Storing E Models

[Miles Linnabery]

Dear Friends:
I have found that I have models stored on 3 1/2 inch floppy's only 5 or six floppies however, 25 to 30 CD disks of various sizes, On my hard drive, on 5 thumb drives of various sizes.
Spent some money at amazon for 5 32 Gig thumb drives, think I did all right for $20.00. so far I have down loaded about 700 models for 2 gig space from computer.
Before going too much farther I would like to have folders labeled to Types of models to make finding one model easier. Would you please tell your system of filing????
My first thoughts:
Buildings
Ships and boats
Aircraft
Military land stuff
1 to 1 guns
Scale Cubes
Thanks
Miles

[rickstef]

I have folders with specific items, like Cars or Trucks, or a particular designer, like MaksArt, or Paper Cruiser

It all depends on how I want store the files
In my Military folder, it is broken down into Aircraft, ships, weapons, structures, Specific wars(WWII, Vietnam, Korea)

[Paper Kosmonaut]

To avoid losing any of my collection, I since long have used portable HDD's. I also put all of my pther stuff on them, like music and admin. and, very important, I have two backups for each one of them. So when my regular HDD crashes, I still have all my stuff. I backup the 28th every month.



But as far as paper models, in my folder for paper models I have categorised them into

• space
  • launchers and rockets
    • nationality
      • manufacturer
        • model designer (if necessary, like ETG or Leo Cherkashyn)
  • Space planes
    • (this sub has about the same divisions as the launcher one)
  • satellites and probes
    • Satellites
      • nationalities
        • models (with designer name)
    • Probes
      • target (planet/deep space)
        • • models (with designer name)
  • Astronomical objects
    • asteroids, planets etc.
• wings
  • nationality
    • manufacturer
      • model type
        • designer (if necessary, like Zio)
• water
  • purpose (marine, merchant, research, leisure)
    • models
• wheels
  • nationality
    • brand / type of vehicle (trucks, utility vehicles, etc)
      • models
• rail
  • nationality
    • type of vehicles (locomotives, wagons, other)
      • models
• SF/fantasy stuff
  • universe (Star Wars, Tintin, BSG, Ster trek, Alien etc)
    • models
• Architecture
  • classic buildings
  • 20th C architecture
    • architect
• flora/fauna
  • land animals
    • insects
    • birds
    • four leggers
  • sea animals
  • flowers and plants
• miscellaneous
  • some sub folders with hard to categorise stuff, like games, a paper model of a toilet or a dumpster, a cement mixer . (-;

So, every main folder is divided into subfolders, like the wings folder has subfolders into nationalities, then subs for manufacturers. So, Europe > Great Britain > Supermarine. I always add the name of the designer to the last folder. (e.g. with Supermarine I'd have a special folder for all Fabrizio Prudenziati's Spitfires, but also loose ones for like the Inwald Douglas Bader Spitfire)
I am enjoying categorising stuff as you see and this might be a little too far for most but hey, that is how I roll... (-:


Hope this was useful or at least inspiring for your own system. Don't forget to make a good backup being kept separate from your computer.

[SCEtoAUX]

I do not catagorize by type and put them in different category folders.

I have the name of each model in searchable documents, both a PDF and a MS Word document. The model files are on DVDs and portable HDDs. I named the DVDs Papermodels 01, Papermodels 02, etc.and duplicated that naming system onto folders on the HDDs. I do a search by name in one of the documents to find a specific model file.

I sometimes include a designer's name or a subject type in the file name.

To make getting a list of the names in a folder to put in the documents I use a simple program called JR Directory Printer.

I download the model files to my Downloads folder and process them there then move them to a holding folder. I use the JR Directory Printer program to generate a text file of the contents of the holding folder then copy the contents of the text file to the paper model file names documents.

[Rubenandres77]

My file ordering system is pretty much like the one Paper Kosmonaut uses.
It is easy to navigate.

But I also have two separate superfolders: one for paid stuff, and one for free kits. Inside each of them begins the specific folder tree.

[airdave]

I used to organize models...but as the collection of digital files grew, I became more and more lax about sorting and creating any sort of filing system.
It got to be a real mess of disorganized files, many without proper identifying names.

And at some point I realized I will never build any of these kits and I never look at them again after downloading.

Now...I literally have a folder...called 'paper models'...its like a hole...into which I toss any downloaded file.
I don't look in the hole...I don't know what the computer does to the files in the hole.
I've been doing this for close to ten years now.

I've managed to curb my downloading...now I save only 2 or 3 files a week that really interest me.
But they still go into the 'hole'.

The hole is a dark place.

Good luck to anyone trying to sort through the files (when I am dead).
I wouldn't go into the hole without protection!

[John Wagenseil]

I use the program Free Commander to make a txt file listing of the categories or models on a CD or DVD and now BluRay disks, and print a copy of the list to put in the sleeve with the disk. That way I can see what is on the disk without having to load it into a PC.
Free Commander can be downloaded here

https://freecommander.com/en/downloads-portable/
I archive my downloaded models on Optical Disks which are supposed to have a longer life than magnetic media or thumbdrives.
I recently lost everything I had on a thumb drive when I got impatient and tried to write to, erase and copy too many files from it at the same time. The thumb drive hiccuped and became unrecognizable to both Linux and Windows PCs.

[b747driver]

keep all my models on flash drives.. i just put zip files like compapair..milair ..ww2arm ww2nav ..trucks..buses.fireUS cars.. struct..etc etc

[Butelczynski]

External Hard Drive is the way to go.Pick a good one and don't keep it plugged to comp for extended periods of time.Think of it as lifeboat since comps tend to crash and get infected with God knows what.

[rockpaperscissor]

I organize first by general category folders: armor, aircraft, architecture, automobiles, etc. These are further broken down with more specific folders: small scale armor, WoT, other 1/50 armor etc. WWI birds, WWII birds etc, castles, churches, etc. Formula I, old timers, NASCAR, etc.

For safe storage, I created a gmail account specifically for paper models. Every so often I email a bunch of models to myself. The subject line and text of the email tells me what models are attached. I think gmail allows something like 25 gig of storage for each account. If I run out of gigs, I can always create another account. This way, they are stored in cyberspace, and can be easily retrieved whenever I want. I don't have to worry about hardware failing, or being ruined in some way, or being misplaced. If the interwebs ever crashes for good, there will be serious issues to worry about, so I probably won't be needing the models I have stored in the cloud, or wherever they may be anyway.