What's YOUR Idea of an "Ideally Organized HD?
What's YOUR Idea of an "Ideally Organized HD?"
I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. Whereas it is obvious that OSX organizes your hard drive better than anything on Windoze, especially when you consider the power derived from using Spotlight, I have been wondering exactly WHAT, WHAT does an Ideally Organized Hard Drive look like? What are it's properties? I don't mean how it should look specifically to YOU, the single user. I mean what does an ideally organized Hard Drive look like to everyone running OSX? (which is everyone). What are some of the components of a ideally organized hard drive? What does it look like/feel like? Not necessarily in order of importance, I'll start this one off:
An Ideally Organized Hard Drive Has These Properties (feel free to add your ideas):
1) All the music, documents, apps, pictures and movies go into their designated locations, just for starters. You may even want to create another main Category such as I did, and call it "All Talk & Sound FX". Here's where I stick my voice, and talk radio, and verbal jokes etc. for example.
2) There are NO identical (duplicate) files, but the thorough and profuse use of Alias files are implemented. {{{if you have duplicates, and you update the one, you necessarily have to update the other, otherwise, you don't have duplicates anymore, right? But if you use an Alias, no matter which file, original or Alias, that you update, BOTH files are updated.}}}
3) The HD is organized for EASY Backup on a daily basis: Everything new gets placed into an "Everything New" file (call it what you want) on the Desktop, then this one folder is backed up daily, saved onto an external HD, then loaded back and now actually saved onto the HD as new stuff just once a week (in accordance to #1); this is the outcome from doing a Restore from this backed-up "Everything New" folder. Everything goes into this "Everything New" folder on a daily basis; however, Applications are installed immediately whereas everything else just gets popped into the "Everything New" folder for holding.
4) Many files are annotated in the Get Info Window with easy to find key words and comments. Spotlight will do the rest my friends!
5) A DMG of the HD (a perfect Clone which is achieved using your Tiger Disk--Disk Utility) is done on a weekly basis (heck, all you have to do is launch the software at night, go to bed, have an automatic shutdown on your Mac for about 3.5 hours later (for a 23GB DMG Disk Image)). {{Note that a Restore from the "Everything New" folder must be done first!, prior to making the DMG}} When this Disk Image is made, it will have All of your Preferences, All of your newly installed applications, All of your Bookmarks, All of your new additions to iCal, All of your new Addresses, EVERYTHING, and therefore these specific folders do NOT have to be backed up **separately** by using this process as I describe.
Once a week you will Restore from this DMG (which takes an hour if you have previously verified/mounted this image), then delete the week-old Backup of the "Everything Folder", because your HD now now has all these files added to it (remember, the key here is to do a Restore from the "Everything New" folder first, before you made the most recent DMG). You can now also delete any old Disk Images that you want, because you will be making more! (I always keep 2 or 3 on hand). You can now also delete any old "Everything New" backups from your External, because you will be making more of these backups as well!
6) Your Hard Drive should utilize the copious amount of custom icons, in order to quickly spot and identify files/folders.
7) You have created shortcuts (Alias') on the HD, which point to spots on the External HD, (which is not only used for Backup as recently described) to facilitate the transfer of large files (example: AIFF's) to/from the external HD. My External HD has a working "Powerbook" folder where these files are saved to, keeping my internal HD at a bare minimum of growing size, yet the files are easily uploaded/downloaded between the external and internal, and viewed, when the External is attached (of course) to the internal.
8) The hard drive lacks any sensitive material whatsoever, i.e. passwords are kept on an external hard drive, and new ones are backed up daily to the Everything New folder. Using a free program such as Password Vault also strengthens this area of security and organization. If the Passwords are kept to an external location, and yet are easily accessed by an Alias, then they are 100% safe to reside on the External, since the External would have to be attached in order for the passwords to be read.
9) Maintenance is run routinely on the HD, using a program such as Onyx, especially before and after the disk image process. You can also schedule Onyx to run the Apple maintenance scripts automatically, when you are asleep. Also part of this maintenance would be running a program such as Disk Warrior, before and after the disk image process. Onyx and Disk Warrior go hand in hand, and although you will not "see" (visually) HOW your HD has been organized more efficiently, you will experience the benefits of using Disk Warrior (faster/more responsive), which organized your HD Directory automatically.
10) Another nice little Utility is SpeedTools, which has a great program for Defraging files. Yes, I've found that Disk Defrag does work. Point #10 does nothing for "organizing", however I make this point because Disk Defrag does indeed help your HD to run more efficiently (thus faster).
*** Ohh by the way, maybe I'm saying the following as a joke, maybe I'm not. But if you follow my suggestions above, you wouldn't be so paranoid about downloading the latest update to Tiger (or Leopard when that comes out) because the old "Archive & Install" option becomes obsolete. If you run into trouble NOW, using my methods, you now have the peace of knowing that you have a perfectly Cloned Disk Image of your valuable, ideally organized Mac HD, residing on an external drive and just waiting to be called into action! ***
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Finally, please note that I am not telling you how to organize your hard drive, I am only suggesting this as one way to do it, and the way that I do it. If you have something totally different from this, but it works for you, please post that. If you want to add to what I've said, go right ahead! But if you don't agree with something I've said, then by all means offer your own suggestion and be civil about it! Thanks!
#######
~ Vito
I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. Whereas it is obvious that OSX organizes your hard drive better than anything on Windoze, especially when you consider the power derived from using Spotlight, I have been wondering exactly WHAT, WHAT does an Ideally Organized Hard Drive look like? What are it's properties? I don't mean how it should look specifically to YOU, the single user. I mean what does an ideally organized Hard Drive look like to everyone running OSX? (which is everyone). What are some of the components of a ideally organized hard drive? What does it look like/feel like? Not necessarily in order of importance, I'll start this one off:
An Ideally Organized Hard Drive Has These Properties (feel free to add your ideas):
1) All the music, documents, apps, pictures and movies go into their designated locations, just for starters. You may even want to create another main Category such as I did, and call it "All Talk & Sound FX". Here's where I stick my voice, and talk radio, and verbal jokes etc. for example.
2) There are NO identical (duplicate) files, but the thorough and profuse use of Alias files are implemented. {{{if you have duplicates, and you update the one, you necessarily have to update the other, otherwise, you don't have duplicates anymore, right? But if you use an Alias, no matter which file, original or Alias, that you update, BOTH files are updated.}}}
3) The HD is organized for EASY Backup on a daily basis: Everything new gets placed into an "Everything New" file (call it what you want) on the Desktop, then this one folder is backed up daily, saved onto an external HD, then loaded back and now actually saved onto the HD as new stuff just once a week (in accordance to #1); this is the outcome from doing a Restore from this backed-up "Everything New" folder. Everything goes into this "Everything New" folder on a daily basis; however, Applications are installed immediately whereas everything else just gets popped into the "Everything New" folder for holding.
4) Many files are annotated in the Get Info Window with easy to find key words and comments. Spotlight will do the rest my friends!
5) A DMG of the HD (a perfect Clone which is achieved using your Tiger Disk--Disk Utility) is done on a weekly basis (heck, all you have to do is launch the software at night, go to bed, have an automatic shutdown on your Mac for about 3.5 hours later (for a 23GB DMG Disk Image)). {{Note that a Restore from the "Everything New" folder must be done first!, prior to making the DMG}} When this Disk Image is made, it will have All of your Preferences, All of your newly installed applications, All of your Bookmarks, All of your new additions to iCal, All of your new Addresses, EVERYTHING, and therefore these specific folders do NOT have to be backed up **separately** by using this process as I describe.
Once a week you will Restore from this DMG (which takes an hour if you have previously verified/mounted this image), then delete the week-old Backup of the "Everything Folder", because your HD now now has all these files added to it (remember, the key here is to do a Restore from the "Everything New" folder first, before you made the most recent DMG). You can now also delete any old Disk Images that you want, because you will be making more! (I always keep 2 or 3 on hand). You can now also delete any old "Everything New" backups from your External, because you will be making more of these backups as well!
6) Your Hard Drive should utilize the copious amount of custom icons, in order to quickly spot and identify files/folders.
7) You have created shortcuts (Alias') on the HD, which point to spots on the External HD, (which is not only used for Backup as recently described) to facilitate the transfer of large files (example: AIFF's) to/from the external HD. My External HD has a working "Powerbook" folder where these files are saved to, keeping my internal HD at a bare minimum of growing size, yet the files are easily uploaded/downloaded between the external and internal, and viewed, when the External is attached (of course) to the internal.
8) The hard drive lacks any sensitive material whatsoever, i.e. passwords are kept on an external hard drive, and new ones are backed up daily to the Everything New folder. Using a free program such as Password Vault also strengthens this area of security and organization. If the Passwords are kept to an external location, and yet are easily accessed by an Alias, then they are 100% safe to reside on the External, since the External would have to be attached in order for the passwords to be read.
9) Maintenance is run routinely on the HD, using a program such as Onyx, especially before and after the disk image process. You can also schedule Onyx to run the Apple maintenance scripts automatically, when you are asleep. Also part of this maintenance would be running a program such as Disk Warrior, before and after the disk image process. Onyx and Disk Warrior go hand in hand, and although you will not "see" (visually) HOW your HD has been organized more efficiently, you will experience the benefits of using Disk Warrior (faster/more responsive), which organized your HD Directory automatically.
10) Another nice little Utility is SpeedTools, which has a great program for Defraging files. Yes, I've found that Disk Defrag does work. Point #10 does nothing for "organizing", however I make this point because Disk Defrag does indeed help your HD to run more efficiently (thus faster).
*** Ohh by the way, maybe I'm saying the following as a joke, maybe I'm not. But if you follow my suggestions above, you wouldn't be so paranoid about downloading the latest update to Tiger (or Leopard when that comes out) because the old "Archive & Install" option becomes obsolete. If you run into trouble NOW, using my methods, you now have the peace of knowing that you have a perfectly Cloned Disk Image of your valuable, ideally organized Mac HD, residing on an external drive and just waiting to be called into action! ***
#######
Finally, please note that I am not telling you how to organize your hard drive, I am only suggesting this as one way to do it, and the way that I do it. If you have something totally different from this, but it works for you, please post that. If you want to add to what I've said, go right ahead! But if you don't agree with something I've said, then by all means offer your own suggestion and be civil about it! Thanks!
#######
~ Vito
Powerbook G4 1.33 Mhz, Mac OS X (10.4.9), 2 External HD's, 7200 RPM HD, 1Gig RAM
