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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?

#201

Post by laumars »

janci wrote: post #92
laumars wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest regressions in modern browsers is how they all automatically download to the Downloads folder. I really miss the dialogue you used to get where you’d get asked where you’d want to save the file (im aware you still get that if you right click and go “save as” but that’s not always possible with some sites).

You can disable auto download in settings of Chrome, Firefox and many other browsers. You get the Save dialog then. On the other hand, I like that all stuff goes to Downloads and you can handle it with your favourite file manager that is much better than zhe default save dialog.

> On the other hand, I like that all stuff goes to Downloads and you can handle it with your favourite file manager that is much better than zhe default save dialog.

You still get to handle it with a file manager with the dialog, only with the added bonus that you don't have to manually launch it, navigate to where it's been auto-downloaded to, then cut and paste it to where you actually wanted it.

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

#202

Post by laumars »

kakarot wrote: post #116
laumars wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest regressions in modern browsers is how they all automatically download to the Downloads folder. I really miss the dialogue you used to get where you’d get asked where you’d want to save the file (im aware you still get that if you right click and go “save as” but that’s not always possible with some sites).

It's not a regression. It's a more sensible default which makes the general user happy, but the power user can have more control if they wish.

You'd be amazed at just how often I've seen people question where stuff gets downloaded to - or even if it had downloaded - with the current defaults. It's not actually that clear to most "general users" what's happening nor where the files go (though Chrome UI is a little better than Firefox in that regard).

I'm not saying there shouldn't be a Downloads folder nor that it shouldn't be the default location. I'm just saying having download there without a prompt is a step backwards in my personal opinion.

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

#203

Post by laumars »

leetcrew wrote: post #141
laumars wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest regressions in modern browsers is how they all automatically download to the Downloads folder. I really miss the dialogue you used to get where you’d get asked where you’d want to save the file (im aware you still get that if you right click and go “save as” but that’s not always possible with some sites).

maybe it's just because it works well with my downloading "workflow", but I find it a reasonable default. most of the files I download are installers that will soon be out of date or blank forms that I need to fill out and return once. the rare important file will be quickly moved to a permanent location. everything else gets deleted once every month or so, and it's convenient for these ephemeral files to all be in o…

My workflow could probably be described as the exact opposite of that. Nearly everything that gets downloaded needs to be archived off somewhere and might be called upon again months later.

Being a Linux user, the closest thing I have to downloading installers is either user repositories (which are handled by the package manager) or version controlled (typically git). So browser downloads is only generally stuff that matters.

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

#204

Post by jen729w »

Moyamo wrote: post #144
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. :-)

The problem I'd have with that is that I'd never be able to commit to a fixed set of areas or categories since the type of work I do is constantly evolving. Plus I've always had trouble creating mutually exclusive categories. What works well for me is to keep all things I'll need soon in the top level of my documents folder and when I'm done with it I move it into an archive folder. This way my documents folder has f…

That can certainly be an issue, yes. It's not one I personally have come across yet as I tend to have quite distinct 'domains' that don't change much.

At work, I'm a contractor and I typically spend 1-3 years on a project. Each gets its own system, nice and simple.

My home system has 10-19 capturing all of my 'personal, daily life' which leaves plenty of areas for my personal projects. For instance, 50-59 is Johnny.Decimal itself.

So far I've implemented JD:

- Managing a 2 year contemporary dance production, multiple locations, staff, ticketing, marketing, etc.

- Consolidating 200+ data centres in to 7; I did basically all of the hardware from procurement to having a green light on a NIC.

- Running an infrastructure upgrade project for a major bank.

- Running 2nd level desktop support for an international packaging company.

- My personal life, including managing the limited company that I contract through.

I plan on anonymising and documenting as many of these cases as I can on the site. I just need to find the time.

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

#205

Post by jen729w »

egypturnash wrote: post #186
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. :-)

Chunking stuff into sets of ten is a good idea, memorizing the arbitrary numbers I’m not so sure about, but... “An important restriction of the system is that you’re not allowed to create any folders inside a Johnny.Decimal folder.” WHAT WHY Like let’s say I’m using your example structure and I am working on a new marketing campaign. With a ton of moving parts to it - new logos to make, contracts to sign and save, we…

Ha! Well...

Your use-case needs a bit more thought, and doesn't fit the simple "marketing" example on the website. But that's the beauty of my system – it forces you to actually think about your business, about how you arrange things. It makes you deconstruct it in your mind in order to create that model. I personally find that very instructive in and of itself.

"Hundreds of files for each campaign" is clearly something that needs to be managed. If you're interested in exploring a JD solution for it, I'd be very happy to help. This is all great experience for me, and the more I know about how other people use this system, the better I can make it overall.

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

#206

Post by jen729w »

MildlySerious wrote: post #196
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. :-)

How do you handle old files, if you don't mind me asking? My document directory has the year at the root level, i.e. ~/Documents/2018/billing/projectname which is nice in so far that you don't have to scan through files and folders that stopped being relevant.

Because the ID is incremental, old stuff naturally sorts itself.

For example, I have '16 Travel' as a category. I make a new JD number for each trip I take and create Finder & email folders. Order details and PDFs tend to live there.

16.01 was, let me look ... a trip to Perth in 2012. And my latest, 16.31, just happened. But of course my '16 Travel' folder sorts like:

  16.01 Trip to Perth to see Bart
  16.02 
  16.03 
  ...
  16.29
  16.30
  16.31 Hunter Valley, Xmas '18
- so those old trips just kind of hide themselves away. My eye only ever looks at the most recent stuff, and all of the recent things sit near each other. It just works.

This also has the advantage in that you don't need to remember which year a thing was in. They're all there, visible.

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

#208

Post by prasanthmj »

I survived more than 3 hard-drive failures/system failures over the years without losing my data. My system setup helped in the survival so this might help. I had desktops and laptops that died, crashed or otherwise became unusable. The data survived. Here is what I do: I have three categories of files: (1) small, very important files (source codes, scripts, articles, notes, documents) (2) large but important files (photos & videos, Virtual Machine images ) (3) unimportant files (downloads, temporary files, screen captures) 3 main folders are setup for each category. Category 1 is backed up to (1) a cloud based continuous back up service (crashplan) (2) gitlab as part of version control (3) local external HDDs daily Category 2 is backed up to (1) crashplan and (2) local external HDDs Category 3 is never backed up. Having a copy in local external HDDs helps in quick recovery.

Organising the hard drive keeping a unexpected crash in mind helps in quick recoveries.

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

#209

Post by SeaDude »

Ubuntu 18.04

ASUS ROG G750JZ lappie

2x-256GB SSD RAID 0

LUKS FDE using LVM - /boot/efi: 512M - /boot: 488M - /: 460G - /SWAP: 15G

1x-1TB HDD

RAID:

  /home almost exclusively .folders.

  /home/documents/

  Every  is a private git repo

  /home/documents is my only VS Code Workspace

  Everything is markdown with yaml frontmatter.

  Everything possible is a snippet.

  All screenshots are pasted into an .md file. The VS Code extension places each at /project/assets. 

  All photos and videos are taken and stored on phones.
Backed up to external drives every 6 months or so.

  /home/Desktop is empty, /home/Downloads gets emptied often
HDD: unused

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

#210

Post by TeMPOraL »

jen729w wrote: post #204
Moyamo wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I'd have with that is that I'd never be able to commit to a fixed set of areas or categories since the type of work I do is constantly evolving. Plus I've always had trouble creating mutually exclusive categories. What works well for me is to keep all things I'll need soon in the top level of my documents folder and when I'm done with it I move it into an archive folder. This way my documents folder has f…

That can certainly be an issue, yes. It's not one I personally have come across yet as I tend to have quite distinct 'domains' that don't change much. At work, I'm a contractor and I typically spend 1-3 years on a project. Each gets its own system, nice and simple. My home system has 10-19 capturing all of my 'personal, daily life' which leaves plenty of areas for my personal projects. For instance, 50-59 is Johnny.D…

To clarify: for all those activities you listed, you used a separate JD system for each, or were they all within the same system?

I really like this idea, and am reading through the site right now, and my main fear is that I'll quickly run out of top-level categories.

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