How Do You Store Your War Diary Files?

Discussion in 'Unit History' started by Drew5233, Jul 1, 2010.

  1. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Any Ideas?

    I've now got quite a sizeable collection of 1940 (Unit Diaries and War Crimes etc) files from TNA thanks to the kind generosity of some forum members.

    I was wondering how other members stores theirs? At the moment I just have a file titled WW2 Files and they are all in there (See Picture below).

    [​IMG]

    The War Crimes ones etc I'm happy to keep as they are but wondered if placing the battalion diaries into the appropriate Divisions or Corps would make them easier to find.

    So how do you file yours?
     
  2. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    I just call the main file War Diaries under a WW2 Section and have them as you do, by unit name and the period that the diaries relate to. If I did them in Divisions and Corps I would lose them.

    I just hope that you back that lot up regularly Andy and store a copy at someone elses house. (Not joking).

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I just call the main file War Diaries under a WW2 Section and have them as you do, by unit name and the period that the diaries relate to. If I did them in Divisions and Corps I would lose them.

    I just hope that you back that lot up regularly Andy and store a copy at someone elses house. (Not joking).


    Cheers Rob,

    Maybe a War Diaries section then and another for other files from Kew.

    Ref your last-no back ups. Andrea keeps moaning at me to sort it as she suspects I will shatter the house windows in the neighbourhood shouting expletives if I loose it all. This laptop is getting ready for retirement so looking at buying another to save all the files too etc etc.
     
  4. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Burnt off onto disc & stored in a scattered pile at bottom of the table under the pc.
    I take it you have saved all these onto disc?
     
  5. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Andy

    I go along with Owen's suggestion of storing to disc.

    I have recently started storing onto memory sticks which nowadays come in fairly big Mb's.

    Whilst writing, do you have the 49th LAA Rgt.RA Diaries ?

    I've posted a portion of this here on ww2talk but rather stupidly and for selfish reasons it only starts in April 1943 when I first joined them.

    Many congrats on a very worthwhile project.

    Best regards

    Ron
     
  6. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    You could upload the ones that aren't already to here.

    A searchable & reasonably stable place, or so I'm told. :unsure:
     
  7. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Andy
    Store pretty much as you do (dont have many war diaries ) using well named folders

    plus keep a weekly backup on portable hard drive and large capacity memory stick as a just in case scenario ( I have had 2 portable USB sticks fail on me over the past couple of years)
     
  8. Buteman

    Buteman 336/102 LAA Regiment (7 Lincolns), RA

    You are a numpty Andy. The number of people who say they don't back up their research files is staggering. I think we'd hear the scream all the way down in Kent if you lost yours.

    :m11:Get it sorted!!!!!!!!!!!!:m3:
     
    Owen likes this.
  9. slaphead

    slaphead very occasional visitor

    Personal back-up

    I've got an old Buffalo Linkstation. They are about £100. You just connect it to your router and it becomes accessable from any computer in your house. It comes with software that looks at any computer connected to your router and (once set up) will automatically copy all files of either a certain type (word docs, jpegs, mp3s, whatever) or from a certin list of folders onto its self without you doing anything. My old one comes with a usb port so you can get it to automatically copy its self onto a memory stick or anything else conected to the usb (another link station for example) to back-up your backups.
    You can also set it up for ftp access so you can log on to it from anywhere in the world and either upload or download files from it too.
    Its lightning fast and very reliable.
    Mine is the "Pro" aparently there were problems with the "Live" version (it also streams movies and audio to your telly) so I wouldnt recomend it un less they have fixed whatever was wrong with it
     
  10. Oldman

    Oldman Very Senior Member

    Drew
    Invest in a portable drive which you plug into the computer through a USB
    port, for between £50-70 you can get upto 50gb of memory back up to it daily or copy your files to it at the end of each session.

    I learnt this the hard way some years ago at work when a backup program did not do what it said on the computer.
     
  11. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Cheers all,

    Not to worried about backing files up-I'll sort that later. I was just curious as to other members layouts/systems/layout regarding the order they store them on their hardrives.

    Cheers
    Andy
     
  12. TomTAS

    TomTAS Very Senior Member

    Hi All,

    Mine are all on paper or typed up and saved to 2nd HD which I use for all my Airborne.. Then that is saved once a month to third HD so I have 3 LOL :) you can never be to careful :)

    Cheers
    Tom
     
  13. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Cheers all,

    Not to worried about backing files up-I'll sort that later. I was just curious as to other members layouts/systems/layout regarding the order they store them on their hardrives.

    Cheers
    Andy


    :D
     
  14. Oldman

    Oldman Very Senior Member

    Andy
    Sort it now we do not want 1940 to disappear down the pan do we!
    Sooner rather than latter ANDY
     
  15. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Andy,

    I have mine on CD, computer HD and a seperate 2nd HD.

    I was watching a programme the other day about the life of CD /DVD's and it varies such a lot even with the same manufacturer.

    It was suggested that you recopy everything after no more then 5 years due to deterioration.

    I always thought with CD's and DVD's you were safe for quite a few years, but apparently not so.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  16. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Or buy lots of printer ink, print them all off & store in old shoe boxes under the bed.
    :D
     
  17. CROONAERT

    CROONAERT Ipsissimus

    I think you already have some idea on how I store and file some of my 1940 files Andy, but I also have the diaries arranged in regimental order along with their non-1940 compatriots in a seperate file (on 3 seperate external hardrives as well as on a stack of DVDs...a pain in the arse to keep updated, but worth it in the long-run I think).

    dave
     

    Attached Files:

  18. gaspirator

    gaspirator Member

    Back-ups: everything is backed up onto an external hard drive. I also burn DVDs, which I then give to a trusted friend, not only as an off-site copy, but he's also the only person who really knows and understands my research; if I go under a bus tomorrow at least the work I've done isn't lost.

    I keep all my files in folders named according to the TNA doc ref; I did this originally so that at least I could use PROCat as an index, even though it's inconsistant in how unit names are indexed.

    My file structure is basically: TNA Folder > WO > WO 166 > WO 166_536

    This is perhaps OTT but I need a consistent structure as I use a series of Access databases as an index. It also means I don't have to scroll down a long list thru AIR - ADM - HO etc. to get to WO.

    I have one database that lists my visits/files (basically the same info as you see on the 'Past Orders' page when logged in on the TNA order system) - this is useful when I want to find something but can only remember that I saw it eg, two visits ago.

    Then I have the main database that lists doc ref, title (mostly as given by PROCat, but sometimes amended for sanity), date range and notes/quick indexing terms.

    Yet another database is used to list individual reports/orders/maps etc and it can also be used to catalgoue individual war diary entries - this is what powers the 'on this day' feature on my homepage.

    Then I have an orbat database that lists military units/admin depts from the UK Govt thru War office/Air Min./Admiralty down to GHQ > SE Command > Corps > Div > Bde > Bn/Coy/Regt etc. This is structured so that each unit is assigned a parent, so the database can work out the hierarchy. Each unit is also associated with as many TNA files that it generated.

    All these databases are then plugged into a series of protected pages on my website (and on my hard drive), so that I can search across them all, or use the orbat as an alternative index.

    I can use the orbat to get to a unit's page where I can read any notes I've compiled on them, see a 'reliefs' list so I can jump to the previous or next unit to hold that part of the line and have a list of the unit's war diary files that I've already photographed. I can then jump to a file page, see all the dates I drew the file at TNA and be presented with the list of indexed docs and daily events etc. This list hyperlinks to the photo that includes the event (or the first pic in a series for a report); this opens in the browser, so I can't actually browse the sequence as I'm too lazy to work out a way to do it. The database does, however, generate the full complex filepath so I can paste it into Windows Explorer and view the whole set.

    If anyone's interested, I can post some screengrabs.

    Sorry if I'm showing off - I'm kinda proud of what I've done here, particularly as I left school knowing absolutely nothing about IT (except that I hated it) and am pretty much self-taught. Less than 20 people actually have access to this system - it underpins the research that's become my life's work but nobody really gets to see it, and so I like to rattle on about it whenever I can...

    Shutting up now...

    - Pete
     
    CL1 and Smudger Jnr like this.
  19. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Pete,

    It sounds like you are very highly organised.

    Good sound advise.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  20. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    I was just curious as to other members layouts/systems/layout regarding the order they store them on their hardrives.



    [​IMG]

    … or typed up and saved …

    [​IMG]

    Or buy lots of printer ink, print them all off & store ...
    :D

    [​IMG]
     
    Heimbrent likes this.

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