How do I organize 10 yrs of files? :(

L

lordsegan

Gawd
Joined
Jun 16, 2004
Messages
624
Traditionally, when I get a new HD or new Computer, I just copy the entire drive into a folder called "old drive",

The result is nearly a dozen layered folders without any real organization. I also had the bad habit for years of putting things in "New Folder 18".

The files I want to keep are mostly mp3, mpeg, wma, doc, and jpeg.

What are my options for organizing this data?
 
LOL, I hate people like you for this very reason.... I have two or three friends that always do the same thing.... I always take the time EACH time I format and sort through everything. 90% or the time, I found MANY GB's of info that I can chuck.... I'm like "What on earth did I keep that for??" :D

What about Picasa for the pics?? You can tell Picasa to scan a certain folder for ALL pictures in it, after it has found everything, do a backup. That way you can export all your files to a DVD for backup?? Not sure if this helps or not.
 
Start somewhere... and when you get to the end, stop.

Audio files - Integrate them into your existing Music collection. I personally like Mediamonkey, but you can use MP3 Tagger or MusicBrainz or whatever you prefer to get them in line.

Pictures - Picasa or Lightroom or something similar. I use Digital Asset Management, so for me it's be fairly easy to import all the photos, rename, tag, add keywords, and have them organized.

Docs - I keep my documents fairly organized by semester and then subject. Since I'm a teacher, I have a fairly convenient file system going on for all my .docx, .xlsx, .pdf, and other such files that works out really well for me. You just need to figure how you to want to arrange yours.

Just start small and slow and work your way through it. Just make sure to pick an organizing scheme that works and makes sense for you.

Oh, and for the future: putting "your documents" on another drive FTW. In Windows 7, it's even easier. Just make a Documents folder on a separate drive/partition and add it to the Documents Library as the default save location. Makes things a lot easier.
 
make a wmv folder. search for wmv, sort by directory. drag everything personal into your wmv folder. repeat. $profit$
 
Make a bunch of folders with categories in the names.

C:\Applications
C:\Multimedia
C:\Documents

That's a pretty basic category and start dragging files into them. When you're done, make more folders and put them in those, keep going until you feel you've sufficiently categorized everything. Like this:

C:\Applications_Windows_Communications
C:\Applications_Windows_Graphics
C:\Applications_Windows_Video
C:\Video_Adult
C:\Video_TV_Hause
C:\Graphics_Personal_FamilyOuting
C:\Graphics_WallPapers
C:\Graphics_People_Supermodels
C:\Documents_School_1stTri2010_History
C:\Documents_eBooks
C:\Job_MyCompany_GraphicAssets

When you're done, start burning and use a program that tracks your files. I have 25 spindles at 50DVD's each, and i can find a single file in any of them. Need a wallpaper? I just run the word "Wallpaper" in the folder database and it'll list all the files and which DVD they're in. Need "msdia80.dll"? It's in the database too.
 
You could try something like this. You may have obsessive compulsive disorder if you do.

~/ (Home Archive)
  • ./sync (Loopback to ~/ that synchronizes other platforms on the network based on predefined limitations per device.)
  • ./tmp (All new created files start here before getting sorted. WD Velociraptor comes in handy.)
    • ../archive (a read-only hardlink to the public archive introduces the Public Archive to the tmp directory. This is for quickly ripping needed content using relative paths.)
    • ./workbench (Active projects and testing grounds.)

/archive (Public Archive)
  • ./audio
    • ./artist
      • ./album
        • ./lossless
        • ./lossy
        • ./source
          • ./filetype
      • ./single
        • ./lossless
        • ./lossy
    • ./album (auto-generated hardlinks to relevant media based on tag data)
    • ./label (auto-generated et cetera)
    • ./lossless (auto-generated et cetera)
    • ./lossy (auto-generated et cetera)
  • ./font
  • ./image
    • ./lossless
    • ./lossy
  • ./reference (a library of text, books, guides)
  • ./mirror (ripped web-sites and other archives. Much of ./reference is hardlinked from here.)
  • ./software
    • ./platform (hardware platforms and interpreters each get their own)
      • ./audio
      • ./communication
      • ./devtool
      • ./distributed (For the horde!)
      • ./driver (applicable firmware and interface software for this platform)
      • ./editor
      • ./emuvm
      • ./file
      • ./game
      • ./image
      • ./network
      • ./remote
      • ./systool
      • ./video
  • ./video
    • ./lossless
    • ./lossy


./source branches are an in-development element to the archive dedicated to maintaining the original source files of digital content. Initially intended as another parallel to ./lossy and ./lossless. This layer includes original file formats for publicly available media such as multi-tracked audio or other pre-production files. Source code too for those more interesting productions. :p

The physical mediums are irrelevant and always changing via custom scripts and self mirroring on other platforms and computers across the country. There are currently 4 discs. One for ~/ and a second for backup. A third for /archive and a fourth for backup.
 
@velusip
That's actually how i used to do it. But navigating the directories was too much of a hassle, so i resorted to just using underscores instead.
 
Carefully. :)

I recently reorganized some of my folders when I got my NAS - I already had an external drive that specific folders in My Documents were being synced to, but I wanted an exact copy of the My Documents folder periodically...and I didn't need installers from 1998.

I have a drive that has my My Documents folder on it, and use the Libraries in Windows 7 to point everything there instead. I also have all my music on a drive that is not the OS drive; all my VMs on a drive that's not the OS drive, etc. (three drives in the box, total). It's probably a little overkill, but it works for me and is how I've been doing things for years.

For music:

MP3\Artist\Album, i.e.:
MP3\Miles Davis\Kind of Blue

For documents, just depends what it's for. If it's from when I was in school, there's a "school" folder. Folders for work, resume, taxes, etc. also exist and, if necessary, are broken down by year.

Photos were the hardest. My filing system for photos worked...for a few years. 10 years after shooting digital photos...not so much. Folders in the pattern of "subject date" ("12 Hours of the Cascades 10.17.09", for example) were descriptive, but got lost in several years of stuff. So recently, I created folders by year, then dumped the individual "albums" into those years. For example:

Photos\2009\12 Hours of the Cascades 10.17.09

It's much easier to find things now. :)

I think ultimately the thing to do is to figure out an organizational structure that a)makes sense for you and b)isn't so complex you don't organize.
 
lordsegan said:
What are my options for organizing this data?
Click to expand...
This is yet another example of a question that no one else can answer for you. It is your data, to be used by you, and managed by you. Take a look at what types of files you have and then you'll soon figure out how to lay them out. I've always found that copying all the data off the drive to an external helps me get started. Then, as I copy it back, it goes in new folders or gets deleted.
 
DeaconFrost said:
I've always found that copying all the data off the drive to an external helps me get started. Then, as I copy it back, it goes in new folders or gets deleted.
Click to expand...
I like that. I'll keep that in mind for next time!
 
Keep in mind the issue of preserving timestamps, if the time of creation for your old folders and files is important to you, since the standard copy/paste of Windows Explorer will set the current time on the copies.
 
I did some major deleting last time I replaced any of my disks...who cares to keep crappy low bit rate files anyway?
 
I have a bunch of stuff that I realize that I re-download every time I need it rather than going back to the file so next time I clean i'm deleting anything and everything that I want the newest version of when I reinstall.
 
hardBBQ said:
Keep in mind the issue of preserving timestamps, if the time of creation for your old folders and files is important to you, since the standard copy/paste of Windows Explorer will set the current time on the copies.
Click to expand...
That is not strictly true.

I haven't experimented enough to know when it happens, but sometimes Windows resets the stamp, sometimes it leaves it alone.
 
My file storage structure is as follows:

  • Documents
  • Pictures
  • Media
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
  • Disc Images
  • Software
  • Utilities
 
Down8 said:
That is not strictly true.

I haven't experimented enough to know when it happens, but sometimes Windows resets the stamp, sometimes it leaves it alone.
Click to expand...

thats rather lame =\

anyone have a solid answer as to why some timestamps get botched while others get left alone? i have that issue with old unsorted pictures (to which i depend on the creation timestamp to help organize)
 
I'm kind of facing a dilemma regarding this as well.

I've got a congregation of various ~/Pictures folders from my old ibook, my wife's old ibook, my laptop, her laptop and photos from parents.

Probably around 20k photos in various photos etc.

Most of the ones from my laptop are organized by subject matter

eg:
Code: 
work
    hardware
    screenshots
        each app
    networking installs
guns
     glock
     ak
     AR-15 builds
     training class photos
     group shoots
          gs#
          full auto shoot

but the rest are a mess.

Currently I have them residing on my fileserver (debian - samba share) lumped into a "Pics" folder.

I'd love an app that could rip through the directories and organize them by date from their tags (if they have tags - some of the pics go back to some of the old digi cams that used floppies or serial cables for getting data off them).

Might be suited for it's own thread, but figured I'd ask it here since the subject was similar.
 
Down8 said:
That is not strictly true.

I haven't experimented enough to know when it happens, but sometimes Windows resets the stamp, sometimes it leaves it alone.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that is the case regarding only copy/paste? (not moving folders and files).

I know the timestamp behaviour for moving folders between physical/logical drives has changed since XP.

Personally, I use Directory Opus for most file management operations among other things.
 
QwertyJuan said:
LOL, I hate people like you for this very reason.... I have two or three friends that always do the same thing.... I always take the time EACH time I format and sort through everything. 90% or the time, I found MANY GB's of info that I can chuck.... I'm like "What on earth did I keep that for??" :D

What about Picasa for the pics?? You can tell Picasa to scan a certain folder for ALL pictures in it, after it has found everything, do a backup. That way you can export all your files to a DVD for backup?? Not sure if this helps or not.
Click to expand...

Haha totally know what you mean. My techie friend does this too. Very bright guy, but he's so damn lazy sometimes. It's not that he doesn't know better, it's just that he sometimes doesn't care.
 
I need to go through all my drives and do that again at some point.

But yea I did it maybe a year ago or something and spent probably 8-10 hours just organizing files, once you do it once you feel pretty good. Then you try to keep that organization up. Like I finally tagged/organized some 5,000 mp3's of music and then ever since them I take time to tag and name them properly before adding it to the collection. Most of my other stuff is somewhat organized.
 
If you have windows 7, you can do it the super LAZY way. Just dump everything into one folder and index that folder in the search. Then all you have to do is type in the start menu search box when you want to find something.

With Windows 7 instant search, I can easily see unorganized crap like this happening more frequently.
 
@ Lord

First thing is do like everyone has suggested. Create a directory tree you understand and use it. From there my theories differ

1) Download and use a program called "Unique Filer" , use the wizard and scan all your folders that you have pictures in. This program will visually compare images ( doesnt matter if theyre resized, rotated, different names ) and show you all duplicates. Be forewarned it does sometimes find matches that arent right ( animated gifs seem to screw it up ) and it will nag you to purchase it after every 10 deletes, but you just click no thanks and keep going. It will clear up 99% of all duplicate image files.

2) Download and use a program called "Doublekiller" Set it to scan your folders ( leave out you main C:\Windows folder) and set it to EXCLUDE the following A) *.jpg B) *.bmp C) *.db Then run it with the options to compare file size and CRC. This will kill duplicates of the rest.

3) Find and download "Remove Empty Directories" from Jonas John. This is pretty self explanatory.

I used and still use this method succesfully. I started sorting 2Tb worth of old junk and finally got thru it. Once the programs are done you probably have to just manually sort thru it.

One more caveat, both the first 2 programs have a "delete all duplicates" in one button option, but be careful, theyre not perfect, and will think some files are dupes when theyre not. But 99% of the time theyre spot on in finding duplicate files.
 
I have multiple partitions.

C:Windows
D:\Documents
E:\Photos
F:\Music
G:\Games
H:\BACKUP
I:\Software

This makes life a lot easier. Then, when I get a new harddrive, I move everything over to their new partitions. And I make DVD backups of the important stuff (photos and documents) to keep in my Safe Deposit box at the bank (yes, you should do this too). It costs me very little to make a DVD backup, so if I do it once in a while, it makes me feel safe.

Then, sort through each partition to organize however you like. All my music is in a folder by artist, then not so strict after that.

Documents is arranged in folders by subject (bank, old school files, personal, computer, fun stuff, mobile, etc).

Email is kept on the cloud. I download the files that are important and save them as documents, but the rest I leave on the servers. I don't even have a local email client, I just use the web based ones.
 
Sly said:
But navigating the directories was too much of a hassle....
Click to expand...
The nice directory structure may be a pain to search through manually, but it makes for some nice hassle-reducing hacks later. Such as a music global index script:
~]$ moc tren[tab]
~/audio/trentemøller/album/lossy/mp3/the_last_resort.2006\tren*
[enter]

Album is appended to mocp playlist.

And if you like virtual directories you can create a branch of ~/sync that automatically prunes out or aggregates unnecessary sub-categories for your music ogg and mp3-only media player. ~/sync/audio/mp3_ogg/* might show every file within any mp3 or ogg audio sub directory including everything from 311.transistor.01.bonus_track.ogg to younger_brother.a_flock_of_bleeps.07.magic_monkey_juice.mp3
 
Delete old data.

99.9% of the time you will never need it again anyway.

For everything else, there's iTunes/Evernote/Mastercard/etc.
 
I store it, then if I don't go looking for it after a month or so I wipe it.

Treated me well so far lol
 
velusip said:
You could try something like this. You may have obsessive compulsive disorder if you do.

~/ (Home Archive)
  • ./sync (Loopback to ~/ that synchronizes other platforms on the network based on predefined limitations per device.)
  • ./tmp (All new created files start here before getting sorted. WD Velociraptor comes in handy.)
    • ../archive (a read-only hardlink to the public archive introduces the Public Archive to the tmp directory. This is for quickly ripping needed content using relative paths.)
    • ./workbench (Active projects and testing grounds.)

/archive (Public Archive)
  • ./audio
    • ./artist
      • ./album
        • ./lossless
        • ./lossy
        • ./source
          • ./filetype
      • ./single
        • ./lossless
        • ./lossy
    • ./album (auto-generated hardlinks to relevant media based on tag data)
    • ./label (auto-generated et cetera)
    • ./lossless (auto-generated et cetera)
    • ./lossy (auto-generated et cetera)
  • ./font
  • ./image
    • ./lossless
    • ./lossy
  • ./reference (a library of text, books, guides)
  • ./mirror (ripped web-sites and other archives. Much of ./reference is hardlinked from here.)
  • ./software
    • ./platform (hardware platforms and interpreters each get their own)
      • ./audio
      • ./communication
      • ./devtool
      • ./distributed (For the horde!)
      • ./driver (applicable firmware and interface software for this platform)
      • ./editor
      • ./emuvm
      • ./file
      • ./game
      • ./image
      • ./network
      • ./remote
      • ./systool
      • ./video
  • ./video
    • ./lossless
    • ./lossy


./source branches are an in-development element to the archive dedicated to maintaining the original source files of digital content. Initially intended as another parallel to ./lossy and ./lossless. This layer includes original file formats for publicly available media such as multi-tracked audio or other pre-production files. Source code too for those more interesting productions. :p

The physical mediums are irrelevant and always changing via custom scripts and self mirroring on other platforms and computers across the country. There are currently 4 discs. One for ~/ and a second for backup. A third for /archive and a fourth for backup.
Click to expand...


Thats pretty much what I did after sorting out my 10 years of stuff.
 
I'm not so worried about preserving the photos... it won't be long and we'll have Picasa version 203 that will automatically sort all that shit for us.

the other stuff I just work on slowly, chipping away. when i get block-level dedupe it won't be such a big deal
 
mellojoe said:
I have multiple partitions.

C:Windows
D:\Documents
E:\Photos
F:\Music
G:\Games
H:\BACKUP
I:\Software

This makes life a lot easier. Then, when I get a new harddrive, I move everything over to their new partitions. And I make DVD backups of the important stuff (photos and documents) to keep in my Safe Deposit box at the bank (yes, you should do this too). It costs me very little to make a DVD backup, so if I do it once in a while, it makes me feel safe.

Then, sort through each partition to organize however you like. All my music is in a folder by artist, then not so strict after that.

Documents is arranged in folders by subject (bank, old school files, personal, computer, fun stuff, mobile, etc).

Email is kept on the cloud. I download the files that are important and save them as documents, but the rest I leave on the servers. I don't even have a local email client, I just use the web based ones.
Click to expand...

What's advantage of having that many partitions on a single disk? The space, for example, of music or games or photos or documents is always changing. So what happens when you run out of space on that partition? Remake it? It sounds incredibly impractical.
 
Jon55 said:
What's advantage of having that many partitions on a single disk? The space, for example, of music or games or photos or documents is always changing. So what happens when you run out of space on that partition? Remake it? It sounds incredibly impractical.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing lol, ever hear of folders?
 
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