How to keep track of where your external drives are

Everyone who works with external drives eventually ends up in front of a drawer of identical black rectangles, holding a file name and no idea which one to plug in. The fix is not a better drawer. It is writing down two things for every drive, once.

The two things to record

• What is on it. Not a vague label like "2023 work", but a catalog of the actual files, so you can search it.
• Where it is. In plain words: top desk drawer, shelf B in the blue case, the studio closet, your parents' house.

Most systems record one of these and not the other. A spreadsheet of projects tells you which drive, not which file. Tape on the case tells you what the drive is once you are holding it, not where to look for it.

Name drives so they sort and survive

A good drive name is short, unique and says something useful. A pattern that works for most people is a type and a number, like ARCHIVE-04, SHOOT-4TB or CLIENT-DELIVERY. Put the same name on a physical label on the case, so the name you see in Finder matches the drive in your hand.

Avoid leaving drives called Untitled or Samsung T7. You will own three of them.

Give every drive a home

Decide where each drive lives and write it down the moment you put it away. The best time to record a location is when the drive is still in your hand, not six months later when you are looking for it.

The question is never just which drive. It is which drive, and which drawer.

Let your Mac remember it for you

GetFerret keeps both halves of that record for you. It catalogs every drive you plug in, so the files on it stay searchable after you eject it, and it remembers where each drive is kept.

• When you unplug a drive, GetFerret asks where you are storing it. Type a location once, and check "Don’t ask for this drive again" for drives that never move.
• The Drives window shows every drive you own, connected or not, with how full it is and a "Stored" line for the unplugged ones, such as Stored: top desk drawer.
• Search tells you where to go. Pick a file on an unplugged drive in the Den and it says which drive it is on and where that drive is stored, with the file's saved thumbnail and details.
• Drives are recognised by identity, so renaming one later does not lose its location or its catalog.
• Mark old drives as archives to keep them separate from the ones you work from.

Everything stays on your Mac. Nothing about your files or your drives is sent to us.

The short version

Give each drive a clear name, a physical label and a home, and record where that home is the moment you put it away. Then keep a catalog of what is on it, so finding a file and finding its drive become the same quick search.