Backups and Minimizing
This morning and afternoon, I spent some time archiving and organizing my backup hard drives. This is a process I don't enjoy and one that I'm not adept at. My process is like this: often while procrastinating from doing something productive, I find myself anxiously poking around in my computer's folders, wondering if I backed up that document and this document, and if the backup is backed up, all while hoping none of my hard drives ever fail me.
My Macbook laptop contains two hard drives. The primary drive or 'main' drive, runs the operating system. I use this drive to work, write, browse the internet, and run audio editing software. The second drive contains storage for audio, photo and video projects I am working on.
I have four external hard drives of varying capacity and speed. Two drives are used for backup of documents, photos and videos, while another two are used for audio backup. In addition to these drives, I have three thumb drives for handily storing my music and sample libraries.
The work I completed today consisted of moving some documents around, renaming files and folders and deleting redundant files. I downloaded freefilesync, an openware file managing app which can compare two folders, identify the differences in files, and add the missing files to the second folder. This will help enormously as I was previously managing this by 'eye'. I prefer not to use a backup app, such as Time Machine, as I haven't found one that suits my needs best.
I have poor data organizational habits; this is an area I struggle in. I did some Google and Reddit researching. I have to see how other people do it, then consider what is best for my needs and create my own system.
Goals for this project:
To create a simple, easy-to-use method of organizing, archiving and backing up my digital media, thus minimizing my digital footprint.
Minimizing has been on my mind lately. With some time off from work during the holidays, I've found myself minimizing clothes, books, papers, and now digital files. When something is becoming a source of anxiety and distress, it's time to minimize. To me, minimizing means simplifying (and sometimes procrastination).
KW
Written Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021