SearchMyDiscs by 10-Strike: Using SearchMyDiscs

Home • Reviews • Forums • News 2015 • 2013 • 2012 • 2009 • 2008 • 2007 • 2006 • 2005 • 2004
RSS Feeds • FOV Factor Table • Sensor Sizes | Definitions: A-D • E-H • I-L • M-P • Q-U • V-Z | Sitemap
Articles • Archived Websites (Pre-DigitalDingus): D100 Lounge • E-10 Club | Contact

SearchMyDiscs 3.0
by 10-Strike

Introduction
December 31, 2006

SearchMyDiscs Introduction • Using SearchMyDiscs • SearchMyDiscs Conclusion

SearchMyDiscs
Features: Organize the content on your burned CD/DVD collection of files and view the content without ever having to access the media itself; label your virtual CD and DVD discs for more familiar browsing
Company Website: 10-Strike.com
SearchMyDisc Homepage:
http://www.10-strike.com/searchmydiscs/
MSRP: $39.95 ($29.95 online price)

Using SearchMyDiscs is fairly simple. What I recommend is grabbing about five or so CDs and DVDs with various content and then letting SearchMyDiscs scan each one. Below, we'll take a look at how this is done. One thing to keep in mind when you're about to catalog your CD and DVD collection of files, is to make sure you have some sort of idea or goal of how you would want your file collection to be organized. SearchMyDiscs has a variety of ways to do this, and has folders such as Games, Music, Programs, Video, and more as a default, but you can always make your folders to be something else and/or expand on the default folders.

Insert Your Disc

To begin cataloging your collection, you insert a CD or DVD into your CD or DVD Drive and a few moments later, SearchMyDiscs pops up a window, informing you of the media you inserted and whether to continue:

After clicking the continue button, SearchMyDiscs begins the scanning process...

Scanning will be finished rather quickly, depending on how many files are on the media disc, but if you want thumbnails of very good quality of a disc which has hundreds of images from your digital camera, it will take some time, so be prepared. I have a few DVDs of images (around 4GB of images) which took about an hour because I adjusted the settings so the thumbnails were at best quality and were 200x200 in size for easy viewing and also so I could distinguish them easier too. There's no point in making thumbnails so small you can't see what they are.

A Few Discs Cataloged

Below is a screenshot of a few CDs which were scanned and later renamed for easier recognition. Also, take note if your media disc has a purple color, it's an indication the very same CD or DVD is in your current media drive. This is a pretty slick and conspicuous way of informing you that your hard copy version is in a drive of your computer.

Properties: Very Important

When you right-click on a disc icon in the disks column, you have a variety of options, but one which is really important, is the Properties selection. When this comes up, you can now rename your disc because initially the disc serial number and label are being read by SearchMyDiscs. While the serial number and label are still permanently retained (as you can see below in the Label and Serial #window), you can rename the disc in the Title window.

The Catalog Tab

The Catalog area is where you'll do most of your organizing. There are many folder names already made for you and most of them make sense. As a result, I found myself making few revisions to the folders and used what was there.

By clicking on the folder with the green "+" in it, you bring up your collection of discs which have been scanned. Then, you simply drag and drop your folders and/or individual files into the respective cataloging folders.

There are many other features within SearchMyDiscs which I recommend trying out with your 30-day trial, such as the Lending option where you keep track of which discs your friends have been loaned.