For the past 5 years, my typical solution for storing uploaded files (images, videos, documents, etc) was to throw everything into an "upload" folder and give it a unique name.

I'm looking to refine my methods for storing uploaded content and I'm just wondering what other methods are used / preferred.

I've considered storing each item in their own folder (folder name is the Id in the db) so I can preserve the uploaded file name. I've also considered uploading all media to a locked folder, then using a file handler, which you pass the Id of the file you want to download in the querystring, it would then read the file and send the bytes to the user. This is handy for checking access, and restricting bandwidth for users.