Out with the Old,
In with the New.
Or so the saying goes.
This past week, I’ve been moving into a new computer. I always love moving into a new computer. It’s more than picking a new wallpaper, although that took longer than it should have. It’s a chance to start with a clean slate, install only the Apps I currently need, and carry over just the current data.
This time was a little different. I had accumulated nearly 1TB on my old hard drive, and the new computer has only 500GB of internal storage. That is less than 1/2 the space for my files after the OS and the Apps take their chunk.
So much data really highlighted how disorganized I had allowed everything to become. While much of the data was in its official place, a lot had just accumulated in Media Libraries, the Downloads Folder, a “To B e Filed” folder which I sweep my desktop into from time to time, and other such add-hock work folders I had allowed to multiply.
It can be a series of difficult choices about how much data to keep spinning vs. how much space to leave free for new project and media files.
For me, that’s starting with:
- An empty Media Library and re-importing very selectively
- An empty Projects folder and pulling in only the active projects
- Taking the time to untangle my ball of yarn in the active stuff
- Taking the time to organize my backups
It’s those last two that take the time. In order to be able to take a brutal “leave it behind” approach, you really have to make sure your backups are in order… just in case.
If you have one backup and something happens to the original, you don’t have a backup anymore.
[The backup is now your original.] So, you should really have at least 3 copies of everything on physically separate media – the original, and 2 backups. Ideally, one copy should be kept off-site.
I must say, it feels liberating to start with a fresh slate, to regain my focus on moving forward instead of being weighed down by all the half done projects and false starts of the past.