I use my MacBook most of the time and I seem to use the max amount of hard drive space. So, I tend to backup everything to clear some space. Sometimes, more than once. I occasionally forget if I had done a backup or not, so I backup the same things, just in case. I decided to search the Internet to see if there were any programs that would allow me to see what I had backed up, to avoid backing up the same data over and over again. I wanted the program to display the information I needed to know, such as the name of the item backed up, a picture of what was backed up, etc. and found the application DiskLibrary. I had checked out a couple of other applications, but this one does everything I need. If you have lots of files on external disks (like I do), and want an easy way to search for your data, along with visual cues of thumbnails, this application does it!

So, what does DiskLibrary do?

DiskLibrary helps you organize your images, movies, PDFs, music, and many other types of files you have stored on external media (see below for a list of the main supported file types).

Adobe Illustrator (AI) – thumbnail and metadata
Adobe Photoshop (8bps, psd) – thumbnail and metadata
BMP (bmp, bmpf) – thumbnail and metadata
GIF (gif) – thumbnail and metadata
HTML (html) – thumbnail only
JPEG (jpeg, jpg) – thumbnail and metadata
Mac Icon (icn, icns) – thumbnail only
Microsoft Word (doc, rtf) – metadata only
PDF (pdf) – thumbnail and metadata
Picture (pct, pic, pict) – thumbnail and metadata
PNG (png, pngf) – thumbnail and metadata
Postscript (EPSF, EPSP, EPS, PS) – thumbnail and metadata
QuickTime Image (qti, qtif) – thumbnail and metadata
RTF Rich Text Format (rtf, rtfd)
TIFF (tif, tiff) – thumbnail and metadata

DiskLibrary indexes the file structure of your CD, DVD, network volumes, USB flash drive or internal/external hard drives.

DiskLibrary also has the ability to create thumbnails for your image files along with thumbnails for album artwork for your AAC/MP3 files (see below for a list of the main supported file types).

AMF Movie Importer (m4a, m4b, m4p) – thumbnail and metadata
MP3 (mp3) – thumbnail and metadata
Windows Media Audio (WMA) – metadata only

When importing files, DiskLibrary gathers metadata for you (see below for a list of the main supported file types). NOTE: Perian plugin required for some formats.

AMF movie importer (m4v) – thumbnail and metadata
AVI (vfw) – thumbnail and metadata
DivX Movie (avi, divx) – thumbnail and metadata
Flash Macromedia (swf, swfl, flv) – thumbnail and metadata
MPEG (mpg, mpeg) – thumbnail and metadata
MPEG-4 (mp4, mp4g) – thumbnail and metadata
QuickTime Movie (mov) – thumbnail and metadata
Windows Media Video (wmv, wmp) – thumbnail only

Once you have data imported, you can use the Smart Catalog function to store your search results, like you would in Finder.

Let’s say you have imported .zip or .rar files. DiskLibrary creates an archive view for these file types.

If you need to search for a specific item, you can use the Advanced Search to search in all your imported catalogs based on the file name, data, category, metadata, or file.

Another cool feature of DiskLibrary is the ability to use the Space bar to preview an item. NOTE: this Quick Look function is only available in Mac OS X 10.5.

What if you don’t like the thumbnail image that DiskLibrary created? You have the option to change it by using drag and dropping to create a thumbnail you desire.

DiskLibrary gives you the option to import third party databases. Some of the applications allowed for importing are CDFinder, DiskTracker, DiskCatalogMaker X, and FileFinder.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later and 150 MB free hard disk space along with Universal Binary for PowerPC (G4) & Intel processors.

How to start using DiskLibrary

Once you have installed DiskLibrary onto your Mac, open the application, then insert the CD, DVD, USB flash drive and click on the ‘File’ located in the menu bar and go to ‘Add Catalog.’ Or you can just use your keyboard and hit Command+N. A window will pop up and you just click on ‘Import.’ If you want to create thumbnail images, make sure to check the ‘Catalog Media’ box. Now DiskLibrary will scan through the volume’s file structure and create thumbnails. This may take several minutes depending on the number of thumbnails being generated.

Once you have a catalog, you can rename it by double clicking on the name, not the image, and enter a new name. You can also edit the catalog by going to ‘Edit’ and scroll down to ‘Edit Catalog,’ or just hit Command+I.  From here, you can change the name, media type, location (where  the item is at physically), change the category, and add notes.

To manage your categories, just click on ‘DiskLibrary’ in the menu bar, scroll down to ‘Preferences,’ or click on Command+, (comma), and go to the ‘Categories’ tab. Just hit the ‘+’ sign to add a new category and the ‘-‘ sign to remove a category.

There is much more information at the Obvious Matter website regarding DiskLibrary. You can download a trial version of DiskLibrary 1.9.4 or you can purchase for $39 (USD) from the Obvious Matter website (or click on the icon to be directed to their website).

I don’t know how I survived without DiskLibrary. It has helped me keep all of my external files in order and keeps me from creating duplicates. If anybody has used this application and would like to share their experiences or has questions about it, leave a comment and share the wealth.