Is it just me, or is it much easier to hoard digitally?
I’m running out of memory on my laptop. I keep everything. I have music I’ve never listened to and ebooks I’ve never read. I have every worship service I’ve ever led and every PowerPoint I’ve ever bored people with.
I have 2 external drives with plenty space but the temptation is just to copy everything over and end up with another hard drive full of rubbish I’ll never use.
I know it’s easier to start from scratch but that’s not a reality. I have years worth of stuff that sometimes comes in handy… and years worth of stuff that never has.
Tell me, how do you decide what digital stuff to bin and what to keep? Or should I get some kind of digital maid to come and spring clean?
Haha,
I have plenty of junk too! Thousands of photos, hundreds of powerpoints, countless word files…its crazy! If you find a digital maid, pass me on the details!
call me lazy but I just bought a 1.5Tb external drive and copied everything on to that. I figured it’d give my executors something to do whilst they tried to sort out my debts …
Leo, I’m sitting here with the Maplin catalogue next to me…
Nah, not the Maplin catalogue (although there is the odd bargain to be had).
I recently installed a 2TB RAID system server at home because my previous server was getting a bit full. Loads of space and a bit of data security into the bargain.
other suggesed outlets would be most welcome John.
http://www.dabs.com (components and storage -> hard drives) can be good for prices. Certainly good for variety and choosing what you want. Then, when you know what you are looking for, Amazon, of course. Also worth checking EBuyer (delivery can be a bit slow).
Even check for deals on PCWorld.
Maplin, like PCWorld, have the advantage that you can pitch up at the shop if there is a problem, but it tends to be only their ‘sale’ items that get close to online prices.
I think my suggestions got caught by your spam filtering.
For me it’s not a case of deciding what to delete and what to keep, it’s a case of deciding what to keep accessible and what to archive.
I back all files up to an external drive so I always have it just in case. I then filter through pictures and keep my favourites or most likely to be useful on my main computer and ditch the rest. I keep a few of my most likely to be repeated ppt’s and workshop movies and ditch the rest.
I tend to keep any writing/office docs because they are so small anyway and I’ve narrowed my music library down to anything I’ve rated 2 stars or more or might use in a workshop.
I clear out emails and sent items especially large attachments every 6 months.
I’m quite ruthless because I know I have an archive copy anyway. I’ve not come close to filling my external drive yet and I can generally find things quickly from the archive via meta data searches so it works for me.