Cataloguing contents of external hard drives but searchable when not connected. Help!

wilt

wilt

Messages
1,449
Name
Steven
Edit My Images
No
I've a load of external hard drives with various stuff on them. I used to have them all in my PC but the noise, power and heat wasn't needed as they were rarely accessed.
I'm wanting to take a snap shot or record of contents that would be searchable so if I'm looking something i can search on my PC and it'l find it and I'll be able to get the correct hard drive and connect it to my PC again to get the file.

I hope this makes sense.
Is there anything out there that would do this?
 
You can place all the files in folders by date order or alphabetical order and then copy them into the drives and mark each drive with the contents.

Drive 1 2004 - 2006 or A to D
Drive 2 2007 - 2010 or D to H
Drive 3 2011 - 2016 or I to N
etc
etc
etc
 
I use a piece of free software called TreeSize that'll list everything on a drive and allow you to print the result. Perhaps you print it as a searchable pdf?
 
admirable said:
You can place all the files in folders by date order or alphabetical order and then copy them into the drives and mark each drive with the contents.

Drive 1 2004 - 2006 or A to D
Drive 2 2007 - 2010 or D to H
Drive 3 2011 - 2016 or I to N
etc
etc
etc
Click to expand...

I'm looking software that holds a record of the contents of each drive that I can search even when the drive isn't connected so I know which drive the file I'm after is on. I'll have all the drives marked either numerically or alphabetically with a big sticker so I know which one to connect once I'm told which drive it's on.
 
JohnX said:
I use a piece of free software called TreeSize that'll list everything on a drive and allow you to print the result. Perhaps you print it as a searchable pdf?
Click to expand...
Sounds like it's almost what I'm after but not quite. I'm pretty much looking windows explorer search function with off line drives.
 
How many files are we talking about?
 
I can't see how any software can find the exact file you want with the info you have told us, unless you have tagged every individual file with the full data?
 
go to the run menu and type CMD. In the box that opens, type

dir x:\ /s >> ~\Documents\directory_of_files.txt

where x is your drive letter. Repeat with all your drives changing just the x

This will create a text file on your Documents folder with the name of every file and the drive it's on. You can easily search this with a text editor.

E.g.
1593585928160.png
 
This looks like it might be what you're after. It's not clear how it handles arbitrary non-media files.

Catalog all your data on Disks, DVDs, and CDs with abeMeda!

abeMeda is a powerful and very fast disk cataloging tool, reading metadata like EXIF, IPTC, JPG, TIFF, MP3, AAC (iTunes)
www.cdwinder.de www.cdwinder.de

the free demo version is limited to 10 drives.

Edit; Or this, which looks the better general solution.

WinCatalog 2024 - Disk Catalog Software for Windows

WinCatalog 2024 disk and file catalog software. Catalog and organize all your disks, files, using tags and user defined fields, and find files in seconds!
www.wincatalog.com www.wincatalog.com
 
Last edited:
wilt said:
I've found something. It's called Snap2HTML, it's free and looks to be what I'm after.
Click to expand...


Juts having a look.. Going to download that myself as I have a few hard drives knocking about.. could save me the pain of plugging them in seeing as some require plug as well us usb.... thanks :)


ADDYONBIT

THIS IS BRILLIANT! Works perfect
722046 files in 18415 folders (1.23 TB)

I have half a dozen more HD to catalogue :)

I no longer have to plug in multiple hard drives if I have lost a file and need to find it

hope it works as well for you @wilt :)
 
Last edited:
JonathanRyan said:
go to the run menu and type CMD. In the box that opens, type

dir x:\ /s >> ~\Documents\directory_of_files.txt

where x is your drive letter. Repeat with all your drives changing just the x

This will create a text file on your Documents folder with the name of every file and the drive it's on. You can easily search this with a text editor.

E.g.
View attachment 284880
Click to expand...
Just what I was about to say!

A Microsoft article on the above
 
JonathanRyan said:
go to the run menu and type CMD. In the box that opens, type

dir x:\ /s >> ~\Documents\directory_of_files.txt

where x is your drive letter. Repeat with all your drives changing just the x

This will create a text file on your Documents folder with the name of every file and the drive it's on. You can easily search this with a text editor.

E.g.
View attachment 284880
Click to expand...
Rapscallion said:
Just what I was about to say!

A Microsoft article on the above
Click to expand...
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top