Hello all, i'd like to know what kind of "system" you use to easily locate things you've backed up.

For example i have a collection of about 500 DVDs and CDs i've burnt over the years and it takes me close to an hour to locate something.

I sometimes use a marker to indicate SOME of the content on the CD.
I have no access to any lightscribe/inkprinting technology though.

I was thinking something in the sort of numbering them serially, and using some kind of software which lists and stores the contents of the CD, that i could use a regular-expressio search on.

Whats your opinion?

At the moment (I don't have any Lightscribe or Labelflash discs to hand - need to buy some), I just do the same thing you're suggesting - number them, and keep a log of what's on each discs.

You can do this in good ol' MS Word, or I use a software called VisualCD to tell me what's on which disc. Works a treat for all those DVDRs with mp3s etc backed up onto them.

My method is rather simple: I create a catalog of each disc every time I burn a disc.

To create catalogs I use this freeware editor, Keynote, that in my opinon is really useful because it allows to create text entries in a tree way, and each text file is showed like in windows explorer (See here a screenshot).

Some similar editors not free offer much features, but for a basic use this tool is very good

You may want to consider Disk Explorer too. It's free for home use.

DiskCat is another, which like VisualCD, is free.

or if you have a lot of money there is

http://www.imation.co.uk/products/di...kka/index.html

selectah
Try this http://www.smartcdcatalog.com

I like to use WhereIsIt? myself for cataloguing the contents of data discs, but I don't use it to catalogue my video discs.

WhereIsIt? is Shareware and it costs $40 USD to register.

on mac i use DiskCatalogMaker http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA008...kcatalogmaker/ and for windows CD DVD catalog http://www.hotbounce.com/cd-dvd-catalog.php

I use WhereIsIt?, same as DrageMester. I'm sure it's not the best software out there but I have an extensive catalogue of almost 300 discs which I really don't feel like rescanning with another software.
Or you can try Disk Explorer Pro. It is free and is said to be very good as well. http://www.tjelinek.com/main.php?section=dd

ok this cost a little money but it is a very good system, discgear will let you print out index sheets the one on the link hold 120 disc for 50 bucks if you get it from QVC, if you go to the discgear site they sell the same thing only a smaller verision 100 disc for $10 more, this has been a great storage system for me that takes up very little room
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/v...edia-Organizer

1TB external HDDs are under $100ea now. Just store everything there, and it'll be easy to find/access/transport. I have ~1TB internal on each of my systems, but I might go external when these drives start dying. The Maxtors seem to be the worst. I've lost at least 1 250GB already.

Of course, you can't store all of your DVD-Vs on HDD, but they're not a problem to know what's on them anyway.