Saturday, July 19, 2014

Organization

  Dried and Salted - SOLD
12" x 24"  Oil on canvas

I've done the evitable mistake that seems to be an annual event with me.  I erased a group of reference images, some of which were important to future work, from my computer while organizing images into groups. In my flurry of efficiency I emptied the Recycle Bin too.  Of course I would do that right away instead of waiting weeks or months with no chance of salvation.  Sigh.

Like most artists I put off the work that I least enjoy, until it becomes necessary to organize just so I can find things.  That includes my studio as well as my electronic world.  But I did it and no one died (aside from a bit of my brain!) so I will bite the bullet this time and hook into an a more advanced backup system for my computer.  I have an external hard drive that is nearly at capacity and still don't add all the information I should on a regular basis.  I have a 64GB memory stick where I store important current files that I use frequently, but live in fear that I'll lose it.

I'm sure I'm not alone in my lack of organizing and storage.  Come on, you can confess.  We all do it - or more to the point, don't do it. Human nature is to procrastinate until an event pushes action.  Old dogs can still learn new tricks and I've learned mine.  It just takes awhile.  Then there is the discussion around external hard drive or offline/cloud  based storage.  The pros and cons of both are discussed here.

So now which online site to choose?  It seems most are in the USA, which is ok, although I'd prefer a Canadian company, but the ones I have sourced seem geared more towards large business instead of smaller clients.  Going US means it becomes pricier with the currency exchange rate being what it is right now.

How do you store your computer data?  External hard drive or online storage?  What is your favourite online storage site?