Are You a Digital Pack Rat?

[mel]

OK... one thing everyone have in common here is that in one way or another, we are all computer users. Most of us have at least one computer, many of us have many computers.

If you have been using computers for years, you have either owned many or gone through several of them, accumulating over time many, many files.

I've owned a computer since 1988 and am the owner of probably more than a million computer files by now... everything from saved emails, letters, writing documents, photos, music and other digital files including in many cases programs that probably don't run on the newest machines you own.

My question is how long do you hold on to your files, where do you keep them and do you find the older files useful? Can you even open old files on the computer you own today? Do you keep multiple archived copies of older files?

The reason why I ask is that over time many of us have become the equivalent of "digital pack rats". An article on the internet recently addresses this phenomena:


Personal computers -- our jukeboxes, photo labs, accountants and film studios -- are becoming the proverbial junk drawer, scattered with scads of must-have information. Sister devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players and digital video recorders overflow with often barely a bite of spare storage.


You can read the entire article at this link. (http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Computer-Users-Are-Becoming-Digital-Pack-Rats&story_id=26602&category=datastr)

Comments anyone?

[Miulang]

Boy, is that ever the truth! Just on my computer at work, I have something like 2,500 read emails and about 30 unread (just from this morning alone)! :eek: I tend to use my computer as my digital filing cabinet . I know that you're supposed to put the emails into folders, etc. and be tidy about it, but hell, if I do that, I would never be able to find anything! So I use "find" instead and can usually get to the email I need.

If there was something I really really needed to keep, I suppose I would burn a copy into a CD. But then there's that issue of where to keep that danged thing.

Miulang

[helen]

Non-spam email I keep as well as the digital photos I have taken, of course I already archived photos from cameras I don't use any more to CD.

[craigwatanabe]

All of my stored digital files are on CD-rom that gets saved again every other month. CD's ar so cheap now it's possible. Right now I have three of those 50-pack CD-rom containers full of files. One day I'll compile all of that into a handful of DVD-Rom discs or one Blu-Ray disc (whenever they decide on a standard format)

Just when you think you've compiled everything you pick up a scanner or software to convert analog music (cassettes, LP's) into MP3. I have boxes of cassettes and records that need to be transferred as well as paper documents and photos that need scanning. Thank God I'm retired and have the time now.

[mel]

The key into being a successful digital pack rat is to 1. back-up all of your data, even archive disks for time to time, and 2. have a system where the items are easy to find when you need it. I am good at #1 but bad at #2.

I have all kinds of stuff backed up to CDs, zip discs, even older Syquest and floppy discs too. I label most of the discs with a general descriptive label, but no where can I list a thousand files on the disc without actually having to open a disc (the case for CDs) and playing it in the computer. It can be frustrating when I need to retreive a file that I archived say 2 years ago that is no longer on my main computer hard drive.

Anyone got a problem or a good system where this stuff can be easily retrieved?

[Glen Miyashiro]

I have found that storing stuff on CDs just doesn't work for me. They get lost, or I lose track of what's on which disk, or it's just too much hassle to go get the disk when I want something.

I keep all my files on my hard disk, and regularly upgrade and move my data to larger and larger disks. My most recent upgrade was to a 250 GB Maxtor, and it's about half full already.

[pzarquon]

Anyone use a backup solution like Norton Ghost? I know there's a difference between backing up your PC hard drive as is, and archiving vast amounts of data (documents, photos) without the OS, but I always wondered if those utilities could facilitate both models.

I don't mind backing up to CDs, but when I had a Mac, there was an archival utility that came with my Syquest 40MB cartridge drive that backed up documents, but also built a master database of document names and dates so that I could tell on which cartridge I'd saved which file. Of course, back then, I never could imagine filling up 40MB of space! To think now I generate single files that big...

[Glen Miyashiro]

My question is how long do you hold on to your files, where do you keep them and do you find the older files useful? Can you even open old files on the computer you own today? Do you keep multiple archived copies of older files?
Are old files useful? It depends on what kind they are.

I have text files from 20 years ago that I created on a university Unix system, and they're still useful today. Or at least, they're still readable. Whether anyone, myself included, wants to read my old college homework, is another question. I suspect that the files that are the most "useful" are my old email correspondences with friends, which are valuable to me for sentimental reasons.

Of course, there are formatting issues. My first PC word processor was something called PFS:Write, which has long since disappeared. I still have a few documents I created in that program kicking around, but I think the format is so obsolete that I'd have to extract text from the raw file before I could read it.

Software is another story; I get cold sweats every time I have to try and run an old DOS program on my WinXP box.

[craigwatanabe]

it's all in how you designate your files and folders.

Everything that's updated and on CD-rom is on my external hard drive. When I need to back up my files from my external HD I simply burn new discs with every thing in my "G-Drive contents" Sub Folder in My Computer.

I keep two previously archived cd-rom copies of all my backed up files in separate places. One is kept in a water-tight container that floats and the other is kept off site also in water tight containers. It's a good idea to date your CD-Roms with a copy date. The older CD-roms are destroyed.

But if anything else at least keep all data files on an external hard drive, just in case your computer crashes. When I go on the Internet, I keep my external hard drive turned off to keep hackers from getting into my personal stuff. An external Hard drive also allows you to move files from one computer to another quickly and easily.

[EastCoastTropics]

My question is how long do you hold on to your files, where do you keep them and do you find the older files useful? Can you even open old files on the computer you own today? Comments anyone?

I hold onto files until I gotta format my hard drive! Nah, only joke! This last time I had to format my hard drive I lost everything business-related! All the graphics I had for business cards, labels, tags, not to mention customer invoices etc! (fortunately, I also kept books of my customer invoices) And no, I nevah back up my files. Now I back up all my files and keep everything on CD's. I have CD's with stuffs on 'em that's 5 years old and I'll never use again. Just haven't had the time to delete them all.

:)

[adrian]

Since my computer is one year old, I don't have any "old" files on it.

I usually either zip them up and put them on a CD or leave them on the computer. But the problem with CDs, is that if you don't label them correctly, when you go through them later, you have to put them into your cd drive to check what's on them.

[craigwatanabe]

word of advice...Sharpie!!

[helen]

And put on the CD the date you burn it and the speed it was writen on (like 24x or 48x or 12x).

I think what Mel means by old files, are files that were originally on another computer before the one you are using now and got transferred to the current computer.

[Konaguy]

On my new computer I have a DVD+R/RW drive. I do my backups on DVD+R. So I don't have to use multiple CD +R's

[mel]

All my backup and archived files are burned to CDs, older files are still on zip discs, syquests and floppies. Some have been upgraded to CDs... I still keep the original media around though. Don't know why. I keep on making backups of the backups too, espeically those files that are still somewhat active on my computer.... they get burned to CD....

The files can be so overwhelming though. For example I have to save all of my MP3 files by themselves spread over several CDs.... ditto with all of my photo files taken with digital cameras... and several hundred more files that were scanned from older pictures over the years.... I also save files by client projects, personal projects, writings, emails, etc.... over the years, the various medias do tend to pile up.

I think even if I got DVD backup, the DVDs themselves would also pile up, though hopefully slower than the CD proliferation.

The one thing I am leary of is that we keep all of our files in one place like say a DVD or CD... and if that goes bad, you stand to lose multi-megabytes worth of stuff.... which only prompts me to make even more backups because of those kinds of fears.

Still, over the years I have found that some of the older media hold up quite well. All of my Syquest discs (the old 45MB variety) are more than 10 years old, and still play well if I connect the syquest drive to the computer. Of course I have long ago backed most of those files to zip and then later to CDs.

The problem is still finding the stuff after you archive them. I mean I just have photo CDs that are labeled basically by the month of the year from which the photos are taken.

Still have to shove the CD into the computer to see exactly what is on them as others have also mentioned.

Like it or not, I am a digital pack rat.

[mel]

Besides computer data we are also digital pack rats if we have over time accumulated large CD and DVD collections. Accumulating a large amount of music, movies and videos on digital format adds to our digital pack rattiness.

Do people with Tivo and other similar devices hold on to the digital content they recorded?

[helen]

There was a time when I kept my VHS tapes that I recorded from broadcast TV but I figured since I never watched what I recorded, I just reused them again.

[craigwatanabe]

So with even DVD-ROM getting tight on space for our mega-files, I'm considering holding off making the jump from CD-ROM to DVD-ROM until Blu-Ray technology hits the US markets. The following is from Kim Kommando's website on this storage media:

Blu-Ray Discs

Blu-ray refers to a blue-violet laser. That has a shorter
wavelength than today's red laser. So the data takes much less
space. Blu-ray discs will hold 23.3 to 54 gigabytes of data,
depending on the standard. (CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs are all the
same physical size.)

What will they do with the extra capacity? One use certainly
will be to record high-definition programming. The more data
available, the clearer the picture. Two hours of high-definition
programming will fit on a 25 GB disc.

Unfortunately, there are at least four standards for Blu-ray. Most
companies have lined up behind the original Blu-ray. Another standard,
HD-DVD, is emerging. It is backed by NEC, Toshiba and Sanyo. There are
a couple other standards, but these two look like the ones we'll have
to worry about.

Some Blu-ray consumer equipment is on the market in Japan. I expect
to see it here before long.

Should you wait? I wouldn't. No matter what, something better is always
on the horizon. I advise you to buy a burner that suits your needs.
Your needs may change in a few years. If they do, buy a new DVD burner
then. You can play the waiting game right into your grave.


Okay for me 23.3 to 54 Gb of storage is more than enough for my entire file system including my OS! If I need more than that I'll simply buy another disc and store two of em instead of two 50-pack containers of CD's.

[mel]

Establishing another standard to a media format increases not only costs (transitions from one format to another) but also the overall clutter if you already have stuff stored on older media.... I keep my original media that contain saved files and upgrade those to newer media like CD Rom or whatever. I now even use the low capacity flash cards that came with my digital cameras for basic, temporary computer storage. These cards are better for that kind of stuff vs. saving only a few pictures to.

Do any of you keep text files like news articles, editorials or even posts from this site on your local hard drive? I tend to keep a lot of text articles around that I find interesting after reading them on the internet. I also have truckloads full of PDF files on all types of subjects that I have found on the net.

Do any of you keep files on internet storage sites?

[Albert]

I scold myself over and over again about cleaning out stuff, especially jpg's that get sent to me. I look at them once and usually never again. But they are still taking up disc space. Yes, time to get out a big broom ...

(Yes, the rubbish is on a net site.)

[Linkmeister]

Backup? What means this "backup?" ;)

[adrian]

I just divide up my hard drive into multiple partitions and keep a backup of important stuff in every one (if its small enough).

I also have a "ripped" version of all of my applications (Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Macromedia Flash, Firefox and others) that I'm too lazy to keep on CDs or can't fit on them.

I'll get myself a external drive, but its kinda hard to get upgrades for a broke college student.

[helen]

I just divide up my hard drive into multiple partitions and keep a backup of important stuff in every one (if its small enough).

The only drawback to that scheme is that if your hard drive has a hardware failure all the partitions will be lost. Granted that situation has a low occurance nowadays but it can happen.

[adrian]

The only drawback to that scheme is that if your hard drive has a hardware failure all the partitions will be lost. Granted that situation has a low occurance nowadays but it can happen.
All of my components are in tip top shape for a year of strenuous work, so it'll survive.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Of the dozen-odd hard drives I've owned over the last 15+ years, I have had one failure. It was a Western Digital drive, in a Gateway 486/33 many moons ago. Norton Utilities threw up a big red Warning! window, and the drive started making a scary clacking noise - never a good thing. As I bent my head close to the case to listen to the sound, I caught a whiff of burning plastic. That was when I knew it was time to turn off the power and call tech support. With Gateway tech support on the line, I pulled the drive and checked it. One corner of the circuit board on the bottom was all blackened and partially melted. The tech immediately agreed to send me a replacement. :p

[craigwatanabe]

I used to repair hard drive "suitcases" back in the late 70's. Even by today's standards, the read/write head is so close to the spinning disk that a speck of dust can physically crash the head into the disk thus the term "crashing a hard disk" evolved.

To give you an example of how close the head is to the disk, imagine a 747 flying at 600 MPH at 2-inches off the ground.

[mel]

Of the dozen-odd hard drives I've owned over the last 15+ years, I have had one failure. It was a Western Digital drive, in a Gateway 486/33 many moons ago.

It seems that most hard drives are quite durable these days. In my years of owning computers, I've only had 2 major drive failures on 2 different computers. One was a very long time ago, when an Ehman 45 MB hard drive connected to my 1986 vintage Mac Plus experienced a catastrophic failure when it too actually smoked from the rear and lost all its data. Fortunately the drive was under warranty at the time and I got it replaced for free by the manufacturer.

The next hard drive failure occurred in my Power Mac G4 about one year after I bought it. One day the thing made this clackity clack noises and before I had time to do anything it just died. It too was a Western Digital 40GB drive. Fortunately I had a second drive already installed on the Mac, and was able to recover most of the files using the 2nd bootable drive and then replacing the original drive. Today my G4 has 2 internal drives (1 for OS X and the other for OS 9.2) and an external drive.

You can never be too careful with this stuff even though most drives are reliable. Always do a backup and if something is really important to you, make mulitiple backups /archive copies and keep a few of them off your primary residence or place of doing business too. Mechanical or electrical failures are not the only culprits to our precious digital data.

On another note, can anyone attest to the durability of our digital media storage devices such as CD and DVD ROM discs, flash media, zip discs and other media devices.

[pzarquon]

I'm reluctant to move to any flavor of writable DVD until the world gets its standards worked out. That said, the appeal is there to have that kind of capacity, now that your average 700MB CDR requires dozens of discs just to do one full drive backup.

I standardized on CDR, but I know that they're not immortal. Estimates on their lifespan have ranged widely, but since I know my storage conditions are not the laboratory ideal, I'm hoping to be able to move to The Next Big Thing within three or four years.

I've already had CDRW's "expire," and CDRs that use a painted-on or label-type cover have died when the surface peeled or chipped, so the clock is ticking...

[craigwatanabe]

Blu Ray discs

[melorama]

I'm reluctant to move to any flavor of writable DVD until the world gets its standards worked out.



The two current defacto "standards" that exist today are in such widespread use that concerns of future media obsolescence are a bit hyper-paranoid, because hardware manufacturers would be completely stupid to not support at least the *reading* of that media, being that -R and +R discs are so ubiquitous. You should be able to read DVD-R and DVD+R media with no problems in the future.

Of course, this really only applies to write-once media...I don't (and you SHOULDNT) trust re-writable media for ANY sort of long-term or critical backup tasks.

Aloha,
mel

[mel]

I standardized on CDR, but I know that they're not immortal. Estimates on their lifespan have ranged widely, but since I know my storage conditions are not the laboratory ideal, I'm hoping to be able to move to The Next Big Thing within three or four years.

I've already had CDRW's "expire," and CDRs that use a painted-on or label-type cover have died when the surface peeled or chipped, so the clock is ticking...

All of my backups and archives are now standardized on CDs too. Over the short time I have been doing this (since 2001; prior to that I was archiving to zip, syquest and even floppy discs) I too have noticed that CDs are not as durable as they are claimed to be. I've had a few of them die on me, which is kind of a concern, as I'd like to find something that is really good for long term, non-deteriorating storage/archive.

I've used CD/RW discs only once and am not very impressed with them.

On the other hand, most of the music CDs that I have accumulated in the last 15 years or so are as good as they are when first purchased. I think I've only had about 2 or 3 of them fail on me. How are your music CDs holding up? How old is your oldest music CD?

My 3 oldest music CDs were purchased in 1987 and they still play fine today.... Paul McCartney & Wings "Band on the Run", Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" and Hiroshima's "One World".

What about DVDs? It seems the movie and TV DVDs I buy will last for a very long time. However I have some anxiety about whether or not future hardware will be able to play and display the discs that I have today. I keep on reading about new DVD and TV standards that to me makes me worry that the money I spent on the many DVDs I already have will be wasted as future gear may not be able to play them. :confused:

Let's hope the music, movie and electronic hardware industry can continue with new developments while still maintaining backward compatibility with the media we have today.

[helen]

What about DVDs? It seems the movie and TV DVDs I buy will last for a very long time. However I have some anxiety about whether or not future hardware will be able to play and display the discs that I have today. I keep on reading about new DVD and TV standards that to me makes me worry that the money I spent on the many DVDs I already have will be wasted as future gear may not be able to play them. :confused:


Good question, I noticed that the DVD players don't last that long. I'm on my 2nd player. I have a friend who is her 4th DVD player.

[craigwatanabe]

you gotta tell your kids that the DVD player isn't a toaster for poptarts. Da crumbs mess up the electronics. :eek: