Backups - The Dark Side: This happened to me once before, and it's scary. I took a look at my Downloads folder, and I was shocked to see that it was empty. It should have had 1.75GB...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This happened to me once before, and it's scary. I took a look at my Downloads folder, and I was shocked to see that it was empty. It should have had 1.75GB and 8,994 files. I had done a backup to my NAS and my two external drives, so they all had 0GB in that folder. Fortunately, I had that folder on another drive and also in my Dell computer, so I was able to copy everything back.

I think this is how I lost those files - maybe. All the downloads go into the "Downloads" folder. Inside that, I have Downloaded Programs. I may have deleted the Downloaded Programs folder when I deleted individual downloads that I didn't need anymore. I was being a "good boy" by backing up my files, but the folder I was backing up was empty.

The moral of this story is, "You can never have too many backups."

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Wow.
(I put all my downloads in MY OWN download folder. Away from Windows control.)

BebuLamar

Longshadow wrote:

Wow.
(I put all my downloads in MY OWN download folder. Away from Windows control.)

My download folder has so many files that are the same but also many files that have the same names but are different. (of course Windows marked them with the (1) (2) etc...) But then wouldn't know which I can delete and which I can't.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

BebuLamar wrote:

My download folder has so many files that are the same but also many files that have the same names but are different. (of course Windows marked them with the (1) (2) etc...) But then wouldn't know which I can delete and which I can't.

By Date? Delete the oldest?

I clean my downloads folder out every so often. Firefox keeps a list of downloads. If, I while I'm in the browser, I decide I longer want it, Firefox lets me delete it and remove it from download history. Saves me time house cleaning later.

BebuLamar

Longshadow wrote:

By Date? Delete the oldest?

I clean my downloads folder out every so often. Firefox keeps a list of downloads. If, I while I'm in the browser, I decide I longer want it, Firefox lets me delete it and remove it from download history. Saves me time house cleaning later.

That doesn't work. If the files are the same (because I just downloaded too many times) then it doesn't really matter. If the files are not the same the files are entire for different uses. For example several files named setup.exe can be for setting up different programs.

Bayou

Longshadow wrote:

Wow.
(I put all my downloads in MY OWN download folder. Away from Windows control.)

I named mine "zipfiles"...all downloaded programs that need to be saved are moved from the default downloads folder and are saved there as soon as they're downloaded. It's also important to sometimes not accept the default name when downloading (or rename after downloading). The common "setup.exe" should be named something meaningful, for example.

It's also good practice to save these files, like ALL data files, on a drive that's dedicated to such files, not the operating system drive.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

BebuLamar wrote:

That doesn't work. If the files are the same (because I just downloaded too many times) then it doesn't really matter. If the files are not the same the files are entire for different uses. For example several files named setup.exe can be for setting up different programs.

Yea... In that case I just delete "setup.exe" files, unless there is a company/program ID in the details in Windows.
If there is no discernible association with a particular program, it goes away.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have about three dozen folders for brands of software. When a new version comes out, like VLC today, I delete the old. Besides those folders, I have about 275 individual files. Since they're listed alphabetically, it's easy to delete the old ones.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

My first download from the camera is into a separate hard drive labeled "direct downloads" that has a folder for each camera. Since I normally can recall what camera I was using where, it's easy to find files there. Second, I have many external hard drives, each one labeled with major location, and the camera files are then copied into folders titled with the location name (and the date, in the case of multiple trips to the same area). Then, processed images that I deem worthy are copied to another separate hard drive labeled "final." That one is divided into folders labeled "landscape," "animals," "cactus," etc. I write on the hard drives what trips are on that drive.

I'll admit that have that many external drives can be annoying at times, but it works for me and gives me multiples of each image.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

Have you checked to see that they are not recoverable. Put you hard drive down, don't touch it and talk to a geek... just because they have been deleted doesn't mean they are gone... in particular with a HDD.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Dikdik wrote:

Have you checked to see that they are not recoverable. Put you hard drive down, don't touch it and talk to a geek... just because they have been deleted doesn't mean they are gone... in particular with a HDD.

Everything is recovered now. I'm happy again.

charles tabb Loc: Richmond VA.

jerryc41 wrote:

This happened to me once before, and it's scary. ... (show quote)

My son is an IT Pro.
He put two 20TB drives in my Dell. He has them configured so that anything I save in my PC goes to both drives at the same time. Thus I have backups. So far so good. I am also getting 1 B/U 20 TB. drive to have on hand.
as far as E-Mail goes I only keep the last 15 days and delete anything older.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

I use Firefox and it is set to always ask me where to store the download. So if it is an update for xyz it is always placed in the xyz folder. Apart from the odd thing my downloads folder never has more than a couple of files in it so I don't lose anything I might want.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

charles tabb wrote:

My son is an IT Pro.
He put two 20TB drives in my Dell. He has them configured so that anything I save in my PC goes to both drives at the same time. Thus I have backups. So far so good. I am also getting 1 B/U 20 TB. drive to have on hand.
as far as E-Mail goes I only keep the last 15 days and delete anything older.

As the price of storage comes down, I'm tempted to get large capacity drivers, but a failure of one of them would be really bad. What make and model drives do you have?

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

jerryc41 wrote:

This happened to me once before, and it's scary. ... (show quote)

Having worked in IT for many years prior to retirement, we saw on occasion someone saying that a directory got gone. It is not uncommon for someone using File Explorer (or a replacement for File Explorer), to have a finger check with the mouse and unknowingly move a directory under another directory. Dunno if that is your case. Do a find for a directory named Downloads and see if it sitting under another directory.