I’m looking for a way of searching through hard drive contents without needing to connect them. Does something exist to automatically keep an updated list of what was in a hard disk the last time I attached it?
An important part is the interface: Ideally it would appear just like a file manager and show all the offline files on my online system without taking up any of the space. Like a database.
Interesting. I haven’t ever seen anything automatic. Closest I’ve seen was back in the day software to manually catalog your floppy disks.
It might exist, though. It’s a big internet.
Sounds like you’re after CatalogFS.
Thank you for the link! I’m not even OP but would use the heck out of this
This is exactly what I’m looking for, thank you!
Do you want just an index (a list of file names) or the full content (the stuff thats inside the file)?
The full content without taking up any space is impossible.
An index would take up very little space, but I am not sure whether there is any ready made software for that available.
If you just want to list the files, with details about when they were modified and where they are saved, I suggest git-annex. https://git-annex.branchable.com/
