Who has gone out and bought a bigger hard drive because the one you have is just far too small? Me too. Except that mine was bought with a specific purpose in mind, not just because I had too much stuff and not enough space.
Every six months I back up every inch of information onto several CDs. The amount of disc space needed for each backup is becoming progressively more, and this makes backing up both desktops and a laptop a bit of a pain.
Going back to CDs labelled "June 05" and finding a particular varsity assignment because now the ubiquitous authorities want it for something-or-other becomes a pain. Add that to the fact that even CDs don`t live forever and I had a problem on my hands.
So, I got clever. I went along to the local PC shop and bought a hard drive big enough to take 25 CDs. Then - me thinks - I`ll just drop the CDs onto the new drive, sort them out, and backup onto DVD.
That was several months ago.
The paperless age
So far, I`ve dropped all 25 CDs onto the drive. I`ve managed to move contents around and file then in folders named - intelligently I think - picture library, varsity, and on we go.
The amount of disc space needed for each backup is becoming progressively more, and this makes backing up both desktops and a laptop a bit of a pain.
Nicola Mawson, senior journalist, ITWeb
I have not, however, managed to take duplications out of the equation. So, there are still several duplicates of my wedding pics, yet to be neatly stuck into a physical album. And, I am no closer to finding that elusive assignment.
The sad thing is there are tools available for dealing with information. There`s Microsoft`s Explorer, there`s the Google picture tool that finds every picture on your machine and lets you view them as thumbnails, and others that I have yet to come across.
What I need, however, is a hybrid. Something that allows me to view pictures, without hanging, and then allows me to compartmentalise those pictures into newly-created folders.
Which would solve the jpg issue, but not help with all the written stuff on the machine. I`m getting there, but opening every single thing before deciding where to file it is a bit time-consuming. It would be quicker if I stopped reading everything, admittedly, but not much.
And now, the question I am asking is: "Do I really need all this stuff?" Guaranteed, if I format that drive, I`ll need it, just like that piece of paper I threw out yesterday.
Share