How to index a removeable hard drive with a library?

Question

I've got several gigabytes of various books in various formats just sitting on my hard drive, as well as few removable 80Gb drives, so I thought - why not create library drives.

I would like a search system, very similar to the late google desktop, but instead of indexing all my hard drives all the time, it would index my removable hard drive on my requests, and store the index on the hard drive itself

Ideally it would have OCR capabilities to work with .jpg books I've got, but I know, that's a lot to ask for.

Can someone recommend me some software that does this?

The OS is Windows 7 64bit

Answer 1

Windows 7 has default search index options available.

My Computer -> Right-Click Removable Drive -> Properties -> Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties

That is on by default, I'm not sure where these index files are saved.

Using Windows 7 libraries to index your hard drives is probably the best option without using third party utilities.

Can I include a folder that isn't always available on my computer or isn't indexed?

If the folder is on a device that is compatible with libraries (such as an external hard drive), it can be included. However, the content of the folder will only be available when the device is connected to your computer.

To index the external drive Navigate to your Libraries. To do this, open Explorer and press F4 then type Libraries and press Enter

Once their, Right-Click -> New -> Library Give it a name, then include your external drive as a "Folder"

You could also use Windows 7 default image program "Preview" to read your .jpg books, not ideal I admit, functional though.

Answer 2

Try GStar, personal collection manager:

GCstar is a free open source application for managing your collections. Detailed information on each item can be automatically retrieved from the internet and you can store additional data, such as the location or who you've lent it to. You may also search and filter your collection by many criteria.

For OCR I will search for it, I'll keep you informed !