Podcast Academy

Internal data storage has reached the point where it can be considered ridiculously inexpensive. For example: I ordered my MacPro with the stock 250 gig hard drive. I have since added an additional 750 gigs [Western Digital 250 x1, Western Digital 500 x1] at a total cost of $170. This translates into a total of 1 TB of internal storage, with one drive bay available for an additional disc. Unbelievable.

How many of you store or backup data on removable media, specially DVD’s or CD’s? This method is a handy option in certain situations. The problem with this concept is indexing, especially if an abundance of small files are stored across a multitude of discs. I found a wonderful application that will maximize efficiency with external media management tasks.

On the surface Media Catalog is slick. The user interface has a clean design and it is 100% intuitive. Simply drag removable volumes onto the application, and the contents of each incorporated disc is embedded into a database. The disc contents will be catalogued for future reference. The key is that searching for and locating data does not require the discs to be mounted. Simply search for a file/folder/movie and Media Catalog will point you to it’s parent disc. One cool additional feature is a Statistics view that offers all sorts of valuable metadata, including information on files, folders, and searches.

Keep in mind specific file or data references are not required for efficient searching. The application does an excellent job anticipating exactly what you are looking for. Lastly, the application documentation makes reference to network compatibility. At this point I haven’t tested this feature.

Feel free to take Media Catalog for a spin. It is available for download on a trial basis or for purchase, priced at $24.99 US.

You will be impressed.