I have mentioned before that I back up my computer and data often. I did not mention how I organize my computer. It is important to organize one’s computer. My husband is constantly going crazy trying to find files on his computer.
I have mentioned that I keep my data on USB flash (thumb) drives. I have one which is in my computer all the time and holds my current data - meaning this year’s and any that carries over year to year. I organize this drive by the type of file. The first folder is letters (includes Word, Word Perfect, Notepad, pdf files, etc - basically any writing), the next one is spreadsheets, then accounting program files, then databases (this is files from another dead program I use), and so on - basically by the program used for the files. Each of these folders has sub folders in it for each of the “companies” for which I have files of that type. (Companies include different businesses of my husband and myself, our personal files - one’s home and life is basically a company - clients, and clubs I belong to and have files for.)
Why do I sort the data by the type of file? Well, most programs let one specify a folder for the data from the program. Files do not have to go to My Documents. I redirect the programs to automatically save in these folders. Then when I open the program and try to open or save a file a list of the companies opens in the file window and it is easy to pick the right subfolder and find or save a file.
How to change file location - look in the drop downs from the tool bar at the top and there will be something to allow you to change things - perhaps “Preferences” or “Settings”. If you cannot find how to change the file location use your Help to look for something like “change default file location”. In Wordperfect (yes, I am odd I prefer same to Word) I would click on Tools -> Settings -> Files -> and then change the default location and save it. After doing this it will always go to this location to look for files or to save files. If you set it a folder with files in it, then the files will show at this point. If you set it to a folder of sub folders, then the sub folders will show and can easily be picked and opened.
To explain I will use Wordperfect again. I open Wordperfect and I want to open a file written in same. When I click to open a file I will have a list of the various subfolder -Personal, Business A, Business B, Club A and Club B - to choose from. Let us say that I have a written a letter complaining about a problem with our electricity. I would click on the Personal file and the letter would be in that file. So, see it is Drive H (the USB flash drive I use for data) -> Letters->Personal-> Electricity.doc. Terribly easy to find. If instead I am looking to write a letter about the electricity It is Drive H -> Letters -> Personal-> Letterhead. I write the letter. The computer will reopen the folder when I go to save the file and I will save the letter there with a name which makes sense, say “Electricity - problem with June 2016 bill”.
When I set up the folders for the type of files I ran into a problem (for me) that alphabetical order may put a rarely used file at the top of the list and a constantly used one at the end of the list. This annoyed me. I figured out to use the “magic” of numbering. Letters is actually 1 - Letters and Spreadsheets is actually 2 - Spreadsheets and so on. This way the files remain in the order I want them.
Why USB flash drives? An old saying in computer is “It is not if the hard drive will crash, but when”. By doing this I save hard drive space for what must be there as well as helping save the data (which is then further backed up as explained before). I know that USB flash drives are not the best for saving data, but they are the best available now. I started off using 5.25" floppy disks, then 3.5" floppy disks, then Zip disks and now the USB flash drives. (Each type of media had its data copied to newer media when the media changed so I still have access back to the first data I saved on floppy disk in my archive.) In addition by keeping the data on flash drives if there is a problem with my computer - say a blackout - I can pull the drive and put it any other computer - say my laptop which was charged before the blackout - and use the data on the other computer.
Now my data drive also has some folders which are special purpose - say “Items to copy next archiving” These folders are rarely used. So instead of numbering them they have ZZZ in front of the name and they automatically are listed at the end of the folders on the drive.
So I control the order of the folders - the alphabet does not.
In addition to my main data drive I have some other data drives.
My clients’ data are each kept on a separate drive. Why? Portability and privacy. I can bring the data to the client when I go to work at the client with my laptop. I don’t bring Client A’s data to Client B so privacy is maintained. I don’t have to worry about stepping away from the computer and Client A seeing Client B’s info. (Hence also why they are named A & B and not real names.)
The project that I am doing to scan in instruction books has its own flash drive so I can scan on it on any of my computers and keep working on my main computer on my data drive. Huh? I can work on my computer using my data drive and at the same time scan instruction books onto the data drive for same in my laptop.
Assorted items I have on a drive to use in our RV when traveling I keep on a drive just for that. Seems easy to figure out why I do that. I need to be able to take it with me and I don’t want to bring all my data with me.
Each data drive though has files organized in a similar manner. My clients drives have folders for each type of program. The scanned instruction books are being sorted into folders such as Bedroom, Kitchen, Outside Lights and so on. If we have two of the same item it is placed in both folders. For example a small electric drill is in Basement - power tools and also in Garage - power tools as there is am identical drill kept in each place.
So what is my point? If one organizes one’s data as one goes along in a way which is convenient and simple, one will easily be able to find needed data quickly and efficently.
Now, on my archive drive the same data which is sorted by the type of program above is instead sorted by the “company”- the opposite to how my data drive is organized. All of the personal data is in a folder marked same with subfolders of each type of data - so here Letters is the subfolder. I then have sub sub folders with the year of the data. So when the letter about the electricity is archived early next year it will be saved as Drive E (the designation for my archive drive) ->Personal -> Letters -> 2016-> Electricity - problem with June 2016 bill.
Why the difference in how the files are organized between the current data files and the archive?
The current data files are set up to work with - this is easiest when the files are sorted by the type of software used for the file so that when I go to open or save a file the main folder opens for the type of file and I just have to select the sub folder for the “company”.
The archive is used for reference of past files - so it is easiest to sort it by the “company” and then the year. Say I want to find a letter I wrote in the past - not sure which year, but around 2011. I would open the Archive -> Personal -> Letters -> 2011 and look what is there. I could then go a year ahead or back easily by just going back to the Letters folder. I know whose letter it is - a personal one - so I only need to open that folder and its subfolders.
I hope this makes some sense to you. It does to me. What matters most is that when you organize - whether computer data or your baseball card collection or your fabric - is that it is easy for YOU to find what you are looking for and YOU can do it quickly and conveniently.
Feel free to ask questions or make comments.
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