The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/jrbearboy on 2024-10-03 02:48:24.
So I've been hoarding my data for years and years, I probably still have several school papers floating around on random drives.
Over the years, as happens, things fail. The dreaded tick tick sounds of something not being quite right. The quite scream of a drive finally deciding it's lived too long. And so I've backed things up and moved things around.
So, naturally problems arise. I know I must have that file somewhere, but where???? Strange, I could have sworn I had at least 20 more pages done on that writing thing I haven't looked at in years??? Wow, didn't I already download that PDF like eight times already? Why can I never find it?
So, I'm looking for a way to basically scan in my dozens of external drives, old internals, USB sticks, and what have you, and create an index of things. The types of files would be everything from old Minecraft worlds to videos to word docs to PDFs to mp3s.
At the very least, I'm looking for a program that doesn't need me to have all the drives plugged in at the same time to compare stuff, because if nothing else I can't even imagine how you would plug in so many things at once. Just index what's on drive A and drive B and tell me if the same file pops up. Then index drive C and tell me if anything matches, and so on...
Ideally, I want a program that can index and scans the data, not just file names. And can tell me "hey, drive A has a file call ABCD, and drive B has a file called EFGH, but looks like it might be the same file" because I (know I) might have changed names on the same files over the years. Or downloaded something from 2 different sources. Also being able to find different versions of a file, so like a word doc where I for some reason have 5 drafts saved would be great.
Best case would maybe be some kind of AI tool that could look through the files and take notes of each one, then as new stuff gets indexed, it goes back to it's notes to flag stuff that's similar. And then I can also look over these notes to know generally speaking what I have where. Massive bonus points if it worked on not just word docs and PDFs but pictures and videos as well.
Must have: I don't want anything needing to connect to Wi-Fi or cloud. Some of these files are things like old doctor notes, tax stuff, banking info. It's all staying under my roof.
What I have: I have auxiliary laptops that I can just set up to run in the background so time isn't an issue, one is Linux and the other Windows 10. I would like it not to be monstrously expensive, but if the program is good enough, I'd spend maybe $100 max to finally clean up and know where my files all are.
If anyone can suggest a super dupper magic box that can do all this, and runs 8000% faster then any laptop I could think of, and can do 12 drives at once, and all I need to do is plug and play, that I might be willing to spend considerably more on.
So, any advice anyone wants to give would be greatly appreciated. And if you know of any programs that can do what I'm asking, please let me know. Or any hardware advice. Thanks for reading.