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Sustaining monitor of recordsdata saved throughout a number of, unconnected exhausting drives could be a chore, however indexing and database applications may help even when the exhausting drive is not related to a pc.
These instruments are useful when getting ready to maneuver knowledge to a NAS system, organising drives right into a customized RAID configuration, or simply remembering what was saved on exhausting drive quantity 4 at residence.
NAS, or community connected storage, supplies shared storage that a number of customers can entry. Because the system is related to a community, its contents will be accessed from wherever, appearing as a non-public cloud. We advocate NAS as a technique to handle and share knowledge with family and friends, and there are many units that work nice with Apple units.
However, they are often dear. A extra widespread technique of storage not on a storage-constrained inside SSD is only a pile of flash drives or exhausting drives.
For instance, Highlight, the built-in search engine for the Mac, builds an index of the file system to make recordsdata and folders searchable. However that is reliant on the storage being on-line and accessible to to the looking Mac.
Protecting monitor of which drives recordsdata reside on is easy with third-party functions, whether or not hosted on a NAS or saved as separate disks. These apps convey Highlight-like capabilities to exhausting drives aside from the Mac’s disk.
Contents
DiskCatalogMaker
DiskCatalogMaker catalogs media storage units and may archive content material. The icons of disks related to a Mac will be dragged and dropped into DiskCatalogMaker to start out searching.
It supplies a batch scan mode to scan a number of disks in an intuitive interface just like Finder. Discover by identify or different file attributes, search by means of catalogs utilizing Highlight, and use AND/OR boolean search expressions to rapidly drill into directories.
DiskCatalogMaker can catalog folders on a community quantity and import catalog knowledge from different applications. It is accessible on the Mac App Retailer for $69.99 with Household Sharing. Single-user licenses can be found for $38.99 on the corporate’s web site.
Disk Supervisor
Disk Supervisor imports disk contents to a database, permitting them to be browsed and searched even when offline. It securely backs up disk file info and may discover duplicate recordsdata to save lots of cupboard space. As well as, it helps protected logins with a password.
Like DiskCatalogMaker, Disk Supervisor accepts wealthy boolean search queries so as to add or exclude recordsdata, folders, and disks. It is accessible within the Mac App Retailer for $4.99..
Digital Volumes View
Digital Volumes View catalogs exhausting drives, CDs, DVDs, and different storage mediums for offline search. It combines recordsdata and folders into one digital file system, displaying metadata from audio recordsdata too. The app can share the catalog in a community server amongst Home windows, Linux, and macOS computer systems.
Digital Volumes View shops knowledge in a relational database that may deal with hundreds of thousands of rows, however the firm guarantees VVV is quick, even with massive catalogs. It reveals the content material of disks in three views:
- Bodily view – This reveals the content material of every disk. Folders and recordsdata are structured in a conventional listing.
- Digital view – Information is organized as one digital file system. Folders will be created, and bodily volumes and folders will be assigned to a digital folder. Recordsdata will be assigned to a couple of digital folder, and digital folders can comprise recordsdata saved on completely different disks.
- Search view – The catalog will be looked for recordsdata that meet varied standards.
Digital Volumes View assures clients that its app is totally contained in its set up folder and will not intervene with the working system. It is accessible to obtain totally free, and the supply code can be downloaded and inspected.
