Why keep so much stuff?

[realitystops]

I have just been reading a few threads and without meaning to I realised that so many of the problems/moans/gripes etc etc. seemed to boil down to wanting to keep lots and lots of info.

Now I understand photographs & videos take a lot of space for not a lot of substance but.

I don't get masses of email storage 1,2,8 years worth or documents(type unknown) again year s worth.

Legal stuff, tax stuff excluded what do people want 1TB of storage for? in precise filing systems, with search facilities with GOOGLE like capabilities?

Sometimes even regular photo. collections are deemed unusable in one system but wonderful in an-other.

At its most prolific my business, all legal stuff stayed at my solicitors, tax stuff with an accountant with what few emails required being kept year on year when each was signed off by the relevant authority.

Customer files (5,000 ish) on simple data base. Customer emails in MAIL folders.

Images referenced to said data system and stored in one or two BRIDGE readable file blocks.

All backed up to a biggish NAS.

I think what I am getting at is there did not seem to be a requirement for any specific software product or system to make it all work together without my continuous interference and adjust meant and hassle.

Why do so many people find complication where I see none or little?

 

[GGJstudios]

Everyone's information needs are different. To one, who only use email for personal communication, keeping a handful of emails may be appropriate. To another, who uses email for business, keeping 10+ years worth of emails with attachments may be required for business purposes. The same is true for any kind of data: needs vary by user.

The best you can do is determine what works best for you, and don't worry about what others choose to do, since their choices don't affect you.

 

[r0k]

On my work-issued PC, I have a 250GB SSD. Company policy about deleting old files makes it easy to stay just over half full. On my home MBP, I have a 750 GB SSD. It's about 2/3 full. A lot of it is photos. iPhoto Library grows out of control with Photostream pushing every photo I take to it automagically. I then have to step in about once a quarter and export, delete import (reference only) photos to keep the thing from becoming half a terabyte on its own. I keep one version of Xcode around and that can blow 5 gig or more. I have a modest music collection that is in the hundreds of megabytes. Movies run about 800 GB but are kept on firewire and NAS drives. I honestly thought about putting in a 250 GB SSD but decided I would wait until the 750 GB became "affordable" and when the Samsung EVO 840 series came out, it wasn't long before I jumped.

Yes I could be a lot more disciplined about storage but my Mac is supposed to be a "data toaster" and the less I have to think about it the better. I wouldn't want it dumbed down nearly as much as iOS but I'm definitely looking for the admin workload that comes with either Linux or Windows. So call it "laziness" if you like but I'll keep buying the largest storage I can afford at the time because this allows me to do my "clean ups" quarterly or semi-annually or even annually rather than every week (or every DAY if I'd opted for that tiny 250 GB SSD) .

 

[sonicrobby]

I like all my stuff digital. I have 50GB of photos alone, and all of my dvds and bluerays have been converted and take up 500GB. The more I buy the more storage I will need.

Also video games arent light. Each game can easily be around 10GB, and if its an open source online game (such as counterstrike and Garrys mod) new maps, player models, soundpacks, all of these things add up. People's lifestyles are different, and sometimes 1TB still isnt enough.

 

[glenthompson]

I have about 1.5 terabytes of media files (music, movies, books) stored on my NAS. I move those to my MBP as needed when traveling. My MBP currently has about 300gb used. My Aperture libraries are the biggest piece of that. I also keep a large collection of books and similar on it.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I have around 30 TB of available storage, my Mac Pro consists of one 250 GB SSD for the OS an applications, one 2 TB HDD for temporary downloads and similar stuff, four 3 TB HDDs filled with media (films, video, photographs) and music and application repositories and so on.

I am a videographer so to speak, and when I shoot 1080p video on a better camera, I can easily get 500 GB of footage.
I have 1 TB of footage for one project shot with two cameras, I have 700 GB of 2K to 5K footage ranging from 24 to 300 fps, I have 450 GB of footage from my last three camera shoot, I have another 1.2 TB of a 3 camera shoot from last year (same project) and have several 100s of GBs of recorded footage from other shoots.
Ideally that is stored at least twice, really ideally thrice.

Then there are the master export files from my compositing and editing applications, which again can range from 5 GB to 60 GB, again, backed up at least twice.

Video data amounts easily to several TBs, six years ago I shot a comedy series in Standard Definition and the four to eight cameras amounted to 12 TB of highly compressed footage, which meant, if we would have captured with the ideal codec, it would have been easily 70 to 100 GB of storage.

Just because you do not have the need for a lot of data storage capacities, does not mean others should not.

Hell, even my 25 to 30 TB of available storage capacity is sometimes measly for my needs and I could easily use 50 or more TBs.

 

[realitystops]

I Knew I had said it Wrong

I did however mention the high storage needs of Video and Photographs.

Setting these aside and libraries for research institutions etc. etc..

I think I was directing my question (not statement) towards the domestic/single user with a busy normal life in todays digital world.

eg.. I dump 'emails' when the need for them is gone (end of purchase guarantee), new year starts or after 3-6 months for personal stuff. Keep links for any company contact and dump email.

I keep giving examples of removing unnecessary stuff to dump but I am sure others have more than me so I'll stop that .

All I am trying to say really is why is so much personal storage of 'old old' stuff important? I have the feeling that it is because it is possible. The old adage changed for today would be. "Required stuff to store increases with the storage space available".

Personally I am guilty of this (in the past). Not deleting any image just because in years to come one of them may, just may be of use or of value.

The only use I have for the digital mass I keep now is to provide me with something to do on a cold wet night!

So I suppose my question was meant to draw out the "over keepers" not the storage needed exhibitionists.

Just to put it straight, when working my image library consisted of 250,00 negatives plus approx. 50Gb of digital stuff. Now retired I have approx. 600Gb of digital images that are mostly kept because they concern family and hobbies.
I have 2Tb of storage available plus the same in backup but I cannot see my prolific photo taking the amount kept ever reaching the 2TB capacity before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

I would have no NEED for it and neither would those that are left. I suppose my ego is such that I cannot believe anyone would want any of my stuff.

If everyone is determined to keep all theirs on this planet then I think that self-importance has taken far to much of a hold on us all.

A ramble I know but comments welcome.

 

[r0k]

I did however mention the high storage needs of Video and Photographs.

Setting these aside and libraries for research institutions etc. etc..

I think I was directing my question (not statement) towards the domestic/single user with a busy normal life in todays digital world.

eg.. I dump 'emails' when the need for them is gone (end of purchase guarantee), new year starts or after 3-6 months for personal stuff. Keep links for any company contact and dump email.

I keep giving examples of removing unnecessary stuff to dump but I am sure others have more than me so I'll stop that .

All I am trying to say really is why is so much personal storage of 'old old' stuff important? I have the feeling that it is because it is possible. The old adage changed for today would be. "Required stuff to store increases with the storage space available".

Personally I am guilty of this (in the past). Not deleting any image just because in years to come one of them may, just may be of use or of value.

The only use I have for the digital mass I keep now is to provide me with something to do on a cold wet night!

So I suppose my question was meant to draw out the "over keepers" not the storage needed exhibitionists.

Just to put it straight, when working my image library consisted of 250,00 negatives plus approx. 50Gb of digital stuff. Now retired I have approx. 600Gb of digital images that are mostly kept because they concern family and hobbies.
I have 2Tb of storage available plus the same in backup but I cannot see my prolific photo taking the amount kept ever reaching the 2TB capacity before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

I would have no NEED for it and neither would those that are left. I suppose my ego is such that I cannot believe anyone would want any of my stuff.

If everyone is determined to keep all theirs on this planet then I think that self-importance has taken far to much of a hold on us all.

A ramble I know but comments welcome.

I tend to never delete emails unless they are junk or come with huge useless attachments. This leaves me with about 10 GB of archived email. I only keep about 2 years' worth near at hand but every now and then a question comes up about something that happened back then and I'm glad I can refer to email from that era to refresh my memory.

One thing I get rid of quickly is the huge intermediate files created by iMovie or MakeMKV. I simply don't have tens of gigabytes to waste on raw files involved in video editing and conversion. I'm also pretty quick about deleting old xcode and OSX installers. Those things weigh in at 5+ GB each. I'm getting pretty close to evicting Windows XP and Windows 7 virtualboxes from my Macs. I haven't needed to run them in a long time now.

 

[Alrescha]

I tend to never delete emails unless they are junk or come with huge useless attachments. This leaves me with about 10 GB of archived email. I only keep about 2 years' worth near at hand but every now and then a question comes up about something that happened back then and I'm glad I can refer to email from that era to refresh my memory.

This. Spotlight plus 35 years of email and people think I have a photographic memory.

A.