I used to have complete anarchy in my Downloads folder, but I've since reformed my ways and now my Downloads folder is clean and my Videos and Documents folders are complete anarchy instead.
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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Organizing is one thing but it's better to reduce your brainpower-spending regardless of what you do.
On Windows? Custom iconed folders and explorer bookmarks go a long way. Better than relying on Quick Access or whatever.
On desktop Linux? Tools like fd and zoxide (z) save you as long as your directory names are consistent. Sticking to names-like-this reduces guesswork and you can skip around in seconds. (Saved me many a due date.)
On Android, consult Indiana Jones. Your files are a treasure -- they're staying hidden
Android at least has this neat app named TagSpaces... but yeah I really hate how the entire filesystem is basically Windows' "Documents" folder: Various apps just dump things wherever the heck they please!
Edit: Thanks for mentioning those really cool Linux tools!!
These days, a shallow folder system. I have an electronica folder, and a Blanck Mass folder that definitely would go in there but that is full enough to stand on it's own. Actual taxonomic organisation would take way too many clicks, but flat organisation can result in trouble finding things, and just looks like you're a slob. (Although I'm guilty of having unsorted hoarder folders for things I only needed once, too)
There's probably a rule of thumb for optimal fanout on each GUI folder, related to our visual processing. Hmm. I wonder if there's a way to make the tree self-balancing as well.
I don't keep anything relevant on my machine. It's just a way to access data hosted somewhere more safe. Also files and folders are terrible ways to organize anything, even remotely like Google Drive or similar stuff. It's Microsoft's and Apple's brainrot outliving the 90s. We should move forward.
If not in folders, how would you suggest we organize data on computers so that it's easily findable without needing keyword searches all the time? Because I can guarantee that I'm not the only one who would remember the keyword for a specific song or government document right until the moment when I need it and then I will forget what any of the set keywords/tgs were or be so vague with the tags that it feels like searching for something specific on pinterest
100% of everything is on the desktop. No borders no boundaries to divide the working class programs against themselves
Before even looking, I could tell you were from .ml. Stand strong, comrade!
It goes to the Desktop, when the Desktop is full I delete everything that looks unimportant π
thanks, I hate it
Your question made me curious, so I counted: the subdirectories in my home directory reach a maximum of 26 levels deep.
You gotta up those numbers!
I try but don't always succeed. In my main laptop, I have all misc files in the downloads folder, photos in photos, documents(pdfs, writer, math) and videos/movies in videos.
on my main desktop it's total anarchy
Yes.
Depends on what it is. Currently, on my laptop, I have music organized by group followed by album if I have ripped a CD for backup in case my CD stops working. Got a lot of blanks, just in case, for free.
Downloads isn't organized. Pictures are slightly organized, with images for background in a folder and a few other folders. Most everything in documents is in a folder inside the documents folder or a subfolder in the subfolders.
Desktop has folder has mostly the important things in it, like folder for appimages, emulators, other programs and related files that require their own folder, and a few miscellaneous files. Organization is something I have prioritized a lot more on my laptop to ensure I don't end up having a situation like with my desktop where it's a shitshow.
As for phone, I'm doing a lot better with organization because I set up a new phone I got maybe a month or less ago and have been doing good to organize. Just need to go into my SD card and fix some things up that haven't been organized for a long time, since my 2nd smartphone, back from ~2015-16. Mostly just music. Got over 500 audio files stored on an SD card, so you can imagine how insane it is to try and organize, especially if you feel daunted by that task like me.
2tb external hard drive, and another 2tb drive that has a copy of everything.
If it's important, or if you love your stuff, then always keep a backup.
I personally do three 5TB ext. drives, and only two drives may be at the same location at any given time. I'm also making sure only to use drives whose S.M.A.R.T. can be read without removing their enclosure.
Not sure who thought it'd be a good idea to make an external drive where S.M.A.R.T. cannot be read through whatever interface it uses.
I'm also making sure only to use drives whose S.M.A.R.T. can be read without removing their enclosure.
That's a good call, which drives have you found that support this?
I haven't found a definite favorite yet, but I've bought a few Western Digital external HDDs which have all supported S.M.A.R.T. over USB. I'm currently using their WDBU6Y0050BBK devices. They don't have the best reviews, but mine have worked just fine over the past year.
Contrary, I've had two Seagate external HDDs in the past, none of which supported S.M.A.R.T. over USB, and they died after about 10 years of sparse use (powered on for backup at least once a year).
I guess one could find what USB chip the WDs use and then compare with other drives, but no one writes such stuff in their product information. >:(
Ideally:
- Well-organized set of frequently-used and recent files on my laptop
- Media and old documents on my NAS, synced to an external hard drive I can remove for travel
- Each device/non-backup drive/USB drive/SD card backed up to its own folder on a large external drive
- A duplicate of said drive from another manufacturer
- An archival copy of my documents and photos (encrypted on microSD ofc) that I carry with me
- Additional copy of the most important stuff on M-Discs
Reality:
- Controlled mess on my laptop
- Dumping ground of random YT videos and CD rips on my NAS
- A well-curated external drive prepared in my pandemic free time
- An external drive with somewhat periodic backups of my devices alongside every unsorted file. I worry that some file paths have grown too long
- Duplicate of the two above on one large external drive
- Another external drive with files and backups of dubious usefulness that I refuse to delete
- An outdated copy of my documents and photos on an everyday carry microSD
- A stack of unused M-Discs
This is the one that hit home for me.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
My PC has a secondary HDD that has my files. Movies, books, comics, TV shows, random stuff, etc. It's more or less organized in their own folders.
Itβs a MESS right now.
My main computer has two partitions: Windows 10 LTSB and Windows 10 premium. I have to use Premium now due to NVidiaβs drivers not working on LTSB for likeβ¦ years. So I boot into my secondary, smaller partition. But Iβm still installing games to my first partition. Also thereβs some left over games from my LTSB install. I want to install LTSC IoT for longer support, but Iβm lazy and all it does right now is play games.
So everything used to go to my 1TB HDD, but then I bought a second 4TB HDD, so now things go to that. And I back stuff up to my like, five 1-4GB external hard drives. Also thereβs a Pi running OMV in the living room with a 5GH external, for media. That oneβs kinda messed up right now, things are glitchy when I stream from it, so I need to reinstall everything.
Then my partnerβs computer has a couple terabytes of SSD space and a single 4TB HDD. Much easier. P
I have an organised Documents folder, Pictures folder, Videos folder etc synced between my devices with Syncthing. Downloads is just for temporary things I download from the web, but I never delete anything from there, so it just builds up. I keep a backup on an external 2TB SSD
I have mine set up in groups, per hard drive.
Documents is set up for projects. Downloads gets grouped every few months and turned into a backup downloads folder on the backup hard drive.
So it goes from C:/Downloads into H:/Backups/Downloads/Downloads-11-19-2024
Every other hard drive is mostly just games, so it's set up by project and the Games with whichever launcher.
I don't have many projects that go more than 6 folders deep, most would be 4 at most
- downloads clear themselves out after 30 days
- documents has all my projects and shit
- pictures/videos has my processed stuff
- larger (slower) hard drive has my raw video and photos
- desktop has nothing, I havenβt used desktop icons in 10 years
I use plex so it files have to complay with the minimum plex naming conventions:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/
More the latter, I organise mostly by type (movies, series, music, podcasts, comics, books, photos, images etc) and use (workfiles, documents, resources, tutorials etc). There's was a whole subreddit about this, datacurator, not sure if something similar exists on Lemmy.
https://github.com/roboyoshi/datacurator-filetree
Basically doing a variant / slim version for my needs
I would advise against using dates in file/folder names for almost anything except for maybe photos and documents. Always pair with searchable keywords. Will you remember when exactly you downloaded that random picture when you wanna find it a few years later? Have fun looking through a hundred /year/month/day folders.
Omg now they're trying to profile where you keep your shit so their hackers can find your porn stash more efficiently. Don't tell them Pike!
I sort things every once in a while but eventually lose interest or patience. Would be nice to have a way to do it automatically. I suppose llms could help there, but I'm not sure if they're quite there yet in terms of reliability.
And more importantly, how do you back up your important stuff?
D: Downloads
Then the folders -
Films
TV programs
Software
- Everything inside these folders is a fucking car crash
File trees 100 folders deep but entirely in Downloads of course