Recommended software for making a list of contents of external HDDs?

Hi everyone

I've been looking, somewhat unsuccessfully, to try and find some software that I could run on external HDDs (and even active internal HDDs) to make a searchable database of everything stored so I can find it again easily.

So rather than plugging in and searching each HDD I've got (currently numbering at over 50), I could just search for "Holiday 2014" and it would tell me which disk and it's location the 'Holiday 2014' folder was found.

If the software could also work on a NAS that would be absolutely perfect!


Pretty much all the software I can find is years out of date, discontinued, or looks like it was designed with Windows 3.1 in mind so I'm a bit stumped.

Does anyone have any suggestions?


Thanks!

https://www.whereisit-soft.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/1y99m8/whats_the_good_software_to_catalog_files_on/

create a batch file!

put "dir [driver letter]: >dir.txt" (without quotes) into notepad, save (make sure the extension is .bat)

run it, creates a text file called 'dir.txt'. rename files to identify with HDD.

and yes, it's cheap, it's old school, but it's also easy. plus you can search through the files with Windows easily

slipperydave said:

create a batch file!

put "dir [driver letter]: >dir.txt" (without quotes) into notepad, save (make sure the extension is .bat)

Click to expand...

That won't do you much good wihout the /S switch, unless all the files are in the root of the drive.

Hit "dir /?" at a command prompt for a full list of options, eg "dir /S /B /A /O:N x: >drive_X.txt" will give you a nice tidy list of all the filenames including their full path, sorted alphabetically, but without any extraneous info (such as size, timestamp etc).

I just use robocopy (included with Windows) to re-create the drive directory structure with 0-byte files, e.g:

If you're going to try this make sure you don't mix up the source/destination order otherwise you'll wipe your external

Thanks for the posts guys, that's really helpful!

KIA - I did find those links before posting (I do my research first!). Again, it seems that the software is old and rather out of date, or not free to use (probably should have specified that as preferable in my first post).

slipperydave & CaptainCrash, good advice guys, I did used to create text files but I was wanting something a bit more easy on the eye really, but having looked at the alternatives I think it's going to be the only option for one of the tasks I have in mind.

PaulM - thanks for the tip, I don't think I trust myself not to wipe a drive though, especially if I'm working on it when tired!

BlackAle - thank you for that link, that's almost perfect!
I did want a complete directory, instantly searchable, and that does the job superbly, I'm using it now!
The only thing that's not great with it, it recognises external HDDs by drive letter, as I've got so many drives to swap about it will end up recording two 'L' drives for example.
I think I'll have to post on their forum and see if there is a way of getting round that. Aside from that it's perfect for searching everything, so thanks!


The other thing I wanted to do was make a complete list of all the films I have and where they are stored. I tend to rip blu-rays and store them as MKVs (film in english only, no extra audio tracks or trailers etc., to keep file sizes as small as possible).
Due to bad organisation they are spread over multiple different drives, with even series (Star Wars etc.), spread over different drives, which is useless.

I think I'll have to use a text file and spreadsheet to make sense of what is where for all those drives, but once that's sorted, having them in a program that links to IMDB would be really handy.
If the missus fancies watching sci-fi genre etc., it would be good to put that selection into the program and it comes up with everything I have in that category.

I think that's my next port of call...software that can do that!

Great to hear you found 'Everything' to be nearly perfect for your needs. I see the issue you have, maybe if they included the option for the volume label as a column in the results that would solve it?

Updates to 'Everything' are rather sporadic, though they are testing a new release. I've been using it for years, I couldn't live without it now.

BlackAle said:

Great to hear you found 'Everything' to be nearly perfect for your needs. I see the issue you have, maybe if they included the option for the volume label as a column in the results that would solve it?

Click to expand...

I think that would be perfect for me as all drives have individual volume names...even if they were labelled 1,2,3 etc., that would distinguish them perfectly!

TheBigCheese said:

I think that would be perfect for me as all drives have individual volume names...even if they were labelled 1,2,3 etc., that would distinguish them perfectly!

Click to expand...

I'd suggest creating a post under their suggestion forum.

The only other way to do it currently is to use the file list facility within 'Everything', create a file list using the file list editor and save it as the volume label. Then enable the file list filename as a column in the results.

I wanted the do the same cataloging a good few years ago and after lots of searching and testing have ended up with two that you might find useful.
First one is Virtual Volumes View and Cathy. Both are free.

I ended up with Cathy as its very lightweight and quick but the search only works on basic keywords and doesn't support wildcards or any boolean searches.

VVV is very good but I found that the catalog files were quite large, hundreds of MB's. Unusual when you think that a Cathy catalog file or a dir text file is tiny in comparison. If you have lots of drives, the overall catalog files would amount to GB's! Maybe things have improved in latest version but I haven't tried since using Cathy.

PS: VVV is also available as a portable standalone app.

Read this thread found the 'Everything' link thanks Black Ale and Big Cheese been looking for a program like this.