Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

keep inventory of ext. HDD's folders/files even when disconnected

R

r0sert

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 20, 2021
4
0
Hi there,
after many a fruitless effort to figure out how to keep a list of files of my external hard drive, on my Mac's internal SSD (preferably according to original folder structure on external), I am seeking the wisdom of the crowd.
Basically I would like to keep an alias folder (or smart folder) of certain folders on my external hard drive, in the internal storage - possibly searchable but definitely browsable. Auto-updating would be a boon, too.
final goal: keep inventory of external HDD's folders, even when external HDD is disconnected, so that I won't have to connect each time I am looking for some file.

Is there a solution out there?

cheers
 
I could be wrong, but...

Seems to me that an "alias" is nothing more than "a pointer" of sorts, pointing to the actual drive on which the folders/files exist.

I've never seen an alias that can be "opened" until the source drive is connected.
You'll just get an error message telling you that the alias is broken and do you want to fix it or delete it...

If there's another "cataloguing solution" out there, I don't know what it is.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Fishrrman!

"a pointer" of sorts would be fine, since I just want to know what's on the disk. No need to open the files. In case there's a file I need, I can connect the HDD.
 
From you're description you are (perhaps unintentionally) stumbling on the realm of digital asset management (DAM) solutions for which vendors charge tens of thousands of dollars yearly for. Its a big business for creative houses.

Unfortunately I can't think of anything cheap or free that would give you what you want.

A free solution would be to periodically output your list of files to a local file and just search that.

' ls -R > output.txt ' make sure to backup before running commands

A paid solution would be beyond compare which will allow you to do the same thing but will provide a nice way to browse through the files.

Again neither of these solutions offer syncing of any kind. Those types of solutions are extremely expensive. Though if someone has released a low cost version I'd love to see it.
 
I seem to recall using a program that can create an index of what’s on your external disks, even when they are not plugged in. I can’t remember the name but it looks like an app called Disk Catalog Maker maybe does the same thing.

DiskCatalogMaker

DiskCatalogMaker is a simple disk management tool which catalogs disks and folders.
diskcatalogmaker.com
 
killawat said:
From you're description you are (perhaps unintentionally) stumbling on the realm of digital asset management (DAM) solutions for which vendors charge tens of thousands of dollars yearly for. Its a big business for creative houses.
Click to expand...

so now I unintentionally learned sth!

killawat said:
A free solution would be to periodically output your list of files to a local file and just search that.

' ls -R > output.txt ' make sure to backup before running commands
Click to expand...
I'll give it a shot. Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back