The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/ChildhoodOk7960 on 2025-03-27 18:38:24.
I have used and worked with computers my entire life, and I have accrued a considerable amount of data during the years. I mean everything from old pictures and videos, media of all sorts, personal music projects, work projects (mostly programming, but sometimes including large datasets), personal banking and administrative information and so on and on.
My ADHD has pushed me to try different lines of work, and sometimes I've abandoned projects for a long time before resuming them months and even years after. Additionally, I regularly use two different workstations in addition to a laptop and, sometimes, an additional desktop at work.
I have over the years been trying to come up with a system to keep track of everything in a way that makes sense and keeps my folder structures from disintegrating into chaos or inescrutable deep hierarchies that makes finding things impossible, with varying degrees of success.
I recently built a 6x16Tb RAID6 array on a Linux workstation after a partially recoverable disaster, and I've been backing up all of my old data there, in addition to a large number of newly scanned old family pictures I would like to preserve for posterity.
I am curious about what strategies have other people come up with to separate personal from professional data and projects, how to keep data from desyncing between computers, how to store and index large music and video libraries, etc. I also realize different data have different storage and security needs, and I have yet to figure a system that satisfies most of my necessites.
Any advice or strategies are warmly welcome.