Cataloging Software...

[TheProfessor]

I know alot of people have servers with RAID arrays and stuff but we back up everything to CD/DVD. We have CD's from the last 15+ years with no way to search except reading the cover of every CD... Does anyone use a disc cataloging software? I am looking for something that will create a master list so I can search easier for files or job numbers...

 

[Kevin-shopVOX]

If you are using CD or DVDs another option could be to buy an external hard drive. You can get a 500gig one for less than $200. You could put all of your current disks on there and have plenty of room for more.

 

[Bill Modzel]

I have a little application on Mac called Disk Tracker. It makes a searchable registry of all of my removable media. It works great. Most of my archived jobs are on DVD Ram disks and even about 25 old Zip disks.
I'm sure that there's some windows equivalent out there somewhere.

 

[iSign]

I use "Super cat"
love it...

I'm a little busy now, but do a search, I've described it & posted links a few times... or I'll check back later with more info...

 

[Gene@mpls]

I second the NAS(network storage)- they are cheap and good- google
Buffalo NAS. I would guess it would be easier to setup than a catalog-
and certainly easier for access. If you have a LAN you can access from
any computer on the network. Gene

 

[iSign]

I just moved my terabyte of data from the last 12 years to a Buffalo NAS, but it is in a directory structure that dates back to when I had 50 CD's for backup's, so one of my folders is "CD Archives" and there are 50 folders inside that named with the date of the CD backup. I used Supercat for over 8 years now & catalogued each of those CD's when I first began keeping copies on at least 2 external hard drives (I still have the CD's of course too) The rest of my top level directories in my NAS is the quarterly backup's from the last 4 years since upgrading from CD's.

Each folder of back-up data is named with the backup date. Each folder is catalogued by supercat which simply captures file names, dates, file sizes, and the folder it resides in. This means the "catalogue" file for a 100 gig backup is less than 1 mg of data....


...so, as you can imagine, running a search of a NAS with a terabyte of data is going to take some time... running a search of the catalogues will find the keyword in a split second, & I can then see all the hits on that keyword, filenames, dates, sizes & the full path of folders withing folders to direct me to that file.

 

[TheProfessor]

Thanks so much!!! we have three designers each with 2-3 external hard drives EACH and I have a catalog of over 400 back-up DVDs from one designer, and that doesnt include anyone else's sets...

plus more externals isnt really in the budget right now, unfortunately But I'm going to check out both programs mentioned. again thanks

 

[Creative_Lance]

You can use Picasa 3.0 for all of your non vector files, it scans all the images on your removable drives and save them automatically (as long as you don't change the drive's letter) , you can search and retrieve any file easily, very fast and useful, i use it every day.