ELM Bulletin - June 30, 2008
Data Management
Hard disk drives (HDD) are larger and cheaper today than ever. With 500 Gb external units now sold for $150.00 (or even less!) there is no apparent reason not to save everything you can. But, as has been said, with greater storage comes greater responsibility...to store wisely. In this month's ELM Bulletin we will give you some pointers on how best to organize your vast data deposits for quick and efficient retrieval.
1 - Organization - One of the best ways to ensure easy access to your data is to organize it in a way that makes sense. Some people organize their data like a library, using multiple folders and numbering schemes like the Dewey Decimal System or save everything in alphabetical order in a single folder.
Other ideas include:
A) Store all documents of a specific type or genre in their own folder.
B) Sort all documents in a single folder by creation date, project or level of importance.
C) Save client data in a separate folder for each client and using descriptive names such as:
client name - project name - yyyymmdd.
D) Save all photos for a given year in their own folder and using sub-folders for major events such as weddings or vacations.
E) Save music is stored in a single folder and using names like:
artist name - album name - track number - track name
The important thing is to use a system and stick with it.
2 - Indexing - Even using the best organizational methods it can be time consuming to find a document. Enter programs such as Google Desktop Search (my personal favourite) or Windows Search. These programs run continuously on your computer to create an index of all data on your HDD and allow you to search the index for specific words or phrases. Boolean, or logical, searches are also possible and permit you to further narrow down your results.
3 - Management Software - Geared more towards music and photo collections, management software acts as a "front end" to your data and provides views of your data with varying levels of detail. Picasa, for photos, and Windows Media Player, for music & video, use information encoded into the photo or music file to provide enhanced management features. Windows Explorer, found on all current Windows based computer, includes a search function which allows you to locate a file within a folder or group of folders quite easily. The benefits of such software is that you no longer have to hunt through computer looking for a file, and they provide the ability to present your data as your needs require.
4 - Data Security - Of course, even the best data management methods will do no good if the data to has been lost or compromised. Regular backups and proper security practices are important to protect your data and the time you spent collecting it. Please refer to the March 31, 2008 ELM Bulletin to learn more about backups and to the April 30, 2008 ELM Bulletin to learn more about computer security.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this or any other issue.
Past ELM Bulletins are available from our website, please forward them to anyone you wish.
Peter Rhebergen Telephone |
Websites & Publications Product Websites |
.jpg)
