Ask HN: How do you organize your important files?

2 pointsewenquim3y ago2 comments

TL;DR: By curiosity, which system/software do you use to manage your important files?

I use my computer and phone to manage important files like paysheets, official documents etc... It's useful to have the files on several devices and rely on duplication to ensure they are not lost. I currently use Google Drive, but I want to get rid of Google, and I'm hesitating between two options :

- use syncthings (https://syncthing.net/), but I might delete a file by accident and lose it forever, which I don't like

- use git (ability to have mirrors and control very carefully each file modification), but it might be cumbersome, and these important files are almost always heavy PDFs, so I'm not sure it's the correct tool

I also have a NextCloud server, but I'm not sure I will still maintain it in 10 years

2 comments

bityard3y ago

All of my important files get saved to a NAS on my network. It's just a raspberry pi with a big disk attached. That is backed up nightly to another raspberry pi with a big disk. That is then backed up off-site to another raspberry pi with a big disk, except that one is encrypted.

Yes, it's pis all the way down.

Nextcloud is fine but I only use it for the calendar and file sharing, I don't want ALL of my data spread across portable devices. For one, it's too much data and secondly, there's the risk of a device getting lost or stolen.

Your data isn't locked into Nextcloud, you can always switch to another system or pay for a hosted Nextcloud instance.

3695486848928263y ago

> use syncthings (https://syncthing.net/), but I might delete a file by accident and lose it forever

Syncthing supports file versioning. The staggered file versioning might be the best option for important files. As always, anything important should have copies kept on different devices (don't rely on this feature for backups).

https://docs.syncthing.net/users/versioning.html

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