Six years of e-mail categorized by sender, subject, and listed in separate folders. 1,562 pictures of eBay items sold over the last four years. 118 gigabytes of music with a folder labeled “music I hate.” Does this sound like the organization strategy you implement?
If this sounds like it could be data on your computer, or this sounds like your organization then you’re probably a data hoarder. What could you ever need to reference in your e-mail from six years ago? Why would you hang onto useless pictures? Why clutter your hard drive with music you hate?
Everyday I’m asked to backup data that people probably have no use and has most likely been on their hard drive so long they don’t even know is there. We recently backed up an Outlook Express e-mail folder with e-mail dating back six years.
I had a customer bring her problem to my attention some time ago. Her question was what she can do to reduce her data collection. Admittedly, she told me her problem was holding onto items that were years old and had no usefulness to anyone. She showed me folder upon folder of old eBay pictures. One was a series of pictures of a purse she sold; of which she had 18 pictures of the same item at varying angles.
My suggestion was to limit the amount of data she retains. Clearly, the eBay items are not necessary to hold onto. Why keep pictures of a one-of-a-kind item that sold a long time ago that you will never see again? The same goes for similar pictures of a puppy, car, or room remodel. It is simply unnecessary to keep eight pictures of the same subject, taken at the same time, from eight different angles.
I’ve talked a lot about how data doesn’t decrease speed of your computer. Really, data doesn’t hurt much of anything unless it’s lost. My concern is that data hoarding doesn’t do the user any good. If you have this much data and never refer to it, then it’s time to start hitting delete. Useless data is pointless.
I’m guilty of keeping too much data. I don’t necessarily keep useless data, just too many copies of the same files. I have three computers and two backup drives all loaded with the same data. Can you say “paranoid?” Worst of all, I have data strewn about all over my hard drives. I went through my machine prior to writing this article and found three folders on my computer’s hard drive – all labeled “Tech Talk.”
There are television shows written about people who live in their own filth. Nothing is ever said about people like you and me who have too much useless data. The woman with the mountains of eBay pictures will never refer to those again. I can’t imagine her having the time in her life to go through them.
If you’re plagued by this problem you should consider taking the time to sort your files and delete them. Nobody needs more than six months of e-mail unless it’s important and needs to be kept. Consider sorting your pictures and deleting those which are duplicates. Finally, if you don’t use it, lose it.
It’s a good idea to keep a backup drive anyway. If you must have old data kicking around then keep it stored on an external drive. Externals are a safer and easier way to transport data. Consider keeping older and extra data on the external and off your computer. This way, you won’t get lost in the clutter of your computer.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can e-mail him at remoquin@gmail.com or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)