Thanks for posting this. Will be much easier than the Excel spreadhsheet I've been using to track backups

Yared

Interesting program. Nice to know something like this exists. Right now though I am just struggling to figure out how I could take advantage of it. With disk prices just so cheap and only getting cheaper... backing up to optical media likely just won't be done for me anyway.

thrashnbash1

Though not as powerful, I make text files. One benefit is they can be read in any operating system, should you migrate:
At the command prompt:

tree d:\ /a > c:\cdlists\cd1tree.txt

dir /s d:\ > c:\cdlists\cd1dir.txt

The tree will give you an idea of the layout, and the dir listing will give you information like size and date.

@thrashnbash1: Hard drives are cheap both internal and external, very convenient, and can be PART of a good backup solution. There are many downsides:

While connected to a computer they are susceptible to:
-Viruses
-User error (accidental deletion)
-File system corruption
-Electrical surges.

Other downsides:
-Especially when powered on and even when powered off they are susceptible to mechanical shock. Dropping off a meter high desk can cause failure. You can drop DVDs all day long without failure. Also I'd think DVDs are probably safer against water damage.

-Failure frequently means loss of the entire volume. Which could be 500+ GB of data. A single DVD failure limits you to 4.7GB of data loss, and if part of the disc is bad you're more likely to be able to pull something off of it.

I frequently back up from my main internal hard drive onto an external hard drive, and then when I have enough data, or if it's something crucial, I'll made a DVD copy. I also use DVDs for archival stuff that I want to keep "just in case" without cluttering up my filesystem.

johnsmith1234

I use CDVista (which apparently has been renamed to Gentibus CD). It creates a database of all your CDs like this app. It also captures thumbnails of the images (option can be set per CD). Windows only and it's not open source.

[www.gentibus.com]

h3028

I wonder if it's possible to export archives for cross-platform use.

So far I used the freeware GWhere for this.
[www.gwhere.org]

Porree

WinCatalog Light

tonynyc

does this work to archive contents of external hard drives too? Also - I am interested in the labeling system people use for these so I can identify the specific drive when needed. Anyone have any tips on this subject?

kortcomponent

I have used whereisit [www.whereisit-soft.com] in the past for cataloging disks. It has a free version with some limitations but still very well featured. Not OS. But even the free version seem to be more well featured. Supports exif for photos, thumbnails, id3 for music, and all various kinds of metadata automatically. Supports report generation, keywords, categories, colored rules, etc. Supports remembering who did you lend a particular disk to. Supports cataloging even a folder off a hard drive. and much more - check it out.

daftary

@kortcomponent: The GWhere application I mentioned before supports external storage devices such as external hard disks.

I don't really understand your labeling question. Just give your HD an exclusive name that makes it distuingishable from your other volumes...

Porree

whereisit is a wonderful software, and one of the my favourites.

If you frequently find that you download files that already exist in your huge repository of external HD/DVD/CD media, you need whereisit.

kewlda

I've been a big fan of Cathy ( [www.snapfiles.com] ) for indexing. Lightweight, gets the job done.

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