How does everyone keep track of their stuff? [Archive]

mochrion

10-04-2005, 12:23 PM

I wasn't sure which forum to post in, but...

Here's a question for everyone. I'm sure there are many people with massive collections of games, manga, videos, etc etc. So how do you keep track of everything? Any cool programs anyone has found? Spreadsheet program? Simple cd labels (ugh)?

I'm starting to forget everything I download so... :eek:

Shadow of Death

10-04-2005, 01:33 PM

I make folders on my HDD to sort everything (Anime, Manga, Games, etc. folders), with sub folders with the name of the corresponding category (ie. all the different anime). When a series is completed, and I've watched it. I'll usually put the entire series on DVD if I can. If the series is too small, I try to fit as much of another series on the DVD as I can. If the series is too big, then I put as much from the beginning on the first DVD and wait till I have enough of another series to put on a second DVD.

I have 3 binders in which I store my anime and manga DVDs / CDs. The series that I feel I don't really like anymore I usually give to someone else so there's more room for new stuff that I like. My H content I leave in the DVD containers I got them in to lessen the chances of others finding them (although most are clearly labeled).

chompy

10-04-2005, 01:35 PM

same as shadow of death. almost exactly.

currently have everything on an external HDD and on DVD-r

and the majority of that is massively unsorted...though i mean to sort it all. someday.

peace

Bad Bluff

10-04-2005, 01:40 PM

I remeber what where is. It's as easy as that. with single images is harder so I made keyworded database for that (yeah im crazy dude with too much frea time)

candywrapper

10-04-2005, 09:42 PM

More or less you just won't deal with them. You either:

* left them unsorted and search when you want to find something
* burn them all, label them, and never find them back
* or you wait for hdd death and you have nth left to organize

Sadly, for me, hdd death seems to take care most of my organize needs past 12 months... :-/

Sort them is not really an option, unless you've massive amount of free time.

demoniq

10-04-2005, 10:06 PM

I back everything up to DVDs, label them .... and then I forget where I put the damn discs.

Hijiko

10-04-2005, 10:18 PM

Like shadow of death, folders and sub folders, and dvds. i do this for all except my music.... i have wayyy to many osts to sort though... too lazy :P

For the dvds with series, i put them in a box and place it in a nice cool place. Any misc dvds, programs and wat-not i put them in a binder or in nice rack.

BruceKO

10-04-2005, 10:32 PM

Um... if the stuff are on computer I organize them into Anime, Hentai, Game, OSTs, Movies, and Others main folders. Then divide them into sub folders (ex. For Anime: Ecchi, Deep, Emotional, Confusing, Bloody, Comedy, Action...etc.) then creat a folder for a seires within each of the sub folder. So it's easy for me to find any stuff on computer instantly.

For the stuff that I burned on CD or DVD, I just use magic marker and label the CDs and DVDs and group similar ones together in a CD case and give the CD case a name. and group each similar CD cases together for a level on the shelve. So there's a shelve just for my CDs and DVDs.

Yup not a complicated system that help u keep track of all ur stuff.

Lisa Hayes

10-04-2005, 11:20 PM

seorang

10-04-2005, 11:44 PM

I just buy more HDDs and sort them into folders.

Nahtanoj14

10-04-2005, 11:54 PM

I keep track of everything I burn or downloaded in a notebook log.Another alternative is using Anidb for animes, but the notebook log has worked great so far for keeping track of what I have and what I need to get.

Shybal Noom

10-05-2005, 12:53 AM

hmm... HDD are fine, but i also constantly send myself emails on things which i have! attachmenting files to emails is fun!!!
lol
everything, i leave in a big pile! if the need ever arises when i need it, i look with the might of thor!!!
lol

-2 lol's in this post-

Shadow of Death

10-05-2005, 04:48 AM

Normally I'll try to sort the files on my HDD as soon as I get them so I don't need to worry about the stuff piling up (at least I do with anime / manga), but I hadn't gotten around to doing it with my H material, so I've been trying to go through everything to see what I want to keep.

Miyashi

10-05-2005, 04:55 AM

How does Miyashi keep track of her stuff?
.__. burn everthing into disc...

How does Miyashi keep track of her stuff in cd?
put it on my studytable...

Is the cd still there?
almost half of it got lost >_< (my Inuyasha~~ T__T)

Chainsaw

10-05-2005, 05:17 AM

well me I don't keep track of everything downloaded.
but I do keep track we i burn something

ShadowZero1

10-05-2005, 07:41 AM

Make a text file or spreadsheet. Each time you get something, just put in an entry. You can sort it out when you have free time (it helps to do so) so you can find out what you have already. You can also send that file to greedy friends who want your stuff so they know what you have. When you burn stuff off, label them. Works for me...

mochrion

10-06-2005, 11:05 AM

what bruce said if the material is still in the hard disk.

for the stuff burned in cd's dvd's, i'm using this: [inserting shameless plug...]
http://www.linesoft.org/?lng=en

it's basically another cd/dvd cataloguer. I find it faster than most cd/dvd cataloguers that exists today. I used to use the CD Bank, but it gets slow when you are navigating around 400+ cds/dvds. So i was looking for [again] for an alternative and settled for this.

Oh, and put an easy-to-remember label on your CDs so that you can remember where is where.

Ooo! Perfect! Nice program you found, that was exactly what I was looking for, thanks! :D

Now I can be extremely geeky and write two labels on all my dvds...a keyword in case I want to browse through the discs physically, and a number so I can quickly look it up in the cataloguer and find it. Sweet... :rolleyes:

akaanime

10-06-2005, 11:17 AM

I keep my things in order so I can keep track of them. Usually every month I sort out all the things I downloaded into each respective folders ie, anime-a to i- B - Bleach.
Music into the music section, manga into manga.

You should see how many folders I have, I sort them out so i won't get lost trying to find my stuff. I even go the lenght of naming each manga names(MANGA-A-I-ICHIGO100%-CHAPTERS-COLOUR CHAPTERS-LW-HQ-RAW and so on).

I also have external HDD, but currently I have 4 300 giga, if they fill up(which already did a few times), I will either burn it all out(take ages), or buy a whole new 4 300 giga.

As for the external HDD, I label everything I have on there, as for the DVD, I sort them out in each catergory and name.

Armgfact

10-06-2005, 05:24 PM

I usually don't sort anything, so my file system is kinda messy. The only time i start to put things in their respective folders is when i need to make space or want to burn something.

xxxkHOLiC

10-06-2005, 05:56 PM

I have an external HDD where i save my longer/fave anime.
And the rest is broken down into:
Complete Series
Ongoing

Each anime has its own folder, with a screenshot/picture of the anime on each folder

miscman

10-06-2005, 07:29 PM

I keep a list of ongoing series and episodes that I've already downloaded and also the fansubs that realeased them.

Then I burn them on DVD and put numbers on it and again I keep another list with the files that are burned on each DVD/CD and their numbers.

Shadow of Death

10-06-2005, 08:05 PM

I've started doing that (made a HTML file with tables for in waiting, ongoing, completed and a special section for H-anime), but takes a while. Sometimes I don't bother to update the file for a few weeks, so I start having to make numerous updates to the file.

Zocroid

10-07-2005, 12:24 AM

So far I haven't had any probelms remembering which series I have seen, so I just d/l, burn and label them and put the DVDs into a shelf near the computer.
I did actually have a list of all my animes on animenfo though.. but I never needed to use it.

/Zocroid

xaero

10-13-2005, 11:07 PM

Aye.. burn, slip in a piece of paper with label.. ^.^

KidSteel

10-14-2005, 12:31 AM

For manga I'm using a simple txt-file (but mostly only for ongoing series, to check where I have left off).

For anime anidb.net.

I don't have much stuff "outsourced" on CD/DVD yet, so simply labeling them is sufficient for now.

Chaotic Heavens

11-01-2005, 02:55 PM

Stuff on Harddrive: Organize them by anime series, but would prefer to start doing it by fansub groups(doesn't work with stuff like Naruto though). O.o

Stuff Burned: Label all CDs with appropriate name and episodes included. Make a .txt file telling what series are in which spindles for faster searching.

Also, everything that I download that pertains to anime is written down in a .txt file so I can keep track of things I already have. Since I don't download as much as most people, this doesn't take up that much time. About five minutes a month at most if I even download anything. ^^;;

npdcb

11-01-2005, 03:27 PM

burn all on dvd or cd
sort them with stickies (or label if I can afford lol) : applications, games, mp3s, clips, animes/mangas, movies and misc
and keep their track on word/notepad ^^

and for the stuffs I didn't burn yet...plenty of shortcut on my desktop ^^;

King Peter

11-02-2005, 06:19 AM

Burn it on CD, then label it with a black crayon

Then I write either on my anime list (includes R1, VHS, Music CD, HK bootleg, h-anime and anime )

or h-game list (includes bought, downloaded, english/japanese) the new stuff I got

Coaxial

11-02-2005, 07:58 AM

My Manga is organised under Completed, Ongoing, or Licensed folders, each then further broken down by the Mangaka, and then by Series and finally by volumes.

My Anime I burn on CD's or DVD's when I have enough of any given series to fill them. I note on the CD what is on it and take note on word doc on my computer of what I have completed, and what is the latest episode I have of any currently incomplete series.

The Hentai is generally broken down by Etchi, Doujin, or Anime, then further broken down in a manner similar to the organisation of my Manga's or Anime.

And I love lists... Spend waaaaay too much time making lists and getting everything organised. I have to admit that I'm a bit of an organisation freak; I like knowing where all my things are.

And no... I have never lost a series or manga. Thene again, I've never had one of my hard drives fail on me... yet.

.tomi

11-02-2005, 08:29 AM

I don't have much, but I keep it in folders:
anime/[name]/
anime raw/[name]/
music/[anime/game name/other]/[album]/
etc.
And when HDDs' space run out, I burn anime (they eats the most space) when there is enough to pack up whole DVD with one series, then mave covers for them, and let them colect dust somewhere :P. I don't burn music, though. But it kinda hurt when I lost whole data on HDDs... <.<

xaero

11-02-2005, 08:46 AM

Hmm I write the contents of the cd on a piece of square paper and slide it in between the discs..

and for the files in my HD, .. I don't.. I had to search folder to folder for the files that i need the other day.

highfly

11-02-2005, 08:57 AM

I must admit I haven't kept track of what I have so I've got piles of DVD-RWs and I can't remember whats on them. :D
I'll have to do some organizing soon.

Cyrano

11-02-2005, 12:37 PM

I tend to attach C4 to any of my items, with remote timers in case anyone touches them and I have to make them go boom. Sometimes I don't get so extreme and I just attach ice cream. Oh yes, you can't uninstall evil.

Ranma Saotome

01-29-2006, 04:38 AM

Like a lot of people here, I put my video in folders and sub folders and after ahile burn them onto DVD then delete them on my computer so I can have more roon.

stukasa

02-06-2006, 06:27 PM

At first I just burned everything onto CDs. But when I started getting too many CDs, I put them in boxes and made a list of what's in each box. If I really felt like it I would probably alphabetize them, but that seems like such a hassle. :p

berNERD

02-06-2006, 06:47 PM

i usually store my files in the HDD. buried under tons of folders but i've been trying to sort it out. i used to have a binders of cds but some of the cds get destroyed cuz of scratches and what nots.
i try to keep my H content out of the HDD cuz people might find it. i just bought an enclosure for my dying laptop's HDD, i stored my H content in there but since the laptop's HDD was corrupted from the start (bad move) i kinda lost some of my H stuff. oh wells had to transfer them back and hide them.

but i categorize my folders and label them. nomore cdr backups for me. i'll just buy a new 2.5" HDD and use it as a Removable Mass Storage Device.

WarAx

02-06-2006, 06:55 PM

Folders and lots of em at that. Also many hdds, but no dvds or any other backups. After all it's just data so the loss is not much when a hdd dies.

doyrena

02-07-2006, 01:34 PM

i dont know how many duplicate stuff in my HDD, becoz i am always forgetting something, so event though i already hav it, i download it again just in case:p

milkmandan

02-07-2006, 03:49 PM

NO I USE NOTE PAD - for all my offline files :)

for on my computer

EVERYTHING IS IN ONE BIG ASS GARGANTUAN FOLDER.

HAHAHAHAA

April Angela

02-08-2006, 08:55 AM

burn them into CDs and lable them. after that i put the CD in the Cd case that match its gender to the cd cases groups.

milkmandan

02-08-2006, 03:12 PM

why not dvds? i remember burning anime on CDs in the good'o days.. 6 CDs and you'd have the entire first season of galaxy angels on fansub -_- these days. one dvd is enuff to hold 2 (12 episode series) well close..

RC-fancy

02-08-2006, 10:28 PM

Like with most people here, I burn them to DVDs. As much as possible, I try to put everything about one series into a DVD (AVI, MP3, JPEG). I then label the DVD with the title of the series and update my notepad file.

As for my HD, I have a 40GB partitioned to 10-30 as a system HD- 10 for windows while 30 is storage for everything I download and large apps (WoW, Diablo, etc); I have another 160GB partitioned into 4 40GBs - 1 partition for my stuff and games (EFZ, Touhou, etc), 1 partition for music, and 2 partitions for AVI episodes.

Just a question though, is an alcohol based pen okay for writing on DVD surfaces?

milkmandan

02-09-2006, 02:12 AM

you know RC-fancy i've asked that as well, i am guess it will be okay for now. but ifyou plan on using that pen for writing on DVDs that you plan on keeping for a very very long time. it probably wont be the best idea. my suggestion is to get a pen that says "CD MARKER" from Sharpie or something. SO you know you can trust them.

RC-fancy

02-09-2006, 02:55 PM

Alright, I think I'll do that. Thanks~ :) Can't risk losing GBs and GBs worth of data just 'cos of a pen xD

solarenemy

02-09-2006, 03:18 PM

Anime consumes my free time since I have no life... I have two HD's in my machine that are 160Gb each. One drive is oragnized by series and is the working or uncompleted series and the other drive is for completed and unwatched or to be burned anime. It to is sorted by series. My anime pics are sorted by topic on one of those drives and my manga is sorted by title on the other drive.. I make it a point to burn at least 2 or 3 series to DVD weekly so the drives don't run out of space.. I have a bookshelf dedicated to burned cd's and dvd's that simply have a post it not sticking up lika a tab with the series name on th first disk, that way I know any disk behind that is the same series. The disk is labeled with a sharpie as to what episodes are on it. They are all in the slim line jewel cases to conserve space.. It's really not a problem keeping up with it for me.. I have a cable connection so I am downloading 24/7 and Iusually watch anime for at least 4 hours daily.. But it still comes in faster then I can watch.. But I havnt had a problem with unwatched stuff exceeding my current drives..

solarenemy

02-10-2006, 12:00 AM

You guys know the data layer of a dvd is between two layers of plastic so as long as you write with a sharpie or other type of perm marker on the top surface only of a single sided dvd of course then nothing will happen. In fact you could actually make a line on the bottom from the center to the outer edge and it wouldnt effect the data. But I wouldnt go testing this on a dvd you have no way of restoring.. I always use a black basic sharpie and no problems..

slaolie

02-11-2006, 03:41 PM

bleh, organizing things is for wusses, i keep all my stuff as random and spread over my HD as possible

gvbn

02-27-2006, 05:25 PM

labels and then pile all my
cds somewhere. i also throw
away everything outdated

dots

02-27-2006, 08:53 PM

I have a text document that documents all the animes/shows/music/movies/game/hgame/manga/misc
stuff that i have....

I update it almost very day... each description usually
includes name, source, date, location if the file (as in where i saved it),
some information about it and a general review i wrote myself...
It's really tough to keep it going at times considering the amount
of stuff that i download but after a while i just got used to it...

Slayerjammer

03-02-2006, 08:25 PM

I just keep a long list of what I have in a text file. I would do it in an exel document but i'm too lazy...in fact i'm even lazy to update my text file more often.

oioioi

03-03-2006, 12:45 PM

Memory, mostly.

sOt0nGz

04-24-2006, 01:07 AM

Use AniDB or AnimeNFO anime/manga list.. Its much easier than using text document/spreadsheet to keep track.. and oioioi, memory always fail you.

machinistchild

05-27-2006, 02:12 AM

itype neatly on dvd's and have a notepad file of my list between my computer and my pda just to make sure. i also have a file on the mount of disks and space i've collected.

Keade

06-10-2006, 02:48 AM

So far, I was sorting my stuff by directories.
anime, manga -> sorted by series
games -> sorted by machine, then by game
When burning something, I'm trying to burn grouped files (e.g. episodes from only one series, two max.), and always label the CD/DVD, I was even making covers before.

But I'm starting to have too many files, especially for artbooks / CG, which really are a lot of small files. I can't properly label a DVD when it contains there are 30 artbooks / CG packs with no real link between them all.
So --> I'm going to try one of these CD/DVD catalogers very soon (thanks for the links!)

LightMooCow

10-27-2006, 05:12 PM

I organize my anime using a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet contains data such as what animes I have, do I have the OST, size, special episodes, and location of the anime in addition to other information e.g.: this anime series is incomplete, or there exist OVAs that I still need to find, etc... To make it clear to me, I also use colors to tell me which anime series I have watched and which ones need my attention. I store them on HDDs, using an enclosure to switch between other HDDs. For animes that are still live, I store them on the internal HDD until they are complete and then when I get the chance, i transfer them over to the HDD in the enclosure.

Since I am in college, I cannot really torrent here. So, I remotely turn on and access my computer back home remotely. I can turn it off also. Then, I download the anime from that computer because it doubles as a ftp server. When I'm done, I just turn the computer off ^_^ Yay!

solarenemy

10-27-2006, 05:32 PM

Sharpies and post it notes. Slim line jewel case for the burned stuff and currently active or watching on the HD by series name.

Odii

10-27-2006, 05:44 PM

Easy...
I just have a folder named "Stuff list" where I have documents of What games I want to buy, What console and if they are out or not. Another one for mangas and animes and a third for movies. Then a fourth where I Wright down everything I have burnt to cd and in what case they are in.

level3

10-27-2006, 05:53 PM

name them properly then rar them properly
you can generate a file list report with winrar before burning disc
number your discs, store the winrar report in excel workbook according to disc number, I use 1 sheet per disc.
In addition, I do convert my worksheets into mysql for backup but need some programming :p

A simpler way is to write a disc check dos batch program to list the files in your newly burnt dvd into a text file. Then copy them into a workbook. Of course the folder and file names should be proper. The batch program can also check folders in your HDD (internal and external). With a workbook, I can find a single book out of thousands of series in a few seconds. Sometimes longer since my old naming system was not good enough. Numbering your discs save you time labelling the content on the disc. Well, you have to keep your discs in sequential order to facilitate searching.

MoshiMoshiMenchi

10-27-2006, 05:55 PM

Me, I don't download stuff, so I keep track of it by putting things on shelves, and cataloging them.

moojibaba

10-27-2006, 06:14 PM

Use AniDB or AnimeNFO anime/manga list.. Its much easier than using text document/spreadsheet to keep track.. and oioioi, memory always fail you.

I do the same as you:). I use aniDB. It's a pretty easy way to track what you have, what you've watched and how many eps you've downloaded.

However, the only downside is that you have to remember to update aniDB once in awhile ^^;; I haven't done it in a month and I need to add lots of files :(

cb_Jimmy

10-27-2006, 09:09 PM

To keep track of what i have, I have written my own program. It is called Gao~ :p. Its function is storing basic Anime and h-game information for easy searching later.
If anyone is interested, you can try it. And in case you want to store other information of anime or h-game that is not provided by the program, you can always store that information in the description instead :P

I've uploaded the program here

http://rapidshare.com/files/971310/Gao_.rar.html
(as much as i hate using rapidshare, I couldn't find any other place to upload. When i tried to upload to Hongfire, I got 'upload fail'. :confused: )

You will need to have .NET Framework 1.0 or 1.1 and Japanese font installed in order to run it.