I'm done with disks

The decluttering is progressing in my geneacave.

On the weekend I spent several hours making sure that the contents of my collection of backup CDs and DVDs had been transferred to my portable hard drives. I must have purchased my first portable hard drive about 2007 as that was the latest date I had on one of my disc backups.

It was quite a trip down memory lane as the disks held copies of the many websites I maintained in the early 2000's. There were a few files that I couldn't recover and some just required a file extension to be added to make them readable.

As I love to have stationery and supplies I find myself left with a collection of blank CDs and DVDs that probably cost me a pretty penny. I kept half a dozen of each (they may come in handy one day) and disposed of the rest.

New disks - going, going, gone

I feel like quite a dinosaur as I have moved from 5inch floppies to zip disks and the 3in hard disks to CDs, DVDs and thumb drives for storage. I wonder what will replace my now portable hard drives. 

Superseded storage

The cleanup at our home,Welwel, is progressing quite nicely.

All of my genealogy files, folders, books and photos have been moved and are shelved in our new home.  Today finds me back in my old geneacave going through more stuff. I have spent the day going through my collection of portable hard drives that have capacities ranging from 80gig to 4tb. Before I toss the old bulky models I have been going through their contents to see if I have neglected to transfer any files (that I may never need) whenI have upgraded over the years. I am cleaning all files off the old drives and then Mr GeniAus will give them the hammer treatment.

On the left of the above image is one of my earlier models which stored 80gig with its power source and on the right is one of my two 4tb portable models. This portable black drive travels everywhere with me while its blue mate stays at home.

More storage?

Storage is cheap.

I have nearly all of my data and photos saved on a 4TB Seagate portable hard drive. I back these up to 2x2TB drives, the docs go on one and the photos on the other. As these drives are getting old and may fail some day soon and it's a pain to save to two different places I invested in a 4TB Western Digital My Passport Drive while in Hawaii.  This was on special at Best Buy at around $US129, about 2/3 of its cost in Australia, I priced it here at $AU249.99 (about $USD182). I chose a different colour for this new drive so that it was easy to distinguish from the old one.

I usually spoil myself with some tech surprise when I go to the US  because, even though our Aussie dollar is weak against the greenback, there are still savings to be made.

I'm now in the process of tidying up the files on my old Seagate Drive to my new one. I will keep one drive by my computer and the other in another location that I can access regularly for backups.

4TB

Before travelling overseas earlier this year I realised that I needed a portable hard drive with more than 2TB of storage. I thought that if there was one place on earth I could find such a beast it would be Bangkok.

Dragging Mr GeniAus along I went to the big technology mall, Pantip Plaza,  in Bangkok in search of a portable drive of 3 or 4TB but there was none to be found. One stallholder  said he could order me one in but that it would cost more than $AU1,000, my response was "Thanks but no thanks".

Since I arrived home from that trip in June I have made regular trips to local electronics stores to see if they had a such a drive, there were plenty of large bulky 4TB drives but no small ones that a little old lady like me could pop in her handbag and tote around the world, that is until two weeks ago. I did the rounds of my three fave stores and at the third I found on the shelves a Seagate Backup Plus Fast 4TB portable drive, a heavy but small answer to this old girl's prayers. Even though I didn't dance on the spot the young salesman appeared quite shocked that an old girl would get so excited,

As I had an overseas trip in the offing (and in Australia we can apply for a 10% tax rebate on goods purchased in the four weeks before we travel) I exercised restraint and didn't make a purchase on impulse. I retreated home, read some reviews and discovered that the device was over $AU100 cheaper at B&H in New York where I like to shop. As I needed wanted the drive before I travelled I realised that I would have to pay a premium (as we nearly always do in Australia).

As it is now less than four weeks until I take off on my next adventure I went to the shops on Friday and bought my new toy. I burnt the midnight oil  as I put all of my data, docs and photos onto the drive and then asked Picasa to index the photos and left the computer humming overnight. Now all is organised once more, it is so nice to have everything in one place once more. I'll have lots of space to store the happy snaps I take on holiday.

I wonder how long it will be before portable 8TB drives are on the market, I guess 1 Petabyte drives are just around the corner too.

The Big Crash

While sitting quietly at my desk the other day I was astonished to hear a big crash behind me. I swivelled around on my chair to find that the door of the old wardrobe in which I store a lot of my tech toys and genie loot had sprung open. On inspection I noted that one of the shelves had collapsed and that some of my gear had spilled out and onto the floor while some remained precariously perched on the now crooked shelf.

After the crash - tech toys scattered

Now this got me thinking about the history of the Yellow wardrobe will be celebrating its 40th birthday this year. We purchased this Everett Worthington wardrobe and a matching set of drawers for our first son just prior to his birth and it has served us and our family well. I now notice these wardrobes being advertised on eBay as "Retro". You will note that the wardrobe has had a colour change, Mr GeniAus painted it white several years ago.

The first time the wardrobe appears in my album is early in 1974, My son will be pleased to know that, for modesty's sake,  I have cropped this image.

GeniAus, son and the yellow wardrobe 1974 

By 1976 we had moved to a new home. The yellow wardrobe is in the background of the next photo. My son was able to sleep with that wild wallpaper, red sheets and yellow wardrobe.

The wardrobe moved house with us in 1979 and served our son until 19987 when we put an upstairs extension on our that home.  As  the four new bedrooms had built-in wardrobes the yellow model was banished to the basement playroom for toy storage.

When we moved to our present home on 1993 the wardrobe came with us and found itself used as storage in the garage here where it languished for a several years. Five years ago son number two moved to a house without built-ins so Mr GeniAus gave the wardrobe its paint job and moved it to a new home where it served our grandson for four years until it was replaced by a  newer model.

The wardrobe once again came home and sat in the carport right where it was offloaded until I had a brainwave. I gave it a new home as tech toy storage in my study. Those who have viewed some of my GeniAUS Hangouts on Air will have noticed the wardrobe in the background - it scrubs up all right for a 40 year old.

When I have a full day at home next week I will have to empty the wardrobe and get Mr GeniAus to strengthen the shelf that collapsed. I hope that it will serve our family for a few more years.

I wonder what family stories the yellow wardrobe could tell.