In the last post, I explained how to make DVD backups of any important stuff on your computer. Once you’ve done that, you end up with one or more DVDs full of stuff. Cool! But, as we all know, a box or a folder full of stuff is just that. There is no organization to the material in the box or folder.

Here’s where Cathy comes in. Cathy, which is available here, CATHY is the answer to your needs. Ok, not for the box but for the folder or DVD. Download Cathy and unzip the file onto your desktop. It unzips into a folder so just leave the folder there, where you can get at it later.

Cathy sorts out your DVDs quickly and efficiently. Startup Cathy by double clicking on the cathy.exe file. Put your DVD or CD in your drive and wait until your computer figures out that there is something it has to do.

In Cathy’s menu there is a tab which says ‘catalog’. Click it, find the DVD drive (usually D but it might be different on your computer) then click ‘ADD’. Cathy then goes to work and makes some sense of what you have on that particular CD/DVD. All of the folders and files are itemized and sorted out with a file that Cathy saves for you. Right now is a good time to sync your CD/DVD with Cathy. Cathy will save the file that corresponds to your CD/DVD and name it EXACTLY the same as the CD/DVD title. If you’ve left it as the generic name, it will be indecipherable, just a bunch of numbers. If you have made a title for the DVD, something like Nancy’s backup DVD, then it will save it as that. Mark the DVD with that name so you can find it later on.

What I do, and this is just what I have found to be efficient, is to start with A1 or even just 1. I change the name of the Cathy file to 1 or A1, then I mark the DVD with the same name. Later on, when I search for a file and Cathy tells me it’s on DVD 1 then it’s a simple matter to find DVD 1 and put it into the DVD drive and find what I’m looking for.

I should say that Cathy simply makes an image of the CD/DVD file structure, complete with all the file names in each folder. You can’t open any of the files unless the corresponding CD/DVD is in the drive. It’s like the menu in a restaurant or the index of a book, it has a list of everything on the CD/DVD but not the folders and files themselves.

That’s it! Backup your computer often and keep track of the CD/DVDs that you create with Cathy.

Next time I will talk to you about Dropbox. Stay tuned.