If you've got that many files to keep track of, and they're all uncompressed, you really need to take a moment and download 7z for free.
https://www.7-zip.org/download.htmlUsage of these type of tools has gotten extremely simple, and they're
essential for disk space and organization.
For example, let me share a screenshot and link for you of the best archive I've managed to collect of [abandoned, outdated and now likely malicious qb64 dot net website - don’t go there], so far:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjjr4aw7go38ef7/www.[abandoned, outdated and now likely malicious qb64 dot net website - don’t go there].7z?dl=1
As you can see from the screenshot, the archive I've collected is about 3GB in size, and it's compressed down to only 14% of that size, which only takes up about 413MB of disk space. (And that's with images, html pages, and all.)
If you're interested, you can go over to the 7zip website and download whatever install package would suit your system. (Just grab the MSI installer if you have a Windows PC and double click it when it's finished downloading, and let it do its thing automatically.)
Once you've got 7z on your system, all you have to do is select a series of files or folders in windows Explorer (the built in file manager), then right click to pull up the action box, scroll to the 7 zip option and then select the "Add to archive..." option and use the default settings to save your collection to a 7z archive file. (A simple youtube video of someone illustrating the process is here, if you want to check it out:
)
It'll only take you a few times of using 7z (or any other archive tool really), before you'll wonder how you ever managed without them. Like you, I'm a digital packrat, and I'd never be able to manage things without keeping a lot of stuff compressed up and archived. For example, the list of ebooks which I've got stored on my PC, just for reading and entertainment purposes, is 106,786 Files in 8,784 Folders, and about 50GB of disk space! (If anyone is interested in ever borrowing an ebook of mine, I'd be happy to share one with them from my list of books here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/50prog4pn468o9z/Steve%27s%20Entertainment%20Book%20List%20%282019%29.txt?dl=1)
7zip, winrar, and such are absolutely essential tools in my life anymore. ;)
If you've got 10GB of file archived, that'd take 3 standard DVDs (with about 4.7GB storage each) to copy them onto uncompressed. If you get the same level of compression with your files, as I have, you could easily put them all on one DVD and still have lots of room for other things as well. ;)