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Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

#51

Post by whizzkid »

I try to organise my hard drive as if it could die anytime.

~/Downloads: everything downloaded will be stored here. Nothing here should be backed up. Nothing here will still be important in a month. If it should, then move it to ~/Documents

~/Documents: everything here is important such as scanned documents, invoices, pdf files, settings, configurations etc. Each file is backed up somewhere else continiously.

~/src: all code goes here. Default “git pull” location. No sub folders except “test”(ease on muscle memory). No backup needed since all has remote origin as well.

~/src/test: code, git, and bash experiences goes here.

In this way, if my hard drive fails on me, i think, i will not have huge problems.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

#52

Post by SamReidHughes »

I have a folder named ~/old_home/old/old_docs/Desktop, if that helps you understand my system.

I put miscellaneous software, stuff I need to extract and build from source, random git checkouts, etc., in ~/sw. Stuff I'm working on actively goes outside that. I have ~/prefix/bin in my PATH, so I can use --prefix=$HOME/prefix.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

#53

Post by aasasd »

For PDFs, references and notes I highly recommend using an app that can assign tags―several for an item, of course. Preferably, tags themselves should be organizeable at least in a hierarchy.

You won't create a good collection of tags right away, but you'll grow and groom it over time. It's important to assign tags to new items as soon as they come in. Gradually, you'll learn what words you actually use when you're looking for something, and those will become your tags.

I can't recommend a specific app right now: I happily used one that begins with 'E' but alas it went to shit.

Also not sure about the merit of any software for tagging files. I know that some say good things about TheBrain as evolution of the mind maps idea, and that it apparently can link files in its data, so you could try that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

#54

Post by honk »

jen729w wrote: post #42
edraferi wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have no more than 10 buckets and no more than 10 categories per bucket, why not just use 0-9 for each?

I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question. Would you mind re-phrasing?

I believe edraferi is just asking why you chose to use a 1-indexing system vs a 0-indexing system. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-based_numbering

Interesting note: Dewey Decimals are zero indexing. And of course, "000" is for computer science.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

#55

Post by [deleted] »

edraferi wrote: post #28
jen729w wrote: post #20

“...surely not Dewey Decimal?” Close! Johnny.Decimal. https://johnnydecimal.com I’m Johnny. Feedback much appreciated, I’m working like a busy little bee on the site as we speak. Should have a show HN app ready in a couple of months, but I’m learning JS/React as I go so it’s taking time. :-)

If you have no more than 10 buckets and no more than 10 categories per bucket, why not just use 0-9 for each?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

#58

Post by jamesholden »

aasasd wrote: post #53

For PDFs, references and notes I highly recommend using an app that can assign tags―several for an item, of course. Preferably, tags themselves should be organizeable at least in a hierarchy. You won't create a good collection of tags right away, but you'll grow and groom it over time. It's important to assign tags to new items as soon as they come in. Gradually, you'll learn what words you actually use when you're l…

I know it's kinda pricey, and not everyone can afford it. But if you can, Evernote is actually pretty great for PDFs and tags, etc.

I didn't 'get' it for the longest time. But I moved from one country to another, and I didn't want to bring all my paperwork around with me. So I bought a scanner which can scan duplex (both sides), and a red stamp which says 'Scanned'. I digitized everything except super important things like (birth cert, etc). Tagged it, and it sits in Evernote. I've been in many situations where I am at a business or company, and someone asks for X document, and expect I have to leave to get it, but I can whip it up on my phone and mail it to them if needed.

I scan my bills, and the payment receipts, etc. I keep copies of paystubs, etc.

When I start projects I make a new folder under my existing 'Projects' notebook, and I can put everything related to it in there.

With premium, it also scans through the PDFs and can help you find things when you need them. Again, I know not everyone can afford it. Just pointing out that, if you are in a position where you can, and you could use this kind of functionality, I find it super helpful.

Last tip, use the 'Scannable' app (iOS at least). You can scan documents (very well, surprisingly!!) on the go. For example, once I got roped into signing a new contract for a phone plan. I didn't want to carry all the paperwork around all day, so at lunch I used scannable to send it all directly to my Evernote, and shredded the originals.

Not affiliated either, just a fan who likes the software.

Re: Ask HN: How do you organise your hard drive?

#60

Post by jen729w »

honk wrote: post #54
jen729w wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question. Would you mind re-phrasing?

I believe edraferi is just asking why you chose to use a 1-indexing system vs a 0-indexing system. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-based_numbering Interesting note: Dewey Decimals are zero indexing. And of course, "000" is for computer science.

https://johnnydecimal.com/concepts/what-about-00-09/

00 is where I store metadata.

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