Organised - DiscCatalogMaker

Well I've made it to the end of the library of CDs, DVDs, DVDRWs etc. etc. and using this package I have managed to catalog 223 discs which hold a total of 69,138 files, I can now find practically anything easily, I hope! Below is a screen shot of the listing that this nice little package produces which makes it very easy to browse the stored material, clicking on the arrow on the LHS obviously opens up the actual file/folder listings on the disc so that you can check whether it's the one you want before retrieving it.

A simple search of the system for "RacerMate" reveals all the Software I have available and it's then a simple matter to retrieve discs 174, 175, 176, 192 or 204 depending which package I might need at the time. Here is the "RacerMate" search window, the search takes a fraction of a second and the search options are very flexible.

The system also generates small thumbnails of video/image files which makes it easy to identify a particular file that might be required before selecting the disc from the library.

This has required some up front time investment but I think over the years it will save me a hell of a lot of time and more importantly, a hell of a lot of aggravation trying to find something. I also reckon that actually having all the material easily accessible will probably make me use it more rather than not bothering because of the hassle of actually finding things.

DVDs etc. may be quite old technology but I reckon they are pretty reliable if cared for properly, if one doesn't read the whole lot isn't lost and using this kind of arrangement storage is essentially infinitely expandable and material is very accessible. In the short term disc image files are accessed on an external HD but as HD storage fills older .dmg files are allowed to fall off the system and optical media are accessed as required.