This tool reads the content of inserted CD-ROMs or any other directory-based media readable under Windows. Then, CacoArch stores the data into small database that lets you later find special apps etc. quickly.

You probably know that: you backuped you data on a CD-RW or ZIP-Disk and have already more of'em. Asking yourself "Were's did damned picture I made two years ago?", you insert every disc, browsing and searching the dirs, needing several minutes or even hours.
With CacoArchCD, you can store all the contents of a media into a database, which lets you quickly find special data later on without inserting those discs. Basically, CacoArch reads all names of the directories and files. When opening the database, you have all disks listed. Now you can tell this app to find a special file or directory on selected media-records. But that is not all: CacoArch is also capable of storing special data from the original media, such as text files with descriptions, pictures or any other data.

Reading a new media is very simple: as shown in fig. 2, you are guided step by step and you can set special variables regarding the recording of the disc's content. So you can specify which drive to scan, put the new record into a special cathegory (e.g. pictures, programs, backup) and give it a name different from the original label.
Very useful are the options to implement any data placed on the media, means that you can put e.g.additional text files into the database. Theoretically, CacoArchCD is capable of making a complete copy of the CD into the database. A filter lets you tell, which files to put into the base, as shown in figure 2:

When you have created a database containing multiple volumes, you see several icons (if available, the original ones as shown in the explorer when inserted) representing the medium. When clicking it, you see a dirtree, which you can examine manually - just as if the disc was in the drive. Additionally to the icon, you can identify a medium through it's cover (see fig.1). In the lower right of the main window, there's a pie-diagrm telling you the sieze, free space and size of selected files. Even disk geometry information is available - you won't miss a thing.

As mentioned, you can store original files into the database. As shown in fig. 5, you can see'em with the internal viewer. Do not be afraid that this will cost much disk space: each database in CacoArchCD is compressed using ZLib, having the same pack rate as the well known PK-Zip. For example, an uncompressed image of a 4 GB harddrive wastes an amount of data of approx. 1.2 MB (only strings telling where which files are to be found!!!). But by using ZLib, these entries are shrinked to 300 KB.