I need to clean up the Hard Drive

ThomW wrote on 7/25/2006, 2:58 PM

I've looked through the threads for some advice to no avail. Apparently I'm the only one with this problem. I need to delete a great deal of my files and don't quite know what is the best way to do this. I'm sure that it probably would help if when capturing I was taking the time to file them properly. So, may be that's where I first must start. I have deleted clips and I have found them looking back at me later. The information is no longer available to me, then again why should it be I deleted it. So why is it found in another bin or window taking up realstate on my screen? When I went into capture some video I found more nonexsiting clips staring at me. It's like the content was deleted and now what is left is a tombstone.

Here lies clips from the project of the past. Survived by the DVD paid for by the Client.

There are already dates of creation maybe dates of deletion could be added.

Comments

vicmilt wrote on 7/25/2006, 5:08 PM

You've been a bad boy.

There are a grillion different ways to approach this mess, but here's what I'd do.

I'd simply get the appropriate sized hard drive to dupe all your media, transfer it all to the new drive, and erase everything else on your main drive.

Then I'd start all new projects with better folder and file management.

If you start erasing stuff - you will erase something really important, and live to regret it.

My way, for under a hundred bucks, your butt is covered.

v

Chienworks wrote on 7/25/2006, 5:23 PM

Indeed Vic!

And spending 5 minutes tops at the beginning of a project to think about a few appropriate folders to set up can save you 5 weeks of agony down the line.

craftech wrote on 7/25/2006, 5:56 PM

You might want to try these free utilities:

crap cleaner

and

Tweaknow Reg Cleaner

John

fldave wrote on 7/25/2006, 6:35 PM

A quick way to get back a few GB is to search your drive for file sizes greater than 5GB. See if you have duplicates (matching time stamps).

Then do 2 GB, then 1GB. You'll be suprised by what you find you have 3 copies of!

Then, do what Vic says, and come up with a good, efficient workflow that incorporates file management.

ThomW wrote on 7/26/2006, 1:05 PM

Thanks for the spanking vic. I just haven't been able to understand the filing system in vegas. I've tried opening new projects only when I go and open the capture window I find the title of the last project in the top left hand corner. I just don't understand the protocal so everything pops up in the explorer window together.
The manual is all I have right now. Well...and this forum.
The manual tells me what the software can do but rarely shows you how you can do it.
I'm still new to the PC jargon. I spent an hour looking how to <import> my videos when the word I needed was <capture>.

Chienworks wrote on 7/26/2006, 4:32 PM

Vegas has a filing system? Hmmm. Interesting. I guess i never noticed. All i noticed was that the first time i had Vegas do something with a file it wanted to put it in My Documents, so i created my own folder and put it there. That's what i've done ever since. In fact, that's what i do with all programs that i use.

I like my own filing system much better than anything any software ever offered.

vicmilt wrote on 7/26/2006, 6:47 PM

Because there is definitely no "correct" way to manage your files, I'll just tell you how I do it. Others will surely join in and you just take what makes sense to you.

First - I personally don't totally rely on Media Manager. This is because I've generally got two or three projects alive at the same time, and all my media is stored in separate hard drives.

So let's start right there. I use a separate hard drive for each project that I do. I label the HD as follows 160g Sears. Pretty obvious what that means. If the project is small, I'll use a smaller drive.

On the drive, I immediately set up the following folders.

Dailes (that's what we old guys call the daily footage collected)
!Edits
PreRenders
Assembly
Artwork
Stills
Music
VoiceOvers
Budgets
Correspondance
Scripts
DVD Architect stuff

Because I've got the memory of a mosquito, I ALWAYS do EVERYTHING the same way. Good habits will save your butt everytime. My business is time sensitvie and reliant on my clients. They generally leave everything to the last possible second. Having everything in it's proper place helps me find everything at 3AM at the end of a 16 hour day (a situation I studiously avoid).

OK - so here's how I utilize the folders.
Dailies - Every piece of camera footage is put into this folder. Each day's shooting is put into a separate folder titled as follows:
060724 Bode Ranch
060725 Clearview factory
The dating is important. It allows me to sort everything by date - duhhh. That's because when you've been doing it as long as I have, you can remember WHEN you did something, WAY easier than what or where. Today's job is always SO important you'll never forget it - WRONG. After six months and a bunch of little jobs, I have NO idea what I was working on. But I do remember what I was working on winter two years ago. The rest of the name is just a reminder, not a list. Note the way I date stuff - this is important, if you will be doing this more than one year. My way sorts every project, VEG and still photo I've ever taken by the Year, Month and day. Any other way will not sort correctly for more than a year.

!Edits - by putting an ! at the head of this most important folder, it always sorts up to the top of the list. Here is where I keep all VEG files. NOTHING ELSE. Veg files are cut and labeled by scenes.
060724 Assembly one
060727 George
060728 Factory

PreRenders
As I'm cutting I "PreRender to a new track" - all the time. That way I'm never viewing edits with unrendered effects slowing down the mess. These prerenders are all kept in the PreRender folder.
Edit7 GeorgeCU-4
Edit7 EndTitle-1

Assembly
This is where I keep the "End Project" assemblies of the edited scenes. I use either the VEG files or (more regularly) the PreRenders and Assemble the various scenes into the final project.
Note: I keep the Assembly edits and the Assembly PreRenders here.

The rest of the folders are obvious:

Artword - ALL artwork including:
Stills (in a Stills folder)
Backplates, GIFs, FreezeFrames, Charts, Special titles - each in it's own folder

Scripts - all scripts

Music - all music including stock music and ACID - each in it's own folder

...and if you can't figure out the rest by their titles, look into another hobby or business.
But snotty attitude aside, I DO keep EVERYTHING of each job entirely on one drive. That way, months and even years later, I simply go to that drive, and everyting is there. My big jobs and clients I dupe the drive onto larger archive drives, so that I have two drives with everything available, just in case. Regular jobs I risk with one drive, although every once in a while, I get terrified and backup at least the VEG files from a project onto an archive drive.

It may not be the best system, but it's how I've done it since my first AVID in 1989. And I can still locate anything I need, pretty darn quickly.

Hope this helps - I'm actually thinking of making a video showing my entire workflow, and if I do, you'll get to see the entire process, "live".

best,
v

Jayster wrote on 7/26/2006, 6:58 PM

Great advice. I do something fairly similar, except I don't have (or need) enough HDs to put them all on their own. A project I am currently working on has 1,239 files in it. If they were all lumped into one folder I'd end up having to shoot myself every time I want to find something. I would never know what can be deleted or replaced and so on.

Just bought a new HD to put it on when I'm done. You never know when you might need to work on it again, or encode it to a different format, etc. Having to recapture from tape and then reconstruct all the other source files/clips would be a nightmare.

Grazie wrote on 7/26/2006, 9:54 PM

Vic! Tremendous advice!

* The - ! - advice is a great idea.

* Your backup sys. yup!

* Your DATING method - oh yes . .too obvious!!! AND I don't do it!!!

Question? PreRenders?

Vegas has the Prerender option. I can't name stuff here? I can when I render to a new track. Maybe Vegas SHOULD give us that option? I use Prerender to speed stuff up too. However, move or edit something and it is lost. I also use loadsa renders to New Track. But then I have a New Track - I find this truly annoying. And If I don't mute the track/s from whence it comes, it slows stuff down.

I also keep a Prerender folder - but as you can now guess this holds my volatile prerenders, and for me is just an organisational process - keeps the prerenders.

I guess what WOULD be good, is a bringing together of the New Track ( option NOT to create new track, if yah sees what I mean) and the presently volatile Prerender. Do you understand?

vicmilt wrote on 7/27/2006, 6:54 AM

OK - more about "PreRender" (my way)
The auto prerender concept simply doesn't work for me.
1 - it's a time waster
2 - the second you change anything it's gone

By "PreRender to a new track" it's a permanent file that not only doesn't get lost, but can be used in my "Final Assembly" edit.

Now granted it does make a new track, but I just double-click the new preRender and drag it down to a "on top of everything else - preRender ONLY track". Then I erase the blank track.

So my VEG files might have (fer instance) ten tracks of living Video work. Titles, FX, dialog breakouts, etc. As I finish a given section - let's say a slo-mo of a twenty second clip - I PreRender it to a new track naming it "Birds SloMo-3"
This means it's the third re-do of my slo motion idea. I erase my "Birds SloMo-2" from the top track and replace it with the newer PreRender.
At the end of the day (literally) I do one last all inclusive preRender, "BirdSequence 8 PreRender ALL".
I throw away all the little preRenders, because Edit8 has every effect built into it. This last preRender is FAST because it's essentially all been done already.
I then go to my PreRender folder and anywhere I've got two or more consecutive numbers; i.e. "Bird SloMo-1", Bird SloMo-2", etc. I throw the old ones away, regaining drive space.

I then take the entire "BirdSequence 8 PreRender ALL" and insert it into my FinalAssembly, in it's correct position in the movie.

It's way easier to do, than to explain, and it's a relatively bullet-proof workflow for anything over three minutes or more.

v

Jayster wrote on 7/27/2006, 7:32 AM

A lot of times, for prerender purposes, I'll take some related tracks, remove them from the project, and put them into a separate Veg file. I'll run that separate Veg file on its own, do a "render to new track" in that new Veg file, then bring the new Veg file onto the "master" timeline as if it were just a media.

A downside to this approach is that the prerendered file has a black background (no Alpha channel) that I must deal with by either putting it near the bottom or some other means. Maybe there is a better way but I'm not yet aware of it.