General remarks

• • Don’t put anything in your Windows user account folder.
    Some reasons for this:
    • All kinds of programs store information here, so it’s hard to identify what’s really yours and what’s just written there by a program you’ve once used.
    • Windows ‘translations’
      I’m dutch and my account is ‘Peter’. In an Explorer window the folder is “C:\Gebruikers\Peter” (where ‘Gebruikers’ is dutch for ‘Users’). In a command window the folder is “C:\Users\Peter”, which is the actual name on the file system.

• • If possible use more than one drive, which improves the performance of your PC.
    Typically you can use an SSD for your “C:” drive (the system drive) and a hard disc for all your data.
    Note that having 2 partitions on a single disc still has the performance of a single disc.
  • Applications
    Applications can be split in 3 categories:
    • Applications that are installed
      These write information in the Windows registry and cannot be shared across computers. Install these in the normal Windows locations: ‘Program Files’ or ‘Program Files (x86)’.
    • Applications that don’t have to be installed and can be shared across computers
      Install these under ‘C:\Applic’, each program in its own directory.
    • Applications that don’t have to be installed, but cannot be shared across computers.
      Install these under ‘C:\ApplicLocal’, each program in its own directory.

Synchronizing files

For many files it’s practical to have them available at many locations; my PC’s, laptops, NAS, mediaplayer, phones and tablets.

Synology Drive

I use Synology Drive to synchronize files between my PC’s, laptops and the NAS. In this way I always have up to date versions of these files available on all these devices. In the section ‘Main disc structure’ it is indicated to which folders this applies.
Via the ‘DS file’ app on my phone or tablet, I can access any file in a shared folder on the NAS.

MyWorld/Media/Dune

The ‘Dune’ window of the MyWorld application provides the functionality to synchronize the Music Folder to the Dune mediaplayer.

Controlled files

Most of your files shall be protected from getting lost. For this I use the following mechanisms:

• Backups
  For real safe backups, they should not be stored in your own house. If your house burns down, everything may get lost.
  Use Synology Hyper Backup to make backups on the NAS of e.g. one of your relatives. For example, if you have a daughter and a son, you can backup on the NAS of your daughter, your daughter backs up on the NAS of your son, and your son backs up on your NAS.
• Version control systems
  I use this for software development, where I want to keep track of different versions of files. There are many free sites where you can maintain your development work and different version control systems are available.
  Currently I use Subversion on Assembla, but I want to switch to git on github.

Main disc structure

All shared folders on the NAS are backed up, so for every main folder where it states ‘synchronized via Cloud Station Drive’ there is also a backup.

C:\Applic (synchronized via Cloud Station Drive, shared Folder ‘Applic’)
Contains applications (programs) that don’t have to be installed (you just have to put the program files in a directory), and which can be used on different computers.
Some examples: Aldfaer, maven, Markdown.
Q: How do you know whether an application can be used on different computers?
A: Trial and error. Put an application here and run it.  After synchronization has taken place, run it on a different computer. If it runs, you’re fine, if it doesn’t, put it under ‘C:\ApplicLocal’.

C:\ApplicLocal
Contains applications (programs) that don’t have to be installed (you just have to put the program files in a directory), but which cannot be used on differenct computers.
Some examples: eclipse.

D:\Database (synchronized via Cloud Station Drive, shared Folder ‘Database’)
All files with general information.

D:\Developmement (synchronized via Cloud Station Drive, shared Folder ‘Development’)
Files of development projects.

C:\EclipseWorkspace or D:\EclipseWorkspace (maintained via Subversion on Assembla)
My eclipse workspace. On the C: drive for a PC with a large enough SSD, otherwise on the D: drive.

D:\Music (synchronized via Cloud Station Drive, shared Folder ‘music’)
All music and music playing related files.

D:\Peter (synchronized via Cloud Station Drive, shared Folder ‘Peter’)
Files that are mainly relevant for me.

D:\Photo (synchronized via Cloud Station Drive, shared Folder ‘photo’)
All photos.

D:\Video (synchronized via Cloud Station Drive, shared Folder ‘video’)
All video files.