CD Organizing Devices?

Dagian asks: "Like many of you, I have CD's coming out of every orifice in my office. I have been looking for some time for a device to store my collection of software, music and other assorted goodies. The standard faux-leather CD binders seem inadequate. Have any of you come across anything that will organize CD's and - most of all - make them easy to tote around?" The traditional CD wallets work fine when you are talking in lots of 10-15, but what about lots of 20? 50? 100? CD Organization can get hard when the numbers get large. So, big or small, what portable carrying objects do you use when organizing CDs?

CD changers and huge wallets

[defective]

It depends how frequently you used the CDs. Also, if you're toting them around to different computers on the same netowork, or you need constant access to many different CDs, check out: dvdchanger.com [dvdchanger.com] these 200 disk CD/DVD changers range from $1000 to $6000. The things are REALLY cool, go check out the specs (anyone know how to build your own?)

If you're wooking for a CD wallet sorta thing, check out: Case Logic Nylon Case [casedirect.com] We use these at my work, we have well over 1000 CDs stored in these things. They work beautifully.

Building a CD changer/CD binder pages

[cr0sh]

I have given thought to this - it is feasible to homebrew such a system (and if anyone does, let me know about it - I would love to see pics!).

Basically, for an easy to build system, you want the CD-ROM or RW drive to travel vertically - so you set up some kind of elevator/trolly system, controlled by a stepper motor, along with some kind of pulse sensor (optical encoder) along the track the drive is travelling on so you know how far up or down the track you are. Opposite the CD drive track, you need to have some kind of disk holding system, which will hold the disks horizontally.

Now, all you do is raise the drive to the proper spot just below the disk, eject the tray, lift the disk up, then "inject" the tray. Perform your operations (reading/writing), then eject the disk, drop down a bit (to mount the disk back in its holding "slot"), then "inject" the tray and move to the next selected disk.

For this to work, you would have to modify the tray to look kinda like a forklift - by cutting away (break out the Dremel!) the front center portion of the tray.

Issues you will run into: 1) Weight of CD drive - remove as much of the covering as possible - this will eliminate a ton of weight. 2) Cable length - you may have to use SCSI for this to have any hope of working - it would probably be better to use one of those ultra small motherboards, and mount it to the drive and have it travel with the drive. 3) Control - you will probably have to create a custom control system hooked up to the parallel port or similar to drive the thing. 4) Software - oh, yeah - that part: if done right, this thing could be running linux and almost be like a funky samba server or ftp server - send a command to get a certain disk, and that disk would be mounted as /dev/cdrom or something.

Regarding CD binder pages - these can be pretty cheap - go down to office max or staples, and buy several packs of these, and a few cheap binders. Keep liner notes/manuals in one binder, CDs in the others. Most of the time you won't need the liner notes, but when you do, they'll be handy.

I have a funky custom stereo cabinet...

[renehollan]

...that can hold 240 CDs and 90 cassettes.

It is portable but only in the army sense that it can be moved by 3 men or a jeep.

It seams to me that what you need is something portable, with a couple hundred gig storage, ethernet interface, that can connect to a PC and let you burn a CD on demand. (or have a build in burner... hmm).

my method

[tunah]

Maybe I'm not as stylish and fashionable as the next guy... I just ditch all cases and have got three nails in a piece of wood which I stick CDs on. Works quite well :) Only problem is getting the bottom one out...

i use

[b-side.org]

grip + a 40GB hard drive. carries a couple hundred CDs, no problem. ;)

Case Logic

[zsazsa]

I find that the standard Case Logic nylon cases [casedirect.com] to be the perfect balance of portability, density, protection, and durability. I have three of the 208-disc capacity models. (The 256 and 264 models are a little too bulky for me.) The faux-leather ones just seem a little weird for my tastes, and any hard-shelled cases I've seen seem too prone to breakage.

They hold liner notes well, but of course that halves the capacity, but I find it worth it. The one that holds my CD-ROMs has just discs in it, though.

Ian

Re:Case Logic

[RadioheadKid]

I would be a little cautious about the Case Logic type solution, they have a tendancy to, for lack of a better word, dull the CD's (basically slowly rubbing off the coating) I think it's the combination of the plastic, the softbacking, and particles that collect in the slot, the nice thing about a CD jewel case is the CD is elevated, in these binders the sleeves are in full contact and rubbing against the CD's. I've seen this happen mostly in full binders. If you do decide to use them, I would recommend only filling them 75%. I think it also depends on how much you want to transport them, if the case moves around a lot, you may see this problem, for just storing them on a self, you should be fine.

Small shelves might work

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen wooden CD shelves that hold maybe 100-150 CDs and cases. I'd guess they're about 11" high, 20" long and 6" deep, and hold the CDs in two rows. They're fairly cheap (cheaper if you make your own) and they stack well. You could probably rig up some sort of net system to keep the CDs from falling out of the shelves while travelling (a couple of big elastic straps staple-gunned to the wood should be enough if you're not concerned with aesthetics). The downsides would be the huge size and excessive weight, and the fact that the only portability solution that I know of is a hack of sorts.

I know you said that the CD binders were inadequate, but they kick ass for portability. Unless you've got 1000 CDs that you need to browse really quickly, a large binder or two would probably be the best choice.

My own system

[elgen]

I have developed my own system for storing CDs. I call it Huge-Pile-On-Desk(tm). It works like a sort of buffer that will distribute itself to Huge-Pile-On-Floor(tm) if I try to store too many CD's at a time. Also, if I want one of the CDs in the bottom, the rest of the CDs spread out so I can get a better view, making it easier to find the right CD. Feel free to use it.

Re:Stop it. Stop it right now.

[Dagian]

It's not a matter of carrying a bunch of sh*t around. SysAdmins/Consultants naturally have a variety of software that they must carry around from job-site to job-site. I don't know how many times I've been off-site and wished I had a specific CD that is back on my desk under a pile of work. I wish the HD in my laptop was big enough to hold all of that data. As far as the road-trip goes. It's all about variety. I may not listen to them all, but it's nice to know that if I get an itch to listen to some Dream Theater, I have the option. *grin*

Re:Stop it. Stop it right now.

[dtItchy]

Wait until you hear Dream Theater's upcoming album "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence"... I've been listening to the 4-track promo "Four Degrees Of Radio Edits" for the last three days and it rules. :-) Sorry for the off-topic post. Mark Bredius http://www.dreamtheater.net/

Cakeboxes

[Ratbert42]

I keep most of mine in 50-disc cakeboxes that the blanks came in. The CDs I use often are in small (8-64 disc) CaseLogic and other cases.

Not portable, and a bit costly

[Diamon]

But still an interesting product.

http://www.kdsusa.com/consumerproducts/CDorganizer _frameset.htm [kdsusa.com]

Laserline

[n-baxley]

Laserline makes a nice system called Media Zone that stores your CDs in little rigid plastic sleaves that can be inserted into a folder type carrier, a desk top organizer, or just carried around by themselves. I find they're a little more expensive and harder to find that your average folder holder, but you can buy them on the laserline website [meadweb.com]

CD3

[Tim Locke]

I have one of these and love it:

CD3 Selector [discgear.com]

Re:CD3

[Fencepost]

Note that the CD Selectors (how they work) [discgear.com] do also include carrying handles.

I've glanced at these at local computer shows but only recently started to get enough CDs that I may pick a couple up. The way they work is to have a slider on the outside that lines up with entries on a sheet listing what CD is in which slot. You move the selector to the right spot, then open the case and it lifts that CD out for you. If you're not trying to keep the CDs together with other things like jewel case inserts, it's a very good solution.

The 50 and 100 are more geared for permanent use with a home theater or on a desk - they don't have the carry handle, and they're one-touch access which IIRC means that you just slide the selector and push it to pop the thing open (the normal ones close more securely for travel).

Re:CD3

[DRACO-]

I have one of those cd selectors.. It sucks bad... I bought one for my audio cds. It has a strange wow neato what's this effect on people that never seen it. They ask what's that.. then want to look in the box and play with accessing cd's. The next thing that happens, Im picking up the whole pile of 40+ cds the moron just dumped all over the rough concrete. I think this is how my dearly departed Losing Miss Bliss cd--local band which burned their own discs--developed that severe skip on track 4 thru 6.. I wish the person that borrowed that cd would return it.. Oh the comfort of having mp3 copies :P

The stupid boxes dont hold cd's well while the top is opened. The cd's sit in stalls that are very very small, with nothing securing them while the top is open. After the 4th idiot, I purchased a second exo 64 cd softwallet--it has a plastic outer bumper exo skeleton which helps protect it. I already owned one before i bought the cd selector and liked it quite a bit. I prefer to have my cds held securly in the pockets of these.

DRACO-

For carrying them around

[Rick the Red]

I use one of these [toolpak.com]. $18US, holds 32 CD cases, tough as nails. Buy it here [toolpak.com].

CD-ROM holding binder pages

[dlek]

My favourite method *for CD-ROMS only* is 3-hole binder sheets. They hold four per side. They're a little pricey, but they aren't faux leather (gag), they fit on a shelf, you can use the same methods of organization as you do with all your other binders... hopefully the price will come down, but I find them the best solution.

Of course, for music cd's, I just keep them in their cases. I have too much music that comes in special cases (ie. not jewel cases)--where you can't just take out the insert. Plus I like to browse my collection on a shelf, standing up--don't ask me why.

Why even use physical CD's?

[Polo]

It seems most of my need for CD's was because of windows - Linux never seems to need CD's more than once.

So for windows, I found that CDSpace [cdspace.com] works great. (it's awesome for laptops)

It's an application that creates a virtual CDrom drive. Your hardware cdrom becomes your E: drive and a virtual cdrom appears as your D: drive. When you first get a game cd, etc.. just pop it in your E: drive and scan it in. Then you "insert" the scanned CD image into your virtual D: drive and the system recognizes it just like a regular CD was inserted. It will autoplay and everything.

There are a couple of options to take into account various media types. Regular cd images are just encoded directly. Music CD's can be encoded or converted to different sound types. Game CD's are encoded with extra error information so that the copy protection scheme still works (I've never had a game cd fail to work). You can also add compression so that the image on disk is smaller.

So I use my CD's one time - to scan them in - then put them away. Then I insert the image in the virtual cd drive when necessary. Oh, and I got a 60gb drive - then space was never a problem.