How to catalog and organize files on external disk drives

[Ilya]

I have a bunch of external drives laying around and a ton of data CDs and DVDs with old file backups and archives from various Windows computers I've owned over many years. Some of them are well organized, but some are a total mess. I am not even sure that all of the older CDs and DVDs are still readable - I haven't touched them in years.

What I am looking for, is some Windows software (preferably free, but not necessarily), that would help me catalog and organize all those files. I see many programs like that mentioned on the Internet, but I am curious what you guys are actually using.

Ideally, I'd like this program(s) do the following:

1. Automate the process of cataloging the files on external disks (so I just insert the next DVD and the program does the rest)
2. Create a searchable list of files.
3. Verify that the files are still readable.
4. Maintain a file checksum for each file (e.g. MD5)
5. Identify identical files (I am sure I have a lot of duplicates)
6. Help me move and organize files from many DVDs to a single external hard drive.

Let me know what software you guys use for this purpose. Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[diogen]

Unless those are media files - do you really need them?
What good does an image of 5 yr old system drive do?

Sorry I couldn't be of help...

Diogen.

 

[Ilya]

Most of those files can be trashed that's for sure! But some documents, photos, old projects, etc. should be preserved. I am afraid to trash those old archives without knowing what's in them. And it's physically impossible to go through all those files manually one-at-a-time. So, I am looking for some software to automate the process. I'd like to catalog all the files so I could then find and preserve some important files and trash the rest.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[harshness]

I find CloneSpy to be a good tool for identifying and deleting duplicate files.

It would be impossible to do an automated catalog on most systems as the file names are often not particularly useful in categorizing or determining the application; much less the version.

There are often key file names that appear in software and driver distributions but that would require a utility that can look into CABs and other kinds of compressed distribution files.

 

[Sean Mota]

About 5 to 7 years ago, I decided to go completly digital with all papers that come into my possession. I still doing the older ones. At one point I was looking for some software that will allow me to search for files fast and easy. I did not find anything useful. I just came up with a very raw structure in windows and use the search function on windows. About 10 to 20 years ago or maybe more. I know that there was no windows only ms dos or pc dos and the best hardware was a 386. In those days, I was working for a company that was doing this for their general counsels office on the mac. The used fox pro to build a customized solution that will give them as much information as possible in fox pro. But this requires scanning and having someone analyze the documents. If you find something let me know, I am interested as well.

Sent from my LG-P999 using SatelliteGuys

 

[charper1]

Maybe? Document scanning software ScanAndSave allows you to scan and save your documents

http://www.softwarecasa.com/paperport.html

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/clean-up-your-desk-scan-a-stack-of-papers-HA001061695.aspx

 

[charper1]

nevermind; I now see you dont want to rescan

 

[mike123abc]

I would probably use windows search:

1. Get a large empty drive
2. hook up item in question
3. Use windows search to find all file types I might want: jpeg, doc, xls, etc
4. Select all and move to empty drive

This would probably quickly get all the valuable stuff. A 3 TB drive could probably hold everything since it would take hundreds of DVDs and thousands of CDs to fill up a 3 TB drive. The hard part up front would be to see what extentions you have used in the past.

 

[Ilya]

Here are some file cataloging programs I found on the Internet. I think I may give some of them a try:

Gentibus CD - freeware
Gentibus CD enables you to scan your removable drives or photo CDs and store thumbnail images of the pictures on your PC. The software offers special browsers to consult your disks easily by file types (video, mp3, image, program, ...), as well as extensive search functionality to quickly locate any kind of file.

Disclib - freeware
Disclib is a CD collection organizer program. It may be used as a catalogue of CDs. After creating the catalogue, disclib stores file and folder names and tree, allows user to categorize folders and files, and allows searching all the files from the collection CDs without need to place them in CD reader. Disclib may place in the catalogue any windows folder not only folders on CDs. Disclib has a customizable Multilanguage functionality. The program also extracts mp3 info.

Visual CD - freeware
Visual CD is a disk cataloging tool to index the contents of your media storage such as CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs, BlueRay Discs, USB disks, hard disks, folders and allow you to search the contents at a later date. Visual CD can index the files from the media by name, date, ID3 tag data, audio-video and picture information, generate thumbnail from picture and video files, and even catalog files which are contained in Zip/Cab/Rar/7-Zip archive files. Additionally, you can password protect catalogs in case you want to hide sensitive filenames from prying eyes, create MP3 playlist file without having the physical disks in the drive. Upon insertion of the corresponding disk, you can open files, extract Zip/Cab/Rar/7-Zip archive, splitting files, and more.

Cathy - freeware
An extremly small, very fast and easy to use media cataloging tool. You can use it to index files stored on removable media (CD's, DVD's or even diskettes), hard disks or net drives, and create searchable catalogs that can be used without having access to original media. Searching capabilities are based on file name, date and size. Additional features include filtering options, search duplicates or singles, customizable date format, etc. Found files can be opened (executed) or deleted directly, if they are present. Drag&drop support. Directory trees, MP3 album/song lists can be printed, disk space usage can be investigated. Single file executable, no install needed.

WhereIsIt - $39.95
An application written for 32-bit Windows operating systems, designed to help you maintain and organize a catalog of your computer media collection, including CD-ROMs, audio CDs, diskettes, removable drives, hard drives, network drives, DVDs, or any other media that Windows can access as a drive. The most basic goal for WhereIsIt is to provide access to the contents of any media you have from the cataloged database, even if the media itself is not available on the system - you can browse lists of files and folders, search by any criteria, use descriptions, thumbnails, categories, etc.

Advanced Disk Catalog - $20
Advanced Disk Catalog is an award-winning easy-to-use cataloguing program for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP and 2003. Due to the fact that ADC does not make use of a database engine, the core of ADC's versatility, results in it being extremely fast and compact. Its Explorer-like interface allows for convenient cataloguing of data on various media types, e.g., hard disk drives (even via networks), floppy diskettes, optical disc, ZIP and JAZ disks, and so forth.

Advanced File Organizer - $29.99
Advanced File Organizer is a cataloger for all disks, which are recognized by your Windows system. This includes diskettes, hard disks, CDs, DVDs, Memory Stick card and any other storage devices. Advanced File Organizer can be your DVD organizer or CD organizer, if you want. It helps to create a catalog of your disk collection. Using such catalog, you can easily find all necessary files and folders without the need to insert disks into the drive.

 

[meStevo]

I have this same problem and just haven't bothered to deal with it. I have several old hard drives that are full of images and other random things that were previously system drives.

I have no idea what I'd miss, but there's no way I'd just toss or delete them either.