Ok so. Even with a combined 1.5TB, I’m running out of space. So, a thorough re-organisation is required. I need to go through it all, chuck out a load of obsolete/no longer needed files, back certain stuff up to DVDs, and have a general re-organisation.

The idea is to have:

1x250GB disk as the main boot drive. Current projects and frequently used things like iPhotos, iTunes etc on here.

1x250GB drive as alternative boot disk; partitioned into 2 bits, with 2 OS’s, as emergency boot disk and older OS disk for a couple of older apps that don’t work under current OS.

2x500GB disks in a mirrored RAID, as storage and back-up to stuff on main disk.

That’s easy enough. The clear out will take several days, if not weeks, I fear.

But what I would like to know, if it’s possible to create a catalogue of all my files; filename, where it’s stored, if it’s on DVD/CD, etc. Without having to manually input all the data. And preferably in a searchable form, for eg if I want to find files for a particular project, I can have a searchable database, which will then tell me where a particular file is, or if it’s only on a DVD or whatever.

Is this at all possible? Surely it must be? Will I need any particular software? I have the standard Mac apps, as well as MS Office etc. Can something be done in Excel/Numbers?

A simple version of this is my movies catalogue; it’s just a simple file with a list of discs and the movies on each one, so I don’t have to stick each bloody disc in to find the movie I want. What I would like, is this, but with a search function. I know I can use the search function in Finder, or Spotlight, to find a file that’s ‘online’, but what about ‘offline’ files?

Anyone got any ideas? Must be do-able, surely?

Depending on how geeky you want to get, I’d have thought scripting Spotlight would do what you want?

First hit looks promising – searching on metadata

How does that work?

Bear in mind I just do pretty pictures; I have little knowledge of other computery stuff. 😳

Spotlight is excellent for searching for stuff, so that would be good to use actually. Can I get it to ‘remember’ discs that have been created?

For example; with my movies, I have about 30 DVDs with 4 or 5 films on each one. I don’t want to store all these files on the computer, because it’s hundreds of gigs! Being able to use Spotlight or something to search for which disc a particular film is on would be fantastic.

EG, ‘Star Wars; – on disc no. 4’, that sort of thing.

There are ‘real’ programmers on here who could tell you better, but my plan would be to make sure all removable volumes have an identifiable volume name, and script the output of the search into a database or .csv file – anything that can be searched easily and gives nice columns like ‘filename’ ‘volume name’ ‘location’ ‘type’. Then I’d run the script against the volume periodically to catalogue, and search the catalogue when I was stuck.

Although to be honest, probably the easiest and most elegant way is to buy a twatting great NAS box (or USB hdd) with some redundancy and move all your data into nice neat piles on it. Then just use Spotlight as is. Tb SATA is relatively cheap these days, and with the right NAS box you’d be able to stream straight from it to Mac or a media box or a console pretty easily. Use the shelf space from the DVDs for a vinyl nostalgia section or something.. Are You Experienced on vinyl, the only way to listen to it..

This is sort of what I do, but I have very little stuff that I don’t know where it is… my desk is a bombsite, but my files are very neat 😉

Ah, I’ve discovered something called Disktracker, which seems to be what I’m looking for. Anyone used it?

I’d prefer something that uses the Finder or Spotlight really I spose.

“The clear out will take several days, if not weeks, I fear.”
😯 That happened to me once. Too much corned beef. Bound up in my back body something terrible…

That Disktracker looks very 20th Century 😐

I reckon Brassneck has it about right with letting spotlight or Google QSB take the strain.

You should be able to output the list of files on each DVD to a text file, which you name according to the number of the DVD in the collection. Spotlight will then index the contents of those files too – no need for a database for those IMHO.

This shows you the unix command to list the contents – http://www.deeindesign.com/blog/2010/02/directory-file-list-for-mac-os-x/

This is good for helping identify the large files hogging space http://www.derlien.com/

And this is good for finding duplicate files http://download.cnet.com/Duplicate-Files-Searcher/3000-2248_4-178698.html

That Disktracker looks very 20th Century

That’s what I thought. OS9!!

Geoff; that unix command tip is pretty good actually. A spotlight search will reveal the file the name I type in is in. I’d need to create separate files for each disc, so it’s a bit long-winded, but that looks like a pretty neat and simple solution. The only thing is that the filenames end up looking like this, which is a bit untidy looking:

-rw-r–r– 1 user user 2xxxxx 3 Mar 2010 Photo-0028.jpg

But it does mean I might be able to create a folder full of files which can be used as a catalogue, so close to what I want. I’m going to have a crack at it after my swim.

Thanks for all your help. I am closer to my solution….

The only thing is that the filenames end up looking like this, which is a bit untidy looking

You could prolly tidy them up in Excel if you wanted to, or write a script in something to strip out the rubbish as a batch job.