How do you manage files?

[audinue]

When I wasn't connected to the internet, I only have approx. 42,281 files in 13 GB.

But currently I had 327,434 files in 312 GB (too many leeching ) and my disk free space is only about 1 GB

This problem leads me to using Indexing Service, since I always searching for files/installer just because I always forget the location

Please give me suggestions of how to manage files. The tools, the way you organize, making directories, etc.

Thank you.

[glo]

Strict discipline:
I never get things I don't need, I never keep things I don't need anymore.
I never install bloated software, and would rather find smaller alternatives.
In general, my arsenal is rather minimalistic.

As for sorting the things I have:
I arrange things in folders, nice and pretty.
I will normally install software to my C partition and use my D partition to store data and useful files (including a clean backup image of drive C so when things go nasty I can get a fresh start).

[Elysia]

Simply organize the directories in categories, and what you need.
Games, movies (possibly cartoon, anime, real, whatever), software, etc.
And above all, rename the downloaded files to a better description and you shall have no problems finding them.

If you must spread data out all over many partitions and such, create a single directory on one drive that contains the "categories" and create soft/hard links to your files from there.

[audinue]

Simply organize the directories in categories, and what you need.
Games, movies (possibly cartoon, anime, real, whatever), software, etc.
And above all, rename the downloaded files to a better description and you shall have no problems finding them.

If you must spread data out all over many partitions and such, create a single directory on one drive that contains the "categories" and create soft/hard links to your files from there.

Categories seems ineffective.

For instance, if we had categories:

Internet
  -- Mail Clients
    -- Clients
    -- Servers
  -- IRC
    -- Clients
    -- Servers
    -- Bots
  -- Browsers
    -- Extensions

Of course we can put Firefox in Browsers.
But how about Opera? Since it is a Browser, an IRC Client and a Mail Client.

[Elysia]

Categories seems ineffective.

For instance, if we had categories:

Internet
  -- Mail Clients
    -- Clients
    -- Servers
  -- IRC
    -- Clients
    -- Servers
    -- Bots
  -- Browsers
    -- Extensions

Of course we can put Firefox in Browsers.
But how about Opera? Since it is a Browser, an IRC Client and a Mail Client.

You are trying to categorize too far. The filenames play a role, as well.
Break them up in big categories, and give them a proper name. Then you can just search that directory for the proper name.

[stevesmithx]

This problem leads me to using Indexing Service, since I always searching for files/installer just because I always forget the location

If you are using NTFS, "Everything" might help.

[abachler]

I keep everything I download on an externl drive in a folder called /Downloads/

Its slow to acces it with so many entries in the directory, but at least I know where everythign is.

[mike_g]

This problem leads me to using Indexing Service, since I always searching for files/installer just because I always forget the location

For installers its simple, just delete when done with and re-download them again when necessary. For files you could write a script.

Today I had to make a script to move 110k+ images from a directory to various other ones. Took me about an hour to knock something up in python. Took about 4 hours for the script to run, but thats a different story. Anyway a simple way to sort them would be by extension type. If you at lest know a base directory to work off you could copy files of a certain type to another directory. If you have made a mega mess though you would probably be best off doing it by hand.

[CodeMonkey]

Yes, but they're all "applications," which is distinct enough from "documents" "pictures" and "videos."

[VirtualAce]

Since internet downloads are usually the source of bloat I place all downloads in a separate folder. Each download also is inside it's own folder in this download folder. For video game and/or driver patches each patch is placed in Downloads/Patches/<name_of_game> or Downloads/Patches/Drivers/<product_or_device>/<driver_revision>.

All of my code and development is in a folder with each project having its own folder. I also have development asset folders for models, textures, sounds, etc for each game project as well as folders that contain various versions and builds of the graphic engine I'm using. All of this is managed via Subversion and I use WinMerge as my merge tool.

As long as you separate everything into folders with clear names you should be ok. The common file dialog in Windows supports all the functionality of Explorer. I use this to create folders on the fly from within the common file dialog that pops up asking you where to place your download. This helps me organize before I download the file in question.

The only areas that are 'messy' are Windows, My Documents, and some other common Windows folders that every application and game wants to put their crap in. The registry is also probably quite messy but every registry cleaner I've used has been 'too good' and ends up hosing it somehow.

[abachler]

The registry is also probably quite messy but every registry cleaner I've used has been 'too good' and ends up hosing it somehow.

Yeah thats been the problem since day 1. Every application thinks its settings are so globally important as to warrant placing them in the registry rather than a local settings file. Very few things are of such importance. Font settings, primary language, physical location fo the users MyDocuments folder, but certainly not all teh crap that most applications put in there, and magically dont remove when they uninstall.

I spent an hour and a half helping a friend manually clean his registry over a VNC connection last night, you woudln''t believe some fo the crap these applications put in there, and leave behind. ........ like the companies web address...

My personal viewpoint is that unless its something that some other piece of software THAT ISN"T MADE BY YOUR COMPANY will need to know, it doesn't belong in the registry.

[audinue]

Yeah thats been the problem since day 1. Every application thinks its settings are so globally important as to warrant placing them in the registry rather than a local settings file. Very few things are of such importance. Font settings, primary language, physical location fo the users MyDocuments folder, but certainly not all teh crap that most applications put in there, and magically dont remove when they uninstall.

I spent an hour and a half helping a friend manually clean his registry over a VNC connection last night, you woudln''t believe some fo the crap these applications put in there, and leave behind. ........ like the companies web address...

My personal viewpoint is that unless its something that some other piece of software THAT ISN"T MADE BY YOUR COMPANY will need to know, it doesn't belong in the registry.

I think you'll need to use Altiris Virtualization Solution to keep your registry clean. You'll install and run 3rd parties applications inside AVS and then changes into registry and files will be forwarded into virtual system.

[audinue]

You are trying to categorize too far.
... Break them up in big categories ...

Any example of global categories name?

[Elysia]

Applications, movies, games, software
If you have lots of movies or games or software, you can put another category under it.
Make up categories in times of need.

[audinue]

Mmm... how about throwaway codes, peoples libraries, and downloaded examples-codes?
Do we need to archive them?