Discussion on:

Help desk manager recommends a CD organizer for managing media

What you will find is that like most managers, no matter what the costs, they will tell you that it's not in the budget and what they use works. This is not pessimism, this is experience talking. Because I do a lot of this type of work myself and have found several pieces of software that will do a similar job. I'm constantly downloading updates and drivers and services patches for various machines at some of the sites that I work at, I make backup cds so that I don't have to search for them again. I normally label the cds something like disk 1 and so on. Now I know I'm going to start hearing people howling that the labeling isn't good enough. but when you have 50 drivers for various machines and hardware and most of the files are very small, why would I waste a cd putting a few files on it? But, you can't put all the names on the cd either. So I use a piece of software called cd cataloger to keep track of the cds. this is a very cheap piece of software for what it does. It allows me to drop the cd in, right click on it, create a catalog of the directory, and name it what I have labeled the cd. so I can open the software and type the name of the device and it'll tell me what cd the driver is on. I don't need to use a long label on the cd. This software costs something like $35. I have never been able to talk a manager into buying it. When you have 50 cds with various articles and files on them, it's a god send. all I can say is that it's a good idea, good luck talking a manager into using it.

I find through experience a similar situation. The tower is a great idea...getting a manager in a budget conscious environment to want it is a little trickier than putting a tech in charge of "the candy store" as one of his collateral duties.
YourCD tower will work wonders for understaffed IT departments where Technician time is more critical than hardware purchase dollars. But, I don't know of any managers who recognize that scenario even when hit in between the eyes with it.

We have a "Candy Store" situation that works out well. It's in a central directory linked to our Share Point Web. All updates are posted there so that if you are loading application A and see a Service Pack for it you automatically load it. I also am the admin for some apps that have over 100 CDs that are rarely accessed. The CDs should be in a central, secure location, but there shouldn't be a large-scale need to access disks.

Most managers *should* be cost conscious--that's our primary responsibility, to manage resources. It's often a challenge to manage unbudgeted requests, however there are a few simple things you can do to get requests approved.

A simple Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)--not necessarily a fancy spreadsheet, just some proof that the benefit of purchasing XYZ will justify the cost of purchasing it within some timeframe is all a reasonable manager needs to grant approval.

For example, if the time taken to look up a driver took an hour, your loaded salary expense is $50/hr, and the time to look up the info in the cd cataloger is a minute, it will pay for itself in time saved the first use.

The important thing is to show that the purchase will provide benefit to the company. At my previous job, I cleared out a cabinet of kewl software and little gizmos that were purchased on whim that were never even opened! In my first year I was able to reduce our software expense budget $20,000 by dropping maintenance on unused software.

Make the case, and work with your manager to ensure that s/he has a small budget for miscellaneous purcases like this each year. Once you get into a CBA mindset, you'll easily show that budgeting $500 for small purchases year keeps such purchases manageable and costs less than having to haggle over them each time.

I'm a PC desktop support technician. A few years ago, I brought up the idea for my company to create a CD Library to have all our software in one place. Of course I was "volunteered" to organize all the software. We currently have around 150 different versions of software we use and install. Most of it we have copied to our network but we still want to keep the hard copies for recovery purposes. Looking around at the time, all I found was a metal cabinet that I had to modify to hold CDs. The cost of the cabinet with extra drawers was around 500 dollars. I wish I had found something like this back then. I'm showing this to my manager to see if she'll buy off on getting a few.

Certainly, any effort to stabilize, organize and control access to CD's is a plus. The KDS unit appears to be an interesting unit. I will have to check it out. Another product that readers might like to look to is the Advanced File Organizer for Softprime http://www.softprime.com/index.htm. It is a piece of software that reads the contents of CD's and builds a searchable database of all the files on the CD's. This program can accomodate hundreds of CD's. The important aspect of the CD Organizerarticle is organization, retrieval and control. Do what works as opposed to just leaving things lying around to get lost.

If you have a network or at least a big hard drive and basic PC, store the software on the network under a special drive letter and use folders. With a simple MS or Novell Client install you now have access to all the software you need. Now the install keys are typed on paper or again stored in a password-protected file on the "software" drive and the original software and license are safely locked away.

That's the candy store concept that was referred to in the article...

I've found Catfish to be one of the fastest CD organziers to use & makes the smallest catalogs I've seen. One of the best features is that you don't install it. You just run the incredibly small executable.
http://www.equi4.com/catfish/
or
http://www.a1b2c3.com/free/ref18.htm

This is a great idea for organizing CD's for larger shops where the CD's must be shared. Just as Jeff said, the unit costs $139.05 and there is a manufacturer's $30.00 rebate being offered now through August!

The other ideas for CD cataloging andsharing are all great including the one on the server drive(s). Candy store? Not really if user rights are properly in place and then no one has to borrow or remove the CD's to use them. Just a thought.

In the small (~200 computers) unit where I work, when we moved into a new building, it had space planned for a technical library. From day one of the moving process, all software was sent to the library, no matter where it used to be. Now, almost three years later, our (third or fourth)librarian is still sorting, cataloging and storing distribution software and documentation, but at least MOST of our packages are being protected. Our licensing is only on the software we currently use, or on new purchases, not on a bunch of "junk" packages that no one knows when or why they were purchased. In everyday PC installs/updates we have a "candy store" that is restricted to the IM and LAN folks. The end user can't access or install anything on this network share, but the tech doing the update/install has access to the software on the share. This CD organizer sounds pretty good, and we may change to this system.

Why not use Virtual Drive, which will allow you to store an image of each CD on the network, and which may be used at any time for installs?

I've never tried this product, but it looks like exactly what you'd need for this kind of situation.

I have used the one from FarStone that gives a CD icon. I have my two CD drives as Y and Z so that software installed from those drives can be updated. The virtual cd drive software allows for up to 20 on each partition that software is install to. Others may only create a Virtual Hard Drive icon or folder. Mine works with games and childrens software from Broderbund, etc. that require the CD in the drive. I have installed it in a childrens' computer center so all can use the same program rather than handling CD and only using it on one computer. FarStone also has a server version.

Since I manage all software for all three of my offices, I have no security issue, but the retrieval problem appeared the minute I decided to rebuild the PC memories and to reorg the contents. A lot of software had "walked." No one had gone home with it (one does not abscond with one's own property), but it was a major job to find it and it took a long time. Some has still not been found.
Finally I found that a simple Access database came to the rescue...coupled with a couple "drawers"located near our "cardinal" computer. Our Ethernet allows searching for a CD from any computer and a quick trip to the drawers allows retrieval of desired software.
By "magic markering" the CDs with a simple sequential number which keys the Access database, it allows me a listing of CDs either in the "drawer sequence number" physically registered on each CD or, as provided by a simple sequencing "query," an alphabetic listing...or, for that matter, various queries can "zero in" on any breakdown of interest, provided that info has been recorded in the Access file.

Our organization decided to purchase each support technician with their own CD Carousel which holds 150 CD's and comes with a simple software interface. The carousels are stackable and can be daisy chained to give you a library of over 1,000 CD's ormore. It's an inexpensive solution available from cyberguys.com for under $100. We make a copy of all disks for each each technician and label them as theirs. This gives us the added security vs. loss or damage to the disks. This all but allieviatedproblems we were experiencing looking for misplaced disks and is well worth the money spent.

I've been using the Organizer for about a year. Make sure that you get the newer version of the software. Else, you may experience the same problem I had -- organizer turns itself off. Also, first version of software did not support multiple organizers or ?towers?.

The organizer software will scan the CD and create list of folders/files on CD. This has proven to be great tool. Sure beats rooting through the office trying to find a particular CD when you need it NOW! The Organizer software also allows you to 'lend' the CDs.

If security is not compromised, write the CD key on the CD with a 'Sharpie' indelible marker. No need to store jewel cases! If necessary, store the organizer(s) in a physically-secure location, such as a server room. Use the Organizer to store the original CDs.

Copy the CD's folders/files to a server for network installation/repair. Use Notepad to create a 'txt' file containing the 'CD key'. Keep this TXT file in the root directory for that particular CD's files or keep all such files in a special 'admin' folder on the server. Alternatively, you can use one TXT file that lists all software AND the CD keys used for that software. This 'txt' is accessible only to administrators and complements the use of a network share point for CDs copied to a server. I have also used the idea of the TXT file for passwords for little-used resources, such as routers, ISP accounts, and so on. This precludes having to memorize passwords or carrying apiece of paper in your wallet ? and the information is available from anywhere on the network.

Note, however, that your implementation of these ideas must be tempered by your security environment. Implement the ideas only if you can secure them.

I use a Virtual CD program and keep hard disk copies on a large hard drive. You copy the CD to the hard drive as a CD Drive on the hard drive and install it from there. Games, etc that require the CD in the drive go to that make-beleive CD Drive and use the CD. Some CD allow multiple users at the same time. The program cost under $30.00. I found mine by searching in Google "virtual cd software".

I have even used a virtual one to make copies on a CD burner that were used to install on another machine. May not work with all CDs.

Does the KDS unit have any "checkout" capabilities? Does anyone know of a similar product that does? Ideally the device would be on a shared computer in our tech room. All of our techs could access the database, but the device wouldn't open or release the CD until the tech entered some identifing information. This way if the CD was missing, you could track it back to the tech that removed it from the device.

We used to use a couple of cd towers (Todd and ONELINE) that worked on our Novell 3.x and 4.x system (actually were "novell servers"). When we moved to Novell 5.x, we could no longer control the towers' configuration and had to retire them. Ever since, I've been looking for a cd tower that could hold more than 20 cd's AND had a NIC, not USB. Our techs need those cd's from any number of client pc's and don't have time to go back to one specific pc for the drivers/files. We don't like the ideaof taking up so much server hard drive space. Any suggestions?

Also, we see media management as a security issue as much as a logistics issue. We paid for only so many licenses and media. We make a copy of the original media and lock it away. Techs have access to the copy when they need it.

i think that it is a very smart idea but i have come up with something like what you have but more intense if you want to find out email me at im_bossy_akways1@yahoo.com