Am I correct that this software doesn't exist?

[WeakButHopeful]

I find myself with hundreds of thousands of files scattered on my main PC, file server, backup CDs and now backup DVDs. I've been looking around Google, CNET, etc. for software that would do four things:
1) suck all the file names from all my folders both local and on my home network and all my backup CDs/DVDs into a big database along with file properties like creation date, ID3 data for MP3s, EXIF data for images, etc. (I've got a fast enough computer with a big enough hard drive to handle that)
2) let me launch the default app to open any given local or network file (thumbnails of image files would be nice)
3) let me tag files (as I got around to it) according to user defined categories and also assign quality levels and ratings
4) let me search for files by category and/or quality and/or rating and locate all versions (such as on backups). For example, find all vacation photos from New England with quality greater than 5 and rating greater than 5 (or something like that).

If this software exists, I haven't found it yet. As usual, you can find things that come close, but finding the whole package is the challenge.

Another possible answer to my question is, how do you folks keep track of all your photos, MP3s, documents and the backups of same. I know many different file formats each have their own way to apply tagging (ID3, EXIF and other metadata) but I'm looking for a way to bring some common order to all these different schemes, while also managing different versions/backups.

I could probably write something using a sufficiently robust database server, but I'm currently pretty busy and I'd be willing to pay for the software if it existed.

 

[rdale]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!!!

I'll look around if ya like, it is kind of a tall order...

 

[567234ta]

thats software is called a secretary.

 

[WeakButHopeful]

Yeah, I didn't think it existed, but thought I'd double check before giving up. rdale04, don't spend time on this for me, unless you're also interested. Thanks folks!

 

[rdale]

thats software is called a secretary.

lol, that was my first thought... being a couple payments behind on my humor bill, I figured WeakButHopeful was half tounge in cheek, half, well, ya never know... throw it out there...

Where Is It? - $39.95 USD
Detailed information about every file, folder, or disk

Detailed information about every file, folder, or disk
Every item in catalog includes detailed basic information about files and folders you would come to expect, like name, size, date, file attributes and similar, but WhereIsIt adds to that its own information it provides as a catalog program. For example, every item can include up to 32 KB textual description, a small thumbnail image, you can assign items custom-defined, multi-level categories or flags, you can even assign them so-called alias names, under which are they known in catalog - for example, if the real file name is to cryptic. When displayed in WhereIsIt, items can be colored according their type, assigned categories or flags... All of those can be used to find items you are looking for, or just make browsing your disk images a lot simpler and more fun.

Report generator not only allows you to print your reports on your printer or send them by fax using the Microsoft Fax, it is also used for exporting cataloged data to other formats, including ASCII files, Excel tables, rich-text RTF documents, HTML documents...

 

[WeakButHopeful]

I am humbled rdale04...I normally consider myself a decent "Google-er" but either I gave up too soon or else I've still got more to learn about doing research.

After posting the question it hit me that (if my motives were doubted) it could appear that I was shilling for whatever company did publish the software. I can only offer my assurances (for whatever they're worth) that wasn't my intent. I just wanted to find such software and buy it rather than trying to develop my own. And thanks to rdale04 I've found a candidate (though of course I haven't had time to try it out yet). Seems on target though (?).

Thanks again!

 

[rdale]

Quite welcome WeakButHopeful, hope it works. I downloaded it also, and will give it a go later.

Afraid I had a little edge on Mr Google this time... saw it mentioned at another forum a couple months ago. Unfortunately, it took overnight for the synapses to hookup, and remember where...