Hard Drive Folder Database

M

mcp6453

Like many here, I have quite a few retired hard drives with archived and
valuable data of all sorts. As time goes on, it becomes increasingly
difficult to find files. Is there a utility for XP that will start at
the root of a hard drive, scan the tree, and output the results to a
text, Excel, or Access file? It is easy to attach the drives to a
computer with an IDE-to-USB converter.
 
P

PD

Like many here, I have quite a few retired hard drives with archived and
valuable data of all sorts.
Click to expand...

Every time I retire a drive, I take my "valuable data" with me to the
new drive. I've got stuff on this drive from 15 years ago.

Is there a utility for XP that will start at
the root of a hard drive, scan the tree, and output the results to a
text, Excel, or Access file? It is easy to attach the drives to a
computer with an IDE-to-USB converter.
Click to expand...

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.asp
 
M

mcp6453

DL wrote:

The hard drives are not installed in a computer. They are shelved for
archiving purposes. I don't see how a desktop search utility will be of
any benefit.

I tried Simple Disk Catalog, which does a great job, but after the
search, clicking on a column header does not sort the data in the
column, which makes browsing the search results tedious.

Karen's utility is great for printing a single drive, but its cataloging
function seems to be limited to exporting to a .txt file.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.
 
R

rod

I use one called "Cathy Disk cataloguer" and find it marvelous,
it logs every folder file in the tree hiearchy.
the only cost, one has to send a postcard to the author's daughter.
I have had it for years so you will have to Google for it.
It does a full CD rom of archived data in a few seconds,
I download the results to an MSWorks flat file database
for easy searching.
Good Luck.
 
J

John W. Vinson

Like many here, I have quite a few retired hard drives with archived and
valuable data of all sorts. As time goes on, it becomes increasingly
difficult to find files. Is there a utility for XP that will start at
the root of a hard drive, scan the tree, and output the results to a
text, Excel, or Access file? It is easy to attach the drives to a
computer with an IDE-to-USB converter.
Click to expand...

You can use the DIR() function recursively in VBA to construct such a list
(writing to a table). Allen Browne has some sample code at

http://allenbrowne.com/ser-59alt.html

Amusingly, this is a good example of "what goes around comes around"; Allen's
credits are

Provided by Crystal (Microsoft Access MVP), April 2007. Based on code by Allen
Browne, adapted from a Usenet posting by Albert Kallal (Microsoft Access MVP.)

So from Allen to Albert to Crystal to Allen...!




John W. Vinson [MVP]
 
M

mcp6453

Thanks, Rod. I'm playing with it now. It's obviously a well written
little utility.
 
R

rod

From memory, it had its quirks,
I remember having a few frustrations setting the fields,
but when you set up to choice, its a breeze,
A bit like all software I guess.
 
Top