Movie Inventory Software

seekermeister said:

Since the movies are on an external hard drive, that I intend to move back and forth between computers, I thought that it would be good if I installed collectorz on that drive, instead of the OS drive. However, I'm sure that there are a lot of registry keys that would have to exist on both computers for the program to function properly.

I guess that I could install the program on the other computer, and just move the database from this computer to it, but I'm not certain where that database is, nor if there is any other file necessary, that would not be created by the installation? I just don't want to have to build and maintain two different installations, doubling the work.

EDIT: I just posted this question on the Collectorz Forum, but it is a ghost town (11 people online, of which only 4...counting myself, are logged in). So I hope that someone here has an idea that I can use.

Are you computers not networked? You should be able to scan your movies from all over the network and still have the main database (catalog) of your movies on one PC. Many different options you can do. But i think im some what unsure of your actual Question. - Tony

If nothing else works, I highly recommend the (free) MeD's Movie Manager. Type in the title and it looks everything up for you on The Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

seekermeister said:

TonyTiger2004 said:

seekermeister said:

Since the movies are on an external hard drive, that I intend to move back and forth between computers, I thought that it would be good if I installed collectorz on that drive, instead of the OS drive. However, I'm sure that there are a lot of registry keys that would have to exist on both computers for the program to function properly.

I guess that I could install the program on the other computer, and just move the database from this computer to it, but I'm not certain where that database is, nor if there is any other file necessary, that would not be created by the installation? I just don't want to have to build and maintain two different installations, doubling the work.

EDIT: I just posted this question on the Collectorz Forum, but it is a ghost town (11 people online, of which only 4...counting myself, are logged in). So I hope that someone here has an idea that I can use.

Are you computers not networked? You should be able to scan your movies from all over the network and still have the main database (catalog) of your movies on one PC. Many different options you can do. But i think im some what unsure of your actual Question. - Tony

They were, but not currently. When I had a hard drive go bad on the secondary computer a while back, I had to do a clean install, and had trouble setting up the network again. The problem was me and my memory, not the computer itself. I really didn't need it, because both computers have internet access directly without a network.

At least for the moment, I just need access to the movies at my primary computer for setup and maintenance, and do almost all of the viewing from the secondary. I have so little experience with networking, that I would feel more confident with simply moving the hard drive back and forth, because I can do that in less than a minute, since the external cases has the drives on trays which interchange.

I got a response from the president of collectorz about my question, on their forum, in which he said that it was not possible, but I do not believe that. I think that his interest was in selling Movie Collectorz Connect, which is for online use. That would not fit my taste at all.

If no one can tell me how to do what I want, then I will just have to figure it out myself.

Yeah i believe your right far as the president trying to sell you something additional. So what exactly is a goal?

Im not quite sure i understand 100%

Do you have movies on 2 different computers and wanna catalog them on ur main pc without transferring all the files to one drive?

If thats the case i would suggest networking the computers and having collectorz scan the files over the network. Or get a large external drive of which u can use to have all the files (media) on. Depending on how you do it.
Im almost positive it would be possible to install the collectorz software on the 2nd pc and just transport the Catalog data itself to the other computer for Simply being able to See what you have in your collection. Networking it would allow you to play the media on both computers. External drive should also allow this to be done by simply plugging it into the 2nd computer.

- Tony

As I said before, all of the movies are on one external drive (there is also another external drive for TV programs). I do not want to place these videos on both computers, that would only waste hard drive space, and make managing the videos more difficult. The idea that I'm working on is to only have one installation of Collectorz, on the same drive as the movies (not sure about the TV drive). The only problem with this is that both computers would need the proper registry keys, and any files that may exist outside of the primary directory on the movie hard drive (I'm not certain that there are any). That way, which ever computer the hard drive is plugged into would already have the necessary gears and cogs to make the program work. I have assigned the same drive letter to the hard drive in both computers, so that should eliminate any confusion in identification.

I have thought about installing the program on a spare external hard drive, assigned the movie drive's drive letter (without the movie drive installed). That would create all necessary keys and files necessary, and then replace the spare drive with the movie drive, so that both systems would point to the same program. Wouldn't that work?

EDIT: The one factor that I'm unclear on is that I'm wondering how Windows identifies the drives, besides the letter assigned, because it seems as though the letter may be recorded on the MBR or MFT. If that is the only means of identification, then it should work, but if there is some other way that it does this, then it is possible that it could discern the difference between two different drives named M.

seekermeister said:

As I said before, all of the movies are on one external drive (there is also another external drive for TV programs). I do not want to place these videos on both computers, that would only waste hard drive space, and make managing the videos more difficult. The idea that I'm working on is to only have one installation of Collectorz, on the same drive as the movies (not sure about the TV drive). The only problem with this is that both computers would need the proper registry keys, and any files that may exist outside of the primary directory on the movie hard drive (I'm not certain that there are any). That way, which ever computer the hard drive is plugged into would already have the necessary gears and cogs to make the program work. I have assigned the same drive letter to the hard drive in both computers, so that should eliminate any confusion in identification.

I have thought about installing the program on a spare external hard drive, assigned the movie drive's drive letter (without the movie drive installed). That would create all necessary keys and files necessary, and then replace the spare drive with the movie drive, so that both systems would point to the same program. Wouldn't that work?

EDIT: The one factor that I'm unclear on is that I'm wondering how Windows identifies the drives, besides the letter assigned, because it seems as though the letter may be recorded on the MBR or MFT. If that is the only means of identification, then it should work, but if there is some other way that it does this, then it is possible that it could discern the difference between two different drives named M.

Oh OK, i Understand now. :) To be Honest that may be a trial and error thing, trying different things out to figure out the best way to go about it. But i so believe you can figure something out. I think your on the right track, i wish that i could suggest something, but i have never done anything quite like that before.

Its always a bit tricky with programs. Most of the time its necessary to install the software on both the computers to achieve something like this. But im not gonna sit here and say that it can't be done as i am unsure.

DO keep us informed through your process.

- Tony