Multi-platform indexing solution

Hi,

Apologies in advance as this could live in various forums, but as I am now mainly a 5N user, I thought I’d ask here (mods - feel free to move after I’ve had some replies ;-))

I need an effective way of indexing all the detritus on my Drobo. And I have a lot. I need an app that is ideally cross platform, and creates an XML (or other) index on the NAS that I can navigate and trawl through in a much more powerful way that Finder or Windows Explorer.

Even better would be file management support such that I can rename / move files from within the app.

Before I spend days searching and wasting time on rubbish apps before I find one that works I thought I’d ask here - you guys are geniuses after all!

All help appreciated.

cathy by robert vasichek is great and works on all drobos for me:
http://www.mtg.sk/rva/

ive tried it on different windows platforms, (and theres also a command line version that might work in a wine emulator but i havent tried that one)

it’s very, very good in my opinion, even if you only use it on windows machines, and once you catalogue something (like a drobo volume), you can move the cathy folder to another computer and browse the virtual folders and do all sorts of searched etc, even if that volume is no longer attached.

its also very good for when the volume is still attached, as you can run a search and within a second you get a result of a text file you saved somewhere, and can run it, or open the parent folder, or do a properties or use wildcards or a whole lot more. :)[hr]
if you need to do a lot of file renaming, theres a powerful tool, also free, called Ken Rename - just make sure you fully understand how it will work, before you use it.
(i dont know if hes japanese, and thats his actual name, “ken re-na-me”, but its a file renaming tool).

do you have a main objective in mind for your data?
eg are you trying to sort out graphics and video clips and sound files into a catalogue of different folders and wallpapers?

if so, maybe an actual paid program could help. there was a tool in the past i heard about that was by cerious software with lots of features but what might work best is a progam that you can use in a more StandAlone fashion…

eg, a “portable” app (check out the portable apps website in case theres one there)
those are very good, because you can work on one computer, and take it all with you to another computer and continue etc just like that cathy tool (but that’s mainly a catalogue and searching tool not a file management one - still very useful though, i use v2.28.3 but theres a new one out too)