Do you know where your data is?

It's a simple question. I was thinking about the ephemeral nature of my tablet hardware, specifically how storing all my data on an sd card might not be rational considering the battery is likely to die before the on-board memory fails. One benefit of keeping my data separate from the rest of the OS is I know where my files are.

The last 20 years of computing has been pushing people away from the concept of files. Browsers automatically download files to a pre-configured folder and give you a link to open the thing when it's done. This is convenient but not when you want to go back and find that thing you downloaded last week. People who don't know where their files are depend on the open dialog of their word processor to remember. This information is stored in metadata. People don't normally consider metadata that important but it's critical if you don't understand where your files are. Metadata is fragile, and is often lost during an update.

The apple finder was written as a response to this trend. Save your data wherever and the finder will scan your entire system and put all your file locations into a database for easy discovery later. I really dislike this solution. Putting all your files into a database in a standard format is just asking to be hacked or mined by marketers.

Now microsoft is pushing people to save to 'the cloud' - by which they mean you should save your personal files on their computers. In theory this allows you to access your files on any computer with an internet connection but this assumes you can get an internet connection and if you haven't noticed, internet access in the US is a dumpster fire. It also makes the marketers job easier when you put your files in their lap. I stay far, far away from these solutions.

Many people just download everything to the desktop and try to use spatial memory to keep track of things; my docs are up here, my pictures are down here. Of course it's a disaster when you have anything more than 50 files and it's another way of depending on invisible metadata (where to display the file icon on the desktop) which can be lost so easily.

I don't even want to start about file management on smart phones.

This leads me to my inevitable follow up question. Do you backup your data? In response, most people look ashamed and start casting about for that thumbdrive they threw into a drawer with the 'copy of copy of very import word document.doc'. Keep all your data in a single location and it's trivial to back up.

All digital media will fail. If you aren't backing things up on a regular schedule you will lose it. Knowing where your files are is the first step to keeping them.

posted by na on October 17, 2021 08:56