Organising Downloads

[Dbnguy]

After trying out all the "advised" programs to try make some sense of my downlaods folder, I FINALLY found one that is idiot proof for people like me :-)

I initially tried SimPE and screwed up my entire game LOL.

Try Paladin's Categorizer, from the sims wardrobe. It lists everything BY ICON !!! So that you can see exactly what the file is and move it into the appropriate subfolder !

Delphys Organizer I could never get to work, or figure out how to make it work correctly for that matter, SimPE caused me to re-install the entire game (Thank God I make backups now).

For all the download addicts (and whos favourite book is Sims 2 programs for DUMMIES) who now have to siv through Gigs of downloads, try this program first...

Lee

[nekonoai]

welcome to last year? 

I'm sure this is mentioned in EVERY thread about organizing. FUn part about it is, it only shows an icon to  stuff you've already loaded in game and looked at in game.

oh, and it's sieve, not siv. /grammarpolice

[Flamingo]

The last time I used it, I remember it being incredibly slow. Well, seeing as I only have about 2/15 as many downloads as I did have, I suppose that wouldn't be too much of a problem.

[nekonoai]

if you have a TON of objects, then, yeah, it's slow. But so is any other object scanner. SimPE is probably the slowest, but that's nothing new.

the delete/move button is REALLY slow if you're in a folder with a lot of items in it. I only use it to move objects I want to KEEP out of the 'new stuff' folder and into the sorted folders, so that any recolors associated go with it. XD

[ZiggyDoodle]

I had (again) downloaded Paladin's organizer earlier this week.  Made me remember why I had deleted it last year: too much missing stuff. 

Maybe over the winter I'll have the time to load every single item of CC into a house so it shows up in Paladin's program, but for now it is much easier to manage my DLs with Delphy's Organizer, the clean installer, and SimPE.

[Lorelei]

I don't use SimCat's delete or move functions. I open up my Downloads folder and move/delete manually. Faster.

SimCat is smart enough to recognize many of the alterations on the fly, too.

Missing items tend to be recolours or hacks or items that are tied to primary objects (like Merola's paintings or 2J's Lady In Red items).

Unseen subitems sometimes show up as purple boxes with question marks, just like items you have not seen in the game yet. All depends on what they are.

I use all the tools for different things.

[Dbnguy]

Welcome to LAST YEAR !!! :-)

For me its more like yesterday :-)

Yea, it is painstakingly (Grammer Police some help here please !!) slow, but its far easier to use for idiots like me hee hee hee.

although one thing I didnt know tho, is that it only shows stuff that is in USE in the game. SHIT !!!!!

But have moved my downloads and moving them into sub folders one by one. Quite frankly, if It isnt in the game by now then its probably one of those MILLIONS of items I downloaded in a whim and nevere used anyway :-)

At least this way tho, I can start fresh !!!!!

[Hegelian]

Organizing an already-full Downloads folder is a painful and thankless task. The easiest way IMO is to rebuild it from scratch from your archived ZIP and RAR files (you do keep the files you download, right?). You can create a Downloads folder at a location outside the game folders, and build it up over time, at your convenience. When it's done, just replace the existing Downloads folder with your new one.

One real advantage of this method is that you're likely to end up culling out a lot of stuff you don't really use or want.

You can also move and delete files from within the Clean Installer. This will show you the type and in-game name of the item, but some things are difficult to identify from the accompanying thumbnail. You can sort by name, category, folder, or MD5 (useful for finding duplicates).

Properly done, the only file in the root Downloads folder will be the CEP.   

[Zazazu]

Organizing an already-full Downloads folder is a painful and thankless task. The easiest way IMO is to rebuild it from scratch from your archived ZIP and RAR files (you do keep the files you download, right?).

Um, why? If you ask me, that's just a waste of space. You already have it on disk, and most likely backed up. Why save it in the original form as well?

My organization started with Delphy's program, because then I could plop everything into folders like Hegelian's (one for build mode, objects, decorative, hacks, clothing, hair, default replacement skins/face templates/eyes, walls, floors, accessories, and miscellaneous stuff). Then binned my hair. Then I compressorized, which I should have saved for last, but meh. Tried to run Paladin's program and it wouldn't recognize the compressed files...or something. So I deleted in-game, in stages, over a week or so. Then geneticized some eyes and cleaned all the clothing files that have jewelry on them (usually they look like flat fake crap and ruin an otherwise perfect outfit, and I prefer to use accessorized stuff). Now I'm down to half the size on disk, and probably 3/4 the size in-game. This means I can get more crap. Yay!

[Dbnguy]

Yea I keep all the downloaded files, but problem is I dont know what half of them are :-)  This way at least, I am starting fresh with the files I know and use AND LIKE, getting rid of all the others, then just keep on making backups of my downloads folder. 

Have learnt from others on this site, to copy all downloads into a NEW directory, test them and play with them, then I will use Catergorizer to move them into the appr dirs and delete the files I dont like. Sadly, as mentioned, sorting all this out is a thankless job, but better of fnow, than 2 weeks time when I have over a million !!1

One question tho, this compressor thingie, I presume it will simply reduce file sizes to free up more space for more files :-)  How will it affect the already compressed files if I run it every so often to update the newer downloads?

Tx

Lee

[Hegelian]

Organizing an already-full Downloads folder is a painful and thankless task. The easiest way IMO is to rebuild it from scratch from your archived ZIP and RAR files (you do keep the files you download, right?).

Um, why? If you ask me, that's just a waste of space. You already have it on disk, and most likely backed up. Why save it in the original form as well?

That is the backup. Why would I back up uncompressed files when I have compressed originals? Besides, hard drive space is the least expensive thing in my PC, other than the floppy drive. If I need more room, I can copy the archived files to DVD (because I don't do my tape backups often enough). If I have only one hard drive, I can add a 250GB SATA 3 drive for US$70, and improve my Windows performance by moving my paging file to the new drive (this is just an example—I'm actually running three 36GB SCSI drives and my motherboard doesn't support SATA). Furthermore, the filenames of the actual items are frequently most uninformative, and the ZIP or RAR may include useful readme files or images. Also, the original archive files may contain more than one game item (and if they don't, I often create a single multi-item ZIP to replace a bunch of releated single-file zips).

Finally, stuff isn't available online in perpetuity. By keeping the original archive files, I have a repository of items that are no longer available on the Web.


Preserving digital information is becoming an increasingly urgent challenge   

[Arina]

It doesn't have any bad effect. It slows it down slightly because I think it compresses it again (although it's already been done), but it won't hurt anything.

Make sure to split your downloads into folders and do one folder at a time. It seems that people have had problems running the whole downloads folder through at once.

(I generally put a 'new' folder in each creator folder when there is something new and, once I've checked the stuff, I just compressorize that folder. )

[Dbnguy]

Thanks Arina. You obviously have used this thing often with no problems :-)

You suggest me doing it, if Space isnt an issue for me?

I have all my "My documents" on 120 gb drive, which is still 80% free, then all the my programs etc on my C drive.

although the way Im going, I will probably fill it up sooner than I think. Ive only had Sims 2 for a few weeks now, guess you could say Im still a downloads Virgin in comparisson to most of you guys out there Hee Hee Hee

[Zazazu]

When I go on a major download spree (and I'm about to) I just save my downloads onto a dummy account's download folder. It has just one 'hood, no townies, only one sim, only one lot. I can then quickly see only the new content and make sure the preview images weren't super-photoshopped (seriously, people, don't do that...if it's crap then let everyone see that it's crap). If it passes, I move everything onto my main account. Since I'm sitting at 1.47 gigs of custom content now, sorting through for new stuff is a pain in the ass, and often I don't remember what I got three minutes ago. The new shiny negates the memory of the less-new shiny.


And I see, Hegelian. I thought it was in addition to the backup. I prefer just backing up my compressed organized folders (I put them on my D drive with has loads of space...I figure if my comp gets zapped despite my surge protectors and I lose even the backup, such is life...I've been through it before and all my program files are backed up on disk) but I understand where you are coming from.

[Dbnguy]

Tx Zazazu, thats atually a perfect idea.

Ill create a hood, with ONE very basic house and use that one to test all them in....

Like you said, sometimes the DL dont look that great once they are in the game...

[nekonoai]

When I started a few months ago, I had over 15gigs of stuff in JUST the objects folder. My game took almost an hour to load.

I pretty much put everything into folders by alphabetical order, and then ran the simcat on each folder, moving things that I wanted to the real sort folders [by kind of object], and deleting stuff that just looked plain fugly. Ignoring the purple question marks.

Then I'd load game, scroll through a certain section of objects [like all surfaces, for example]... then quit game and do the sim cat again... repeat... XD Took me a solid month and a half, but now I'm down to about a gig and a half of objects that I actually USE, nicely sorted... and a 'new objects' folder for stuff I download and want to try out. A lot of stuff just doesn't make the cut with me. If I notice that I'm not using something ever, it goes away for good.

I don't keep zip files. I don't even back up my objects. If I lose stuff, oh well.  Hasn't happened yet thank goodness. ;p

[Arina]

Thanks Arina. You obviously have used this thing often with no problems :-)

You suggest me doing it, if Space isnt an issue for me?

I have all my "My documents" on 120 gb drive, which is still 80% free, then all the my programs etc on my C drive.

although the way Im going, I will probably fill it up sooner than I think. Ive only had Sims 2 for a few weeks now, guess you could say Im still a downloads Virgin in comparisson to most of you guys out there Hee Hee Hee

It did seem to make the game load faster, after I deleted the groups.cache. However, I don't know if it's because of the compressed files or because I began using that tool during my clearout (1.2GB to 220MB... I feel all happy inside XD). I would guess that it's a little of both, because others have said the game loaded faster and I don't think they were all sorting and deleting.

I guess it depends if you have a problem with how fast your game loads. I've only got one (partitioned) 60gb drive, so space is more of an issue for me... but I also thought my loading times were too long, and the Compressorizer has helped.

[Dbnguy]

then Compressorizer it is !!!

Guys thanks all for your help and, man oh man, super fast responses..... Was expecting to wait at least a day !!!!!!

Your all the best.

Thanks

[Invisigoth]

I run the HCDU every so often (although I almost always know everything in my download's folder, what it effects, who made it, and what it does) and I keep my hacks seperate from my CC, but there is one thing that I do that no one else mentioned (maybe it's secretly bad and I didn't know about it).  When I unzip my new hack into my Amods folder in my downloads folder I also rename the RTFM or readme so that it has the same name except obviously .txt or .rtf.  That way if I do forget what a hack does I have the read me right next to it in the folder.  I prefer to keep my hacks loose in the Amods folder rather than seperating them by creator which I know sounds insane but I make sure that I have the creator's name and website url in the readme.  For CC items/hair/etc I sort by type and creator (Hair/InSim/Corrine for example) and include recolors made by other people in the same folder as the original creator of the mesh (with a readme titled the same with the creator of both the mesh and the recolor's URL just in case I have a problem with it).  The hack sorting method might sound disorganized but it works for me.  The only thing that I didn't think of is potential slowing of load times.  The game probably has to look in those readme files even though it doesn't actually use them in any way.  Still, I'd prefer longer load times because of a recent mishap.  I couldn't figure out why one of my hacks wasn't working all of the sudden so I opened up my downloads folder and had a look.  Within a minute I noticed one of my hacks had a readme but no .package file.  I must have deleted it the other day when I noticed that I had unintentionally put some clothing meshes into my hacks folder instead of my clothing folder and then thinking about it I decided they were ugly anyway so I deleted them instead of moving them.

[Zazazu]

Saving the RTFM's isn't bad. I don't do it, but that's because if I have an issue with an object/non-hack, I just delete it, and if it's a hack, I can get the RTFM again here. I'd put them in another folder though---not under Sims2.

[notveryawesome]

I keep separate directories on different parts of my computer for when I'm downloading stuff (TS2 Web Downloads, found floating loose on my C drive) and my regular Downloads folder in My Documents. Since I only download maybe a dozen things at a time, I simply download them into the correct subdirectory within my TS2 Web Downloads folder (Hair, Clothing, Buy Mode, Build Mode, Maxis Recolours, Hacks_Global, Hacks_Objects, etc), unpack them there, update the entire TS2 Web Downloads folder for Pets in one go, so I don't miss anything, and then Compressorize everything BEFORE moving the items into my regular Downloads folder. Then I move the .rar and .zip files to their own directory labelled TS2 Consolidation, which has the same basic subdirectory system as the TS2 Web Downloads folder. This probably seems very convoluted, but it does make organisation quite easy, and I know exactly where to look for everything, should something get lost or accidentally deleted from Downloads. Also, it helps me to know what I've already processed, and what still needs to be done.