My 10TB /Expansion drive seems intermittently flaky on the Studio Mac, so I decided to replace it with a new Samsung 4TB SSD drive ...which led to a series of transfers, and an opportunity to explore the architectonics of my digital storage.Sorted by "date last modified"
On the Studio Mac: Desktop and Downloads in chronological array... only a mother could love the hippopotamus child.From the 10TB /Expansion backup and storage drive, which had the unfortunate proclivity to dismount itself,
contents now migrated to several smaller drives, as noted. This information is only actionable-retrievable with the particular drives attached to ...a, or the, computer, but the links below tell me a lot about what I've been up to./Expansion/photography (which turns out to be too big for the new 4TB SSD) (but on 21viii25 I backed up /photography [3.2TB] to "Seagate4TB") (it will probably need to be augmented with post-August photography)/Expansion/musics (copied to the new Samsung 4TB SSD [black]) (last updated in 2021... so Musics of the last 4 years will need to be corralled and added); and /Nikon rawfiles also found on that drive
Expansion/Pictures (265GB)
copied to "Empty4TB" driveExpansion/Kindle .azw files downloaded, sorted alphabetically February 2025
copied to "Empty4TB" driveExpansion/August 2025 cleanup (making space on Studio Mac)
copied to "Empty4TB" driveExpansion/Curation 2024
copied to "Empty4TB" driveExpansion/Desktop FOLDERS 28ix22
copied to "Empty4TB" driveExpansion/Desktop HTML 28ix22
copied to "Empty4TB" driveExpansion/Desktop 11ix22 (mostly jpgs)
copied to "Empty4TB" driveExpansion/allother
copied to Samsung T7Shield [blue] (which I discover only goes to 2020, and needs ...augmentation)"Empty" 2TB (not Empty at all... mostly pre-2021)
❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ One of my insufficiently-considered habits is to SAVE interesting-looking pdfs, but I haven't constructed any sensible way to curate the heaps that end up on various drives. I'm trying the experiment of copying all the pdfs I can find to "My Passport" 2TB, arranged in chronological order as a first attempt to make sense of what I have.
pdfs from Desktop, 22xii25
(on "My Passport 2TB")I decided to try to manage/curate the 2025 pdfs by copying them to /Backup Plus/, a 1TB drive, and making lists on that drive: (1) a html listing that presents the chronological list (LIFO) by the TITLES of the pdfs, and (2) a sort into broad subject areas (photography, language, AI, anthro/geography ...so far). (Those two links don't retrieve the pdfs, but do show what the collection of pdfs contains)...and similarly with html files:
html from Desktop 22xii25
(folder on "My Passport 2TB")
...and corralling the sound files that have accumulated since /musics was last updated. in maybe 2021...
in process:
Mac Studio: music 23xii25 in LIFO order. 2025-
(on "Empty 4TB") (and those from 2021 ==> are now added to 4TB /musics)music from Desktop 22xii25 unsortedmusic from Downloads 22xii25 unsorted
In trying to make sense of what's hidden on 4TB /musics drive, I made lists of contents of some folders I had created in former efforts at curating music downloads (there are albums and folders that belong in those folders... lots of them). Here they are, in the versions of 30xii25, though I'm not sure what they may be useful for: