Documentation And Organization

[R3C0ll]

For a few years now I have been working with data files and such but end up getting confused and losing track of what is really going on. Example, working with File Maker and creating a database and saving different changes said Database1_2012-06-06.fm7 is the scheme. If I shorten up names. Example downloading quicktimes that has no version number on it. quicktimes.exe. I would change to qt_7.4.565.9.exe. Then I become confused with what it is down the road then download it again or have multiple copies over the span of 3TB of space. What about data taken from another network for analyzing how to name properly / professionally. I am a network analyzer, nothing bad.

Organization is something I don't have when it comes to my computer and files. It always seems I am spending a weekend to clean up my files and movies music and such from my desktop, other hard drives, jump drives, portable drives or what every it maybe. I have asked others but they are just and messy as myself. (Spanning things across my external devices is a huge vice.)

Is there something, somewhere I can learn to organize (I guess us a real naming scheme and labling) to understand what I am doing. Or how to handle files against multiple devices. I am not a huge fan of the cloud, I am anal about security and Big Brother. I am and will admit it, don't judge me!! This sounds like a a life hacker question but would like to hear someone that works like I do actually uses. I posted on this forum because I would thing Coders would have the best organization skills.

Would be nice to see a HakTip on this topic.

[Sitwon]

I would suggest using a version control system to organize your archive of files. Git is notoriously bad with large binary files, but Subversion handles them pretty well.

Setup a Subversion repository (either on your local machine or on whatever you use as a file server) and check-in files one at a time with a descriptive commit message. When you add a new version of QuickTime you don't have to rename the binary, go ahead and replace the old one and check it in putting the date and version information in the commit message. This way you know that all the copies in the folder are only the latest revision of the file and you can roll back to any previous version of the file and use the commit messages to figure out which version you want.