I am aghast at what I have done

[Nevermore]

Bad enough that I have been manically busy not producing any work--we have all been there, done that. But could I leave well enough alone? You KNOW the answer to that (sound over of ominous music swelling, I am heading to the basement in stiletto high heels even though I know and you know that all the lights have burned out decades ago and no one who has gone down those splintered stairs in recent memory ever returned wihout every single hair on their head turning stark white and we both know what it means when the music swells a little louder as my hand reaches for the doorknob). I can hear your collective scream, sigh, plea: don't go there, don't go there, don't go there (and from the more pragmatic for the love of bill if you are going to go there take off those heels!) But I went.

And no doubt all the hair on my head is white. My anal controlling super ego mega nutzoid id told me to take all of my scrapping kits, elements, layouts and put them into a new image managing program and categorise them all. Offloaded all onto DVD. Fantastic, eh? I can see at a glance that I have 1,346 background papers. But can I scrap? I CANNOT. Why? Because nothing is where it is supposed to be. The program tells me ever so quickly that the button I want is on DVD xyz. Pop it in the drive. Pick off the button. Now I want a tag. Oh my, that would be DVD rst. But wait, I need staple...

I had no idea how much of my work process was unthinking--a couple of clicks and I could find and pull in anything. This is like going to a box store when you want a newspaper. 50 acres to cover to get that puppy. But wait, there's more.

While I was at it I decided to move my main directories onto another drive. Yup. Even My Pictures are no longer under My Documents. Nothing is where it was. Tried doing a simple layout tonight and I was howling in frustration. Gotta put it all back.

My DS hates it when I use the S word and chides me but this was truly stupid.

[Kazadoodle]

ARGH! That would drive me insane - I used to hate that when I was playing games and you'd to swap discs all the time.

[mishou]

Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry for you! LOL That must be a total nightmare!

I can understand why you did it though. The thought of having everything organized and catalogued would have attracted me too! Don't be so hard on yourself!

[kygirl]

Oh, bless your heart. I've changed filing systems a couple of times, and I'm still not pleased. If anyone ever invents a good way to file digital kits so that you can find the color you're looking for, that special element, and the picture you took 12 years ago in a matter of minutes, they'll make a bundle.
Good luck on getting it all unsorted.

[kygirl]

p.s. And that dream system also needs to let you identify the designer, the name of the kit, and where you purchased it. You know, for free spirits, we have to keep track of a lot.

[SteinwaysMom]

It's the control freak self fighting against the art self and cleverly undermining the art self in the process! The hegemony of efficiency must end! :eek: I have been through this battle before!

[jessica b]

Think about The Font Thing, which I haven't used in years because it does funny things to my computer. Anyway, something similar - only better, would be really cool for sorting digital elements. I hear that one of the Photoshop programs has a neat "tagging" system, but I do think having to change disks and all that garbage would be a total PITA - and exactly why I really only use what is on my hard drive. What about an external hard drive (EHD?)? Anyone use one? Worth it?

[AmyK]

You know, I am glad I read this. Because I have been using Picasa, which is really an awesome program, but it stalls out (and crashes your system a little often) if you have over 10,000 files. I am backing up right now, and was going to delete all the old stuff off my system and just go to CDs. But that would be really pretty silly of me, huh? I've got a 160 Gig HD, I could at least leave (most of) it on there!

[Vania16]

I have an external - two actually LOL. I got the first when I still had my old computer with only 20GB of memory - it worked great for storing all my digi-stuff. I've still been using it the past couple months, but since I had a bigger hard drive on my computer now, I've moved everything onto that. Now I'm in the process of switching over the external to serve as a backup. I also have a portable EHD that's just 40 GB - it's nice for taking things with me between computers and when I travel and stuff. So I guess the point is that I've been happy with mine :)

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

Oh you poor thing!! I have my files all sorted in a separate drive and I have all my elements sorted and grouped by colors all in the descriptive files. To keep track of each designer for the elements I rename each one with the designer's name 1st and then abreviate the kit name (for proper credit). It's been working so far but one day my computer took the liberty of taking random files and putting them in a new file (I think) since I had overfilled the file I originally had them in...I wasn't even aware that the 'system' could do such a thing!! So I know how you feel when you can't find the files...I did a maniac search in my computer until they were found!!

[Ursula]

Oh gosh, sounds like a complete nightmare. So sorry for you. I actually do the old fashioned Cd thing. Slow and painful, but I have an ancient compooper!

[CathyRose]

Oh I feel your pain! The whole organization thing is just a necessary evil but man, it takes so much time. Then I am alway second guessing myself on the method I've used to tag items. Right now I am using PhotoShop organizer to tag my SB elements. Picasa for my photos so they are separate. And.. because I don't like the way Organizer backs up. I am backing all the catalogs up on an external HD and on CD. Way too time consuming!

[happyrobyn]

Kim - that just sucks! The whole organization thing really eludes me! I gotta do something soon though because my hard drive is about to explode!

[Nevermore]

You know, I am glad I read this. Because I have been using Picasa, which is really an awesome program, but it stalls out (and crashes your system a little often) if you have over 10,000 files. I am backing up right now, and was going to delete all the old stuff off my system and just go to CDs. But that would be really pretty silly of me, huh? I've got a 160 Gig HD, I could at least leave (most of) it on there!

Amy, please don't do it! Or do it half way--maybe offload just the really really obscure stuff. Picasa is kinda neat and maybe you have maxxed it a bit but the swapin swapout will kill ya! I chose a DVD burner over an external hard drive but next system will have the burner on board so I can get an external hd and two monitors. Dream dream dream, dream dream dream...

[Nevermore]

Oh I feel your pain! The whole organization thing is just a necessary evil but man, it takes so much time. Then I am alway second guessing myself on the method I've used to tag items. Right now I am using PhotoShop organizer to tag my SB elements. Picasa for my photos so they are separate. And.. because I don't like the way Organizer backs up. I am backing all the catalogs up on an external HD and on CD. Way too time consuming!
Cathy, I use PS Album, too. And had every single thing categorised. But I was unhappy that I could not just click and deliver into PSCS2 (PS Album is behind, you can do it with PSCS but not with the upgrade). So I went back to IMatch which I got after ACDC because it is MEGA powerful. And that meant a whole new round of categorising. And yes, I can just click and deliver... but.