Cathy Catalogs Everything

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Catalogs HDDs, CD-Rs, DVDs or even diskettes
  • (4 more, see all...)

There is nothing like a woman's hand when it comes to organizing things around the house. From where I stand, there is no question that women are more organized than men are...although girls should not get "cocky" about this. Recent studies showed that a disorganized person is much more efficient in his/her work than one that neatly arranges all the files according to categories of search and importance. The trouble is that the efficiency is restricted to the task at hand, and if the past is dug up that chaos theory embracer will have no recollection at all.

For those chaos lovers out there that need a resource to dig up long forgotten files and folders, all is not lost as there is still a solution. Let me introduce you to Cathy, an application created with one aim only: to catalog any sort of storage medium you have. From CD-Rs, DVDs and even diskettes, the application will thoroughly index all the encountered files.

Cathy is cheap, maybe too cheap for what it can do. Actually, Cathy is absolutely free of charge and does the job no questions asked. You have to appreciate this.

The looks are not working to Cathy's advantage as the interface is as plain as a Notepad sheet. There is absolutely no color in the application window except for the software's icon and that of the indexed folders. Other than this, everything is captured in a gloomy black and white.

Cathy does not need to install on your computer, ergo no uninstall is required. So the registry will not suffer another plethora of files that decrease the performance of your computer. All you have to do when deciding that you've had enough is delete the executable from your computer.

I have to warn you that neophytes will have a tough job handling Cathy as the help file popping up the minute you execute the application is not too explanatory and some of the users may find the details confounding and tough to assimilate. But if you don't belong to the aforementioned category things should go quite smooth.

There are only three tabs to deal with: Catalog, Directory and Search. In order to start indexing the drives and removable media you will have to start backwards, with Catalog. Starting the process consists in browsing to the folder/drive you want to catalog (notice that the volume label is automatically appended) and press Add button. The files to be ignored are already set, but if you are not satisfied with the default settings feel free to change them with your own.

The user can add a brief comment to describe that set of files and the automatically appended volume label can be changed according to your needs. If you choose to catalog compressed files, be sure to check the Archive box, it'll help when you start searching for files.

Catalog window shows serious amount of information on each item in the list. You will have the date and time of the creation, amount of free space on the volume, number of files and folders indexed, the volume it is located on, the user appended comment and the path to the location of the catalog. Regarding the last information, you should know that the location is wherever the executable of Cathy resides. Deleting the indexes results in losing all the catalogs.

Double clicking on the catalogs will open them in the Directory tab. This way you can browse them without accessing the original media the data is stored on. The size for each item is revealed in the case of folders as well as the number of containing files.

The last of the tabs available in Cathy is the most difficult to use for finding specific files. Search option may not look so appealing to novices and even average users as there is a series of rules to follow in order to find what you need. The search criteria made available let you set date parameter and length of the file.

A simple typing of part of the file you are looking for will suffice for Cathy to display all the results it can find. However, its abilities go beyond this task and using certain query formulas (basic regular expressions) you can look for all the files with specific extensions, like all the MP3s in that catalog (type ".mp3|").

Cathy proves sort of efficient in duplicate files finding, also, but I recommend to look twice at the files as there may be some inconsistencies in name, date and size. During our testing there were lots of false positives as the name matched, size matched and sometimes even the date matched, but the path to the file was different. Checking on the accuracy revealed that the two files were not identical in content.

The user can generate a report containing all the filenames of the search results. All there is to it is to select the files that have to be in the report, right click and choose to copy to clipboard from the context menu. Next you have to open a text editor and paste the content of the clipboard. In the case of MP3 files you have the option of creating a playlist file.

If you are looking for a report with more extensive information, select Full List option from the context menu and all the details will be saved in a TXT file, in a user-defined location.

Cathy is absolutely free and is able to catalog a great deal of digital media, from the almost extinct diskettes to DVDs (we could not test it for BDs). It is easy to handle and the startup tips (also available in Help menu) provide comprehensive information on working with it.

The Good

Absolutely free and it requires no installation. The ease of use and its cataloging capabilities makes it a great tool to keep rack of all your files stored either on fixed disks or on removable media.

The Help file answers all the possible questions and gives all the solutions for employing Cathy to its full potential. The executable is less than 60KB large.

The Bad

The user cannot define the location for storing the catalogs and there is no backup possibility.

The interface is colorless and looks too plain.

The Truth

Cathy is a very simple solution for cataloging all your files and the indexing process is extremely fast. The application comes with no bells and whistles and addresses the users seeking functionality and utility instead of good looking softwares with lots of options (most of which you are never going to use).

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 3
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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