14 DAY TRIAL // Do you think it's easy to find the CD with last summer's photos? But what about the CD you remember to have burnt five years ago with some source code you need to walk through again, one of those 500 CDs with source code that can be found in your department's lockers? I don't have thousands of optical discs in my collection, but it's always a nightmare to find what I'm looking for if that is not on a disc catalogued using a specialized software...
...like DiskCatalogMaker X 4.2, an application to help you track data inside your collection that had its last version released five days ago. To run this program, you have to use Mac OS X version 10.2.8 or later, with no worries that issues may arise concerning your computer's processor and compatibility, because DiskCatalogMaker is available as a Universal Binary file, fully compatible with both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs.
The size of the package you have to download is 2.9MB, and there's no setup program to run, just drag the DMG file to your Applications folder and DiskCatalogMaker X is ready to go!
There's not much to say about this program's interface, since I wasn't able to find anything special about it. Please don't get me wrong, DiskCatalogMaker's interface is well organized and easy to use, but you can't customize it much. All the basic actions are available from the main window - Scan, Batch Scan, Rescan and Info are the icons that need only a click to start the actions behind, and a Find tool is also available to the upper right; but before we get there, I have a few more things to tell you...
When I get such a program in my hands, the first question is always about the type of media it can scan, and I was really pleased to see that DiskCatalogMaker doesn't have any limits here - Blu-Ray, DVD, CD, USB drives, folders on your hard drive, practically anything that connects to your computer and can store data can be scanned by this program. Even better, sometimes you don't have to use the program's menus or icons; if it's easier, just drag and drop the file/folder/drive to add to the current catalog and it's done!
Do you want to have your archives scanned too? I know, I know, it's going to take a long time and the resulting catalog file is going to be larger, but... better lose a little time now than a lot more later! Our disk catalog here is able to scan ZIP, StuffIt, LHA and Compact Pro Archives, and the option is disabled by default, so if you want to follow my advice... do what you have to do!
Now, let's get back to the Find tool, another weak or strong point of such programs, and it all depends on how fast it is. In this case, DiskCatalogMaker scores a large white ball, because its Find feature is fast as lightning and really well done, despite the fact that it doesn't support regular expressions.
Before moving on to the conclusions, I have to tell you that I really enjoyed this program, and despite its small drawbacks, I can say that DiskCatalogMaker X is worth its price.
The Good
DiskCatalogMaker X is really easy to use, can scan all kinds of media storage devices and even archive contents, and its Find feature is excellent. All these are more than enough for 19$, but you can check the shareware version for free, just like I did, of course!
The Bad
It would be nice to have RAR archive support added, as well as the ability to export catalogs to a popular format, like XLS or even HTML, at least that's what I would like to see.
The Truth
Do you want to track all your files easily? Get DiskCatalogMaker X then, it's not something that you should do, it's "a must"! Good luck!
Check out the screenshots here:
