Mini-Tut: Full Hard Drive and No Clue Where to Find Anything

[Ghost Fox]

I just received a PM from a fellow BBHF member with a full hard drive and no clue where to find anything. Taking a page from Layna’s book (pun intended :) I turned my reply into a mini tutorial.

When I first began downloading I had the same challenge. You find a link or a large collection of files you REALLY want before they disappear and no time to properly catalog them.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find an alternative for manually organizing my downloads. However, it’s good practice for self discipline and I can offer a few helpful tips:

1. If you’re using a PC, download the free version of TreeSize so you can Sort your largest collections first and Purge duplicates:

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free?ca=1

2. Look at the categories used by the site from which you download. BBHF can be a bit challenging since you’ll need to find clues in the description. However, if it’s a Udemy course for example, they give amazing detail in their taxonomy.

3. Courses seem to be the most popular, largest and useful followed by plr, graphics and audio; you may want to keep them in separate areas.

4. You may also want to list them by title, creator, price then category and where you found them. At times, this makes some of the file paths too long so you can easily store them as a compressed file with (7Zip); though I’m currently looking for compression alternatives that don’t use 90%-100% of my CPU.

Let me know and I’ll be happy to help more if able.

[GordonShumway]

Hi

If you are on a PC, then go here to get the Free Software called "Everything".

Magic Button :

https://www.voidtools.com/

I have over 60 TB of storage and have been collecting for many years. This little app is open every day, all day for me. Just type in what you are looking for and it will show you exactly where it is on your drive(s).

You can then open the File/Folder OR Right Click it and open the source folder (other options available).

This little Gem has saved my sanity many times and I have been using it for many years.

100% Free, no optin to get it.

Cheers,

G.S.

[discomix]

Nice inputs mates for organizing your digital assets and find them fast! Thanks mate

[chinnu]

OK. Let me share my hard earned wisdom. I hope it would be useful.

Two right things to do

One fundamental point I missed- however rudimentary and basic may be- start with a structure and a system- based on your own needs and desires and capacities.

Follow it consistently and keep improving.

The mistakes I did is ( Please don't do this)
1) I treated terabytes as to storing/dumping ground.
2) I assumed in future I will do arrangement, which I never did. I keep adding terabytes as the costs become cheaper.
3) I did not prune the downloads on regular basis, thus I know I am carrying material that I am not going to use ever and I don't know now how to do so. Delete regularly. We know most content in IM is regurgitated ones- with real gems are few and far.
4) I wish I opened even just once for some of them ( The biggest mistake ever)
5) I wish I also labelled books at least completely and appropriately as one book I wanted was shared by one of our members, and given my interest, I am sure I would have downloaded, but till day I could not get that book from anywhere.

Thanks Ghost Fox and Gordon for your inputs.

I really hope others do add their workings, processes, tools, inputs and ideas, their lessons learnt, standard operating procedures, etc. Anything that would enrich all of us so as to solve this problem, or at least manage. Better if we even can prevent.

[chinnu]

OK. Let me share my hard earned wisdom. I hope it would be useful.

Two right things to do

One fundamental point I missed- however rudimentary and basic may be- start with a structure and a system- based on your own needs and desires and capacities.

Follow it consistently and keep improving.

The mistakes I did is ( Please don't do this)
1) I treated terabytes as to storing/dumping ground.
2) I assumed in future I will do arrangement, which I never did. I keep adding terabytes as the costs become cheaper.
3) I did not prune the downloads on regular basis, thus I know I am carrying material that I am not going to use ever and I don't know now how to do so. Delete regularly. We know most content in IM is regurgitated ones- with real gems are few and far.
4) I wish I opened even just once for some of them ( The biggest mistake ever)
5) I wish I also labelled books at least completely and appropriately as one book I wanted was shared by one of our members, and given my interest, I am sure I would have downloaded, but till day I could not get that book from anywhere.

Thanks Ghost Fox and Gordon for your inputs.

I really hope others do add their workings, processes, tools, inputs and ideas, their lessons learnt, standard operating procedures, etc. Anything that would enrich all of us so as to solve this problem, or at least manage. Better if we even can prevent.

[GetStuffDone]

I feel ya

I had done it for years. Download. Download. Download. And it all went crazy

So here is my system. I put everything in one folder. Everything.

There i divided it all by topics

So for example

Copywrting - Carlton

Copywriting - Kennedy

Email - Carlton

So know when i look for sth i can see every author i have on email.

Every author i have on lead gen

Every author i have on wealth, success and so on

And because all the authors are in the same folder it helps to switch between different people but stay in the same topic, then switch to another topic plus i use search bar which helps me to find things faster in that folder.

It took me weeks to organize it.

Now i have to organize my swipe file and its still a challenge for me.

You know thousands of ads and web pages what the hell i was thinking about when i downloaded all that swipe

[v555]

I fully endorse Everything from VoidTools. I have been using it for more than a decade and could not live without it for even a single day. So useful.

It is one of the very few tools I install invariably FIRST in my computer whenever a fresh installation of Windows is to be done.

Everything is incredibly useful, but even before that, I prefer installing MetaClick [ http://yoy.be/metaclick.html ] - it has probably saved me from developing carpal tunnel syndrome. [ Open Source on GitHub: https://github.com/stijnsanders/tools/tr.../MetaClick ]

Though I said 'install' , both of these do not need installation, both can be used standalone.

And of course, I come to know about such elegant programs from the wonderful site https://www.snapfiles.com/ which I have been referring to almost regularly for more than 2 decades !

[ I believe mentioning MetaClick is not off-topic here since it is a general tool that can help in avoiding dozens of manual mouse-clicks per day while searching a Hard Drive that is Full. ]

[bearhugger]

I simply create a folder with topic of interest right on the desktop (if you are using windows). Any download goes to the desired topic folder and if one does not exist, just create a new one. If you want to find anything you downloaded, just type the name of the topic or word within the download, in windows search box, and the result(s) will be displayed on the desktop. If you do not want too many folders on the desktop, create just one and all new folders you create, with appropriate descriptions, go inside the one general folder.