Archive Manager Capabilities

[Niko]

First of all: I love the this search engine for its speed and its easy-to-use interface. Most of the comparable programs are overfeatured and therefore pretty slow, and I tested a lot.
Keep it as simple as it is!

My Problem: I have a huge ammount of media files spreaded over 10 USB-Drives(NTFS) and 1 NAS-device. Those devices can't be online all the time, offline searching is the only way to retrieve certain files within a reasonable time. Unfortunaltely the automatic reindexing of Everything discards all the information of unattached drives in the database. And: media archives on external drives don't change very often, which means, that in most cases one initial automatic indexing run (and selectiv manual indexing if necessary) would be enough.

Suggestion: Make Everything an archive manager for all those Terabyte medialibrary users out there!
This could be a way to do it:
1. Detect volumes by volume-name, each drive can be identified by a unique name (maybe that's the way you do it already).
2. Keep index of non attached devices in the database (and the volume in the Tools->Options->Volumes Panel) and reindex the volume by default, when it is reattached.
3. Add a 'keep index' option to each listetd volume on the Tools->Options->Volumes Panel (<off> by default). [This keeps the index of a non-attached volume in the database.]
4. Add a 'reindex manually' option to each listed volume on the Tools->Options->Volumes Panel (<off> by default). [This stops auto-reindexing and enables manual indexing on that volume.]
5. Add a reindex manually command somewhere. This should only reindex attached devices with the 'reindex manually'-option <on>

This will keep (by default) the actual behaviour of the system, but enables offline searching.

Although I know, that searching speed of Everything depends on the existance of NTFS File tables, and NAS-accsess would slow it down. (... and Speed is what's all about), but .. It would be great to me if Everything would support NAS-devices too!

I really have no idea which effort will be necessary to implement this but I think, it would fit well in the workflow-philosophie of Everything.

[David]

1. Detect volumes by volume-name, each drive can be identified by a unique name (maybe that's the way you do it already).

Currently "Everything" identifies volumes by their path name, drive serial number and USN Journal Id.
This information is stored in the database and it if differs to your current setup, "Everything" will rebuild the database.

2. Keep index of non attached devices in the database (and the volume in the Tools->Options->Volumes Panel) and reindex the volume by default, when it is reattached.
3. Add a 'keep index' option to each listetd volume on the Tools->Options->Volumes Panel (<off> by default). [This keeps the index of a non-attached volume in the database.]

It should be possible to update the database when the volume is reattached without having to rebuild the entire database.
Added to my "Things to do" list.

4. Add a 'reindex manually' option to each listed volume on the Tools->Options->Volumes Panel (<off> by default). [This stops auto-reindexing and enables manual indexing on that volume.]
5. Add a reindex manually command somewhere. This should only reindex attached devices with the 'reindex manually'-option <on>

This will be possible with file lists which is planned for a future release.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Niko]

Dear David,

thank you very much for answering and putting improved update of reattched devices to your to do list.

Please allow me two more questions in this context:
Will the mentioned 'file lists' provide the capability to search for filenames and folders (of previous indexed volumes) even when the volume is not attached
and possibly allow indexing (and offline-searching) on NAS-volumes?

Niko

[David]

Will the mentioned 'file lists' provide the capability to search for filenames and folders (of previous indexed volumes) even when the volume is not attached and possibly allow indexing (and offline-searching) on NAS-volumes?

Yes, I have started work on the 'list' tab. You can see the blank list tab in the latest alpha version.
I have re-written a large chunk of the database code to allow subst volumes/drives/folders and volumes mounted to NTFS folders.
With this re-write it has also made it possible to include custom file lists.

From the list tab, you will be able to include custom file lists in the database.
You will be able to create a custom file list from any folder in windows.
Each list will have an update now button.

You will be able to mount the custom files to any location in "Everything".

I wish to support two versions of the custom file lists.
1). Uncompressed, human readable version.
2). Compressed, unreadable.
You should be able to convert between the two in Everything.

I will add the option to File -> Export to export the currently displayed items in the result list to a custom file list, so you can share you file lists with others easily.

I am also looking at the option to automatically include custom file lists in the root of non-ntfs volumes.

From I previous discussion I would like to add the option to automatically update the custom file list when the volume is attached (if it was created from a NTFS volume).

At this stage I would like to keep the volume tab strictly for online volumes.

[Niko]

Dear David,

thank you for this detailed explanation. I think those 'file lists' match my needs. While waiting for the new release I'll do some testing with the aktual.

Thanks again ..