Organizing Collection

[P50]

I have accumulated so many media files that they are now de-facto inaccessible due to their lack of organization.

I had thought about just devising my own method of organizing them, but then thought that perhaps a few better ideas could be found by asking here.

So, how would others handle this ? Strive for an 8-dot-3 file system ? Organize by producer ?

Here's a run-down of the things that make this group disorganized...

[1] They are not on the same machine

[2] There is no obvious file/directory structure

[3] Their names don't have rhyme nor reason

[4] The media files are diverse in their type and intended audience/recipient.

Examples of this nonsensical diversity are...

-A- Stills -vs- Moving
-B- Moving -vs- sound only files

[5] They have a zillion formats.

Examples...

<I>JPG, JPEG, JFIF, GIF, TIF, ZIP, ARJ, LHA, LHZ, MPG, MPEG WMV, AVI, RM, RAM, </I>

[6] Their names are non-descriptive

Examples...

<I> Image1.JPG [Fc32_0219_p1]_obfuscate.JPG Tickle1.mpg 1.GIF TK_Elementary_Quantum_Mechanics_507[A]3100.RM </I>

[7] They have all kinds of different sizes; e.g., some clips may be 3 minutes while others are 12 seconds.

[8] They are from many different sources, produceers, authors, etc.