This is how I know I'm mental
Nov. 7th, 2008 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomSo I've decided to go ahead with the most fiscally prudent and least wasteful option, which is to not buy a new HD just yet, but go ahead and back up everything to DVD and then reinstall to the original HD. And I'll be watching carefully for signs of hardware failure, and in the worst case, I have another HD on indefinite loan (the one that's running everything right now) that I can slot right in and keep going with (fingers crossed) minimal loss of data.
Thus far, the backing up has been interesting and sometimes challenging, in terms of making sure I get everything I might need and putting it on DVDs efficiently, but it hasn't been stressful per se. But now I've come to my laughably named "Temp" directory, which clocks in at a grand total of 60 GB, almost 1/5 of my total capacity of 320.
Most of that is movies, TV shows and mp3s I've downloaded (not so much lately; been playing games and looking for work more than scanning newsgroups), and which I've been meaning to burn to DVD (with the problem that a series doesn't always fit neatly into multiples of 4.3G) or CD, or sort into my main library to keep around. But about 16G of it is just random clutter - cracks, fonts, utility programs, stray mp3s and one-off videos, PDFs. I used to put this stuff in my "Download" directory (aka My Documents), but when the file sizes started creeping up, I started shunting it here.
What I should really do is try to sort some of these crumbs and loose sheets into other directories before I back them up, rather than punting them as-is onto the other HD (to move them again after I've formatted and reinstalled) or onto DVD. But as I started doing that, I was struck by an unexpected wave of emotion. The arrangement of the clutter, the file names and their order, has taken on a sort of familiarity... and here I am, packing everything up as if to move. It feels like an ending.
Which is absurd, I know: if all goes as planned, these files are going right back onto the very same HD within a day or two. And even if they weren't - if I end up having to replace that HD, and load them from backups - this was hardly meant to be their final resting place, merely a convenient surface to leave them on before undertaking the very task I am now.
I think about half of this is my general aversion to change of any sort, especially when forced upon me, and tendency to maudlin sentimentality over every little thing, and the other half is stress from other sources - still unemployed, yo - seeking something to latch onto. In any case, I've put the sorting aside until tomorrow, taken two Vitamin B tablets to try to stabilize my mood a bit, and will shortly be going to bed.
I hope I can remember my Steam password.
Thus far, the backing up has been interesting and sometimes challenging, in terms of making sure I get everything I might need and putting it on DVDs efficiently, but it hasn't been stressful per se. But now I've come to my laughably named "Temp" directory, which clocks in at a grand total of 60 GB, almost 1/5 of my total capacity of 320.
Most of that is movies, TV shows and mp3s I've downloaded (not so much lately; been playing games and looking for work more than scanning newsgroups), and which I've been meaning to burn to DVD (with the problem that a series doesn't always fit neatly into multiples of 4.3G) or CD, or sort into my main library to keep around. But about 16G of it is just random clutter - cracks, fonts, utility programs, stray mp3s and one-off videos, PDFs. I used to put this stuff in my "Download" directory (aka My Documents), but when the file sizes started creeping up, I started shunting it here.
What I should really do is try to sort some of these crumbs and loose sheets into other directories before I back them up, rather than punting them as-is onto the other HD (to move them again after I've formatted and reinstalled) or onto DVD. But as I started doing that, I was struck by an unexpected wave of emotion. The arrangement of the clutter, the file names and their order, has taken on a sort of familiarity... and here I am, packing everything up as if to move. It feels like an ending.
Which is absurd, I know: if all goes as planned, these files are going right back onto the very same HD within a day or two. And even if they weren't - if I end up having to replace that HD, and load them from backups - this was hardly meant to be their final resting place, merely a convenient surface to leave them on before undertaking the very task I am now.
I think about half of this is my general aversion to change of any sort, especially when forced upon me, and tendency to maudlin sentimentality over every little thing, and the other half is stress from other sources - still unemployed, yo - seeking something to latch onto. In any case, I've put the sorting aside until tomorrow, taken two Vitamin B tablets to try to stabilize my mood a bit, and will shortly be going to bed.
I hope I can remember my Steam password.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-07 01:02 pm (UTC)I have a portable HD that I use for backups regularly, makes life ever so much easier...
Absurd, but it's still symbolic. :) I can see why it would momentarily get to you.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-07 05:10 pm (UTC)