive, and it consists of a name and the extension of the folder that contains it (example: filename.ext).
Keep in mind that files are not all stored in the same way on computers, a text file is saved differently than an image, a video or a music file; The space they occupy on the hard drive is not the same either, since their contents are different. The advantages of digital files is that they can be moved, copied, deleted, change their location, etc. From our computers, they can also be shared by social networks for example, and be sent by emails.
However, it must be taken into account that archives have been part of the history of humanity since it began to record its life, since the most important data or documents have always been stored in physical files, since there was no the technology you have today. These documents were stored in large warehouses, boxes or shelves. Although one of its biggest disadvantages is that over time the deterioration of the paper is inevitable and they lose all their content. Even so, we cannot forget that there are many books and physical documents that have an emblematic historical value and for this reason we will always try to keep them in the best possible condition.
