dotTech - Topic: To Delete or Not to Delete

ebony on To Delete or Not to Delete

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:07:53 -0700

@Mags, Jayesstee, and Ashraf

Thanks for the great responses.

As Ashraf said "I am too lazy" to go through and make decisions on what I want to keep and what is what.

Jayesstee, they are on my external 2T so I am going to leave them there. ROFL. Maybe I could copy them to a folder called hmmm lets see, I will have to think of something clever.

Mags like you stated what if I get some updated stuff that I do not like.

Thanks for your help everybody.

Ashraf on To Delete or Not to Delete

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:00:15 -0700

My download folder consists of 22,999 files and 9.25 GB of stuff. I have accumulated this over 9 months (I reformatted 9 months ago.) How much do I regularly use? Only the stuff I recently downloaded. Why don't I delete the rest of it? Too lazy. I don't want to spend the time to shift through the folder and see what is important and what is not. If space is not an issue, I say keep them.

(FYI: Personally, there have only been a handful of times, two that I can think of, where I regretted uninstalling a free shareware program. This is over the span of over three years, since I got into this game. It is always handy to keep the installers/cdkeys for freebies on hand, but you don't necessarily have to have them installed.)

jayesstee on To Delete or Not to Delete

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:27:51 -0700

Anytime I delete a zip, there is a 50/50 chance that I will need it within 6 months. Multiply that by 56 and you are almost certain to need one or more.

Easiest way is burn them on a CD/DVD, by the time the CD/DVD "expires", you will no longer need or even remember them.

I personally save them to a hard disc partition titled "Attic". Just like the one in my home, I store "might needs" there and try to review the contents about once a year. Like Mags, I keep all old versions until I am certain that the new version is sound and trouble free. "Attic" gets backed up to an external disk as part of my backup regime, (when I have time/remember)!

Mags on To Delete or Not to Delete

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:51:40 -0700

Been there, done that ~ many many times. LOL Not only with zip files, but with many other files which at the time were important but are no longer useful or relevant.

Question, when you unzipped the file and installed the SW, did you save those unzipped files? If so, delete those and keep the zip files.

What I generally do is save the zipped files and delete the unzipped files. That way if I ever need to reinstall the software, I still have the install package in a zipped file (which takes up less space). I have a small drive which is specifically for saving program installation files. (I've never counted the number I have, but it is more that what you have)

If the SW is updated, then I keep the updated zip file and delete the outdated one. Just a note here, I keep the old file for a few days, just in-case there is a problem with the updated program, or for whatever reason I don't like the updated program. Then I uninstall the updated program and reinstall the older version.

If any are the GOTD zipped files, then (unless you know you can reinstall it) get rid of them.

ebony on To Delete or Not to Delete

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:59:40 -0700

In the process of grabbing licensed SW, both games and programs, I have accumulated approximate 56 zip files. All in the MB range in size.

Space is not an issue, however, I was wondering if I should keep, store on cd, thumb drive, ext drive or just delete them.

My first thought was to store them because I am not one who needs the latest programs with all the bells and whistles.

This is mostly a "housekeeping" question.

Ebony