Catalog Media With Azzul
On which CD was that backup again? On which DVD did I burn last year's holiday photos? If you work a lot with media on optical disks you may want to have the means on the computer to browse and search through all of your disks right on the computer.
Azzul is a free program for Windows that offers to catalog media. The cataloging software works with catalogs that can consist of one or multiple disks each. To be precise, Azzul can not only catalog media from optical disks, but also from hard drives and other storage devices connected to the computer.
The cataloging begins by creating a new catalog in the software. Each catalog is defined by a name and optional description. It is then displayed in the left sidebar, and new media can be added to it by right-clicking it and selecting Create New Disk, or selecting the same option from the top menu.
This opens a file browser where a drive letter or directory can be selected for inclusion in the catalog. It takes less than a minute to add the file and directory structure of the selected folder or media to the catalog.
Each item is listed with a descriptive name and its size in the program. The name is taken from the media name or directory. It is possible to change the name and description in the disk properties.
All items that have been added to the catalog this way can be browsed directly in the program interface. It displays all files and folders, along with their sizes and attributes.
A search is provided to find files in large catalogs. Here it is possible to search using plain text, wildcards or regular expressions. It is for instance possible to display all files of a specific type, (e.g. .doc), or that contain the entered phrase. The results highlight the media the file is stored on, and a click on a file in the results displays that file in the file structure of the catalog.
The program feels very responsive and fast, both when cataloging media but also when performing searches or browsing files in a catalog. Azzul is an open source software for Windows. The disk cataloging software is available for download at the project's page at Sourceforge.
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