Compulsive deleting

[Keith]

I have a history of compulsively wanting to delete things. "Oh, the DVR is at 50%. Let's get rid of stuff.". I have a history of getting rid of stuff my parents didn't want deleted.

 

[AGXStarseed]

I have a history of compulsively wanting to delete things. "Oh, the DVR is at 50%. Let's get rid of stuff.". I have a history of getting rid of stuff my parents didn't want deleted.

I'm the same, but mines with my computer. If the hard drive starts getting three-quarter's full or higher, I start having the need to delete stuff off it to increase the amount of space.
It then annoys me if my brother goes installing something on my computer that I don't use or that even he doesn't use, because then I can't get rid of it without provoking him.

 

[AsheSkyler]

I'm a digital pack rat. I buy a bigger hard drive.

I will prune any unintentional files, like old program installation executables to programs I can't use, or burn some things to CD like pictures and videos I've taken.

 

[Progster]

I buy a bigger hard drive. I'm a hoarder and don't like deleting stuff, and I'd never delete my music. If my hard drive gets so full that I'm having to choose what to keep and what to delete, it's agony!

 

[umbrellabeach]

I'm also more of a hoarder. I feel like almost my whole life is on my computer; there's so much old material that brings back memories. If I want to keep something but don't need it on my computer's hard drive, I put it on my external hard drive instead.
My dad's different, though. He likes to delete things and throw things away. He once told me that he always keeps his recycle bin empty.

 

[AsheSkyler]

He once told me that he always keeps his recycle bin empty.

I do that too. Me and the context menu have war a lot about whether I'm trying to make a new folder or new shortcut. My computer is strangely obsessed with wanting shortcuts, so I have lots of useless icons to get rid of. Or when I go to make a new blank TXT document or rename a file, THEN it wants to make a new folder. And a lot of the times when I'm selecting multiple files to open in Photoshop or move to a new folder, for whatever dumb reason it'll stop selecting everything to make a duplicate of what I just selected. I delete junk nearly every day.

 

[Keith]

For me it's more that:

1) I'm worried in advance that we'll lose space
2) I don't ask first
3) I don't think about whether I really want to get rid of it first

I've improved over the years. I do analyze the situation for awhile before I decide whether to get rid of something. In Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Motorsport 5 I received many free cars. I looked through them all and "deleted" (i.e "removed") the ones I didn't particularly care about. I did, however, think carefully about them first (Why the heck was I given an Escalade?).

My worst instances were when I was young. In one instance, our computer ran out of space for something, so I deleted any files I saw. This resulted in the operating system not working and Dad having to re-install it.

I also was allowed once to sit at a classroom computer while Mom talked with the teacher. After we got home the teacher called us and told Mom I had deleted all the files from the computer.

 

[Judge]

Disk maintenance. That's not necessarily a bad thing in principle.

You fill a conventional hard disk to near-capacity with data and it begins to run slower. Made worse if it involves a particular operating system that tends to fragment data each time it's accessed.

 

[Suzanne]

I hate clutter in all areas of my life and yep, it feels an utter relief to delete things and when I cannot, I get very agitated and angry. I prefer a clean computer, telephone and tablet and don't go there with notifications; drive me up the wall.

I honestly feel sick when I see others gadgets and ask in awe (to those I know) wow how can you bare it and they shrug their shoulders and say. Doesn't bother me.

Also, I am fastidious with keeping my tablet clean.