Hoard or bin.....

[XPD]

Do I really need to hoard all this Amiga stuff ?

I love the Amiga and the community around it, but when it comes to the actual storage of files (ADF's etc), do I really need to keep a local copy ?

Probably 97% of the files I have in my emulation folder (Amiga, Sega, Nintendo etc) are easily found elsewhere online, mostly via the internet archive. Removing these from my storage will free up a decent percentage of storage (670GB) that can be put to use elsewhere and minimize the size of backups.

Realistically theres only a few apps and a couple dozen games I like to play (reliving my youth) via WinUAE/FSUAE, so I could just keep copies of those and "bin" the rest.......

Do you keep everything you find, or just have a preferred set of files ?

If I did decide to bin the majority, I'd open the door to my FTP server for you lot to peruse through in case I do have something you're missing (doubt it) for a while......

So... what do I do....

[Cobe]

Bin. I was a digital hoarder when burning cds/dvds was a thing. And recently I was thrilled to find some personal stuff there that I completley forgot I ever recorded. But when it comes to stuff thats available everywhere I dont see a point. I hate "complete" collections cause it always takes so much time to delete all the stuff thats junk or duplicates..
Though if zombie or othere apocalypsa strikes I'll be proven wrong

[fxgogo]

We are prone to hoarding. Digital hoarding is so much worse as you don’t see it. But it still weighs on you. Let it go.

[Nightshft]

Like you stated yourself, check if there are any gems not (easily) found elsewhere. Or let other ppl check. And then bin most of it and keep a small local copy of your favourites.

[Turran]

I'm both a physical and digital hoarder. I only recently gave away or sold all my consoles and spare parts. A whole room and one storage locker full of things.

To satisfy my hoarder gene, I still do it digitally though. An unlimited google drive helps.

For example, I spent a very long time collecting "all" the xbox 360 and PS3 games. No way I can just toss that away, even though I no longer have any of the consoles =)

[dreadnought]

Storage is cheap and there is no guarantee that stuff will be always available online. The amount of sites hosting "roms" has decreased significantly in the last few years. Yeah, there's archive.org, but all it takes is one solid lawsuit or a change in law and...poof! Eg, they have just removed a huge repository of Everdrive/MiSTer packs.

My retro folder weighs about 1.5TB (plus one backup) and there is no way I'm getting rid of it, but I actually do use it all the time. If you're only using it casually then perhaps getting rid of is a good idea, but...what will you actually do with all that free space? Probably fill it up with some other stuff you can easily find elsewhere too

[acidbottle]

I hoard a fair bit.

While plenty of stuff remains online, had noted some difficulty in recent months, especially with Switch/PS3/Xbox stuff. Sites hosting these go up and down regularly.

Depends on space really, i delete a lot that I download to.

[Jope]

Run it against the various collection dats.. Any hits = stuff that is available. Any misses = potentially unique stuff. Amiga DOS disks are often misses even though they are already known, but this at least narrows the collection down by a lot.

But anyway; if you can spare the time and bandwidth, please upload it someplace and then delete on your end. Data loves to be hoarded.

[gimbal]

I only "hoard" what I have an emotional connection with, which boils down to the list of games and programs I had when I owned an Amiga. The rest I don't really care about.

Now most of those games are on planetemu, but over the years I have had to witness how sites with Amiga stuff have disappeared so I don't really want to rely on that site forever existing. Thus I make sure to keep that small subset locally. Small is manageable.

[Nobby_UK]

Trouble with not hoarding
and relying upon Online sources is:
They will not always be there.

[sparhawk]

I hoard those downloads, because often enough when I later want them, they are no longer to find.

[Methanoid]

Originally Posted by Cobe

Bin. I was a digital hoarder when burning cds/dvds was a thing. And recently I was thrilled to find some personal stuff there that I completley forgot I ever recorded. But when it comes to stuff thats available everywhere I dont see a point. I hate "complete" collections cause it always takes so much time to delete all the stuff thats junk or duplicates..
Though if zombie or othere apocalypsa strikes I'll be proven wrong

This "deleting of junk" i agree is a problem. I love TOSEC but having 10 copies of a game where 3 or 4 are marked as bad kinda seems OTT anal.

I didnt vote in poll as there was no "keep some, junk some" option.

Collections like DamienDs or Gamebase Amiga are a good compromise. One tested working copy. Job done.

Having said that, [EDIT] a friend tells me "I have my hoard on unlimited Google drive. I gave up with local storage when with my "linux ISOs" I was storing appx 70TB of data. Its cheaper to let Google manage buying new HDDs for me! " ..

[XPD]

Yeah, I have looked at using something like Google, but still comes down to my hoarding stuff thats already out there

I'll have think on it this weekend.....

[XPD]

OK, while I have a think over things, I've made my FTP open for you guys.

server : home.xpd.co.nz
port : 21
login: amiga
password: amiga500

I have set speed and connection limits so noone kills my connection

Note : There are NO Amiga ROM files or Workbench disks in my archives to my knowledge (theyve been shifted elsewhere)

[Jope]

Thank you!

[XPD]

LOL, I can see someone enjoying the access, been downloading non-stop all day.

[XPD]

Think what I'm going to do, is remove anything thats obviously sourced from TOSEC except for a few fav games etc. Then that'll free up a lot of space and clean up. Will hold onto other non-TOSEC stuff for now and go through it over time, and anything available readily elsewhere, remove it.

[Jope]

Good idea. Everyone already has TOSEC and there are quite a few other known collections too that you can just ditch, as they're widely spread.

[Spriteer]

I dont really hoard. I try to get only working computers, consoles that I actually use occasionally. I dont hoard files or boxed games. Games especially take too much space.

[chip]

Easy answer for me ....... keep it all and do backups too !

You can't be sure you will find in the future the stuff you need

A practical example: sometimes ago i downloaded some Ian disks from the file server

Then recently i spotted that Ian deleted all his stuff from the folder

You see, i am talking of a lot of NO-TOSEC disks

But also for TOSEC, you really want to download it again and again when you need it ?

So, no difference how much stuff you have ...... buy an external hd and make an additional copy

External hard disks are cheap, i personally have 2 () backups of all my Amiga files

By the way, when your ftp is active?

I am not able to connect

Thanks, chip