VVV, which stands for Virtual Volumes View, is intended to catalog the files you store on removable volumes so that you can easily find them even when the source volumes are not mounted on your system.
The application is very easy to use: you just need to provide the name of the volume you want to scan and wait until the contents are included in the supporting database. Luckily, this process is rather quick, though the necessary time logically depends on the size of the scanned volume.
After this, there are three different ways you can find the contents of the indexed volumes. The first is by browsing files using the same source file structure. A second possibility is to create a virtual view, which allows you to arrange contents and even entire volumes in virtual folders. This option is great when some contents, maybe music, are stored in different volumes. Thus, you can avoid the limitations of a physical container and use a more logical organization instead. Finally, you can simply search the database for the desired file.
It is good news that the database it creates can be exchanged between various computers as this product is cross-platform. In this regard, it supports storing catalogs on a server so that they become available from different machines on the network.
All in all, VVV offers a simple way to organize contents, of which I appreciate the possibility of using a logical folder structure. Although it supports cataloging music files, do not expect it to automatically complete missing tags as other more specific applications do. Fortunately, this product is open-source and available at no cost.
Pros
- Can create a single virtual folder structure for all your volumes
- Scans fast
- Catalogs can be shared across operating systems and over a network
- Supports cataloging music file metadata
- Three different ways to access contents
Cons
- Cannot complete missing metadata