[katnapz]

You'll probably get varied replies on this but here's my 2 cents.
I commented on this a couple years back....and still use the program called "WhereIsIt." Here's the link to the old thread (so I don't have to type it all out or copy pics into the post again).
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...ead.php?t=2557
Take a look and let me know if you have any questions from what I wrote before back then.

The key is to use a standard naming format such as band name_date_venue_ etc. Back when I started I used a mm.dd.yy format, mistake on my part and by the time I realized that yy.mm.dd would've been better I was already in too deep. But it's not too bad finding them yet.

Anyways, if you go to www.nonags.com there are some freeware collection programs there too if you don't want WII. But I'd at least try the shareware version of WII if I were you.

For getting the most on each disc use "Burn-To-The-Brim" which is a free program that you set how much you want to burn to a disc...point it to a folder with your subfolders and it'll figure out what'll fit.

If you have a good database, you really don't have to care about what shows you put where. All you have to do is look up the show in the database on your computer.

Saving your md5 fft files on your drive is a good idea but you can just have that stuff imported into WII as part of your database.

Lots of reasons why I like WII....you can set up different catalogs depending on whether you're listing audio/video/etc, and then if you want to you can temp combine the databases into one so you can see a complete list of what you have for a specific artist in all formats.
Easy export to html....plus since you import the "info" file from the show (automatically) it will include that info file text in your webpage. Here's a link to one of my (older) audio pages. This was generated pretty much straight out of WII with almost no editing or changes made by me. (I mean honestly...I didn't have to take the info files and copy/paste them or anything...WII imports that stuff automatically).
http://home.comcast.net/~musicavista/audio.html
...so, when I do update my collection on my computer it doesn't take me long to update a webpage (I've just been lazy and haven't updated in awhile).

One last thing....KEEP YOUR DISCS SECURED. Meaning, store them properly. Don't leave them laying around your desk exposed to light/getting shoved around....that kind of thing. All my discs (the archived ones) are kept in a dark closet. If you find a show you pull a lot, burn it on a disc to keep out or something. Thousands of discs burned and probably less than 10 ever went bad on me. (Probably plus I only burn them at a most 4X helps too).

As mentioned previously...you can name each disc with something like "ROIO" whatever to keep track. Great thing about doing it the way I do with WII is that ROIODD stands for "Digital Data" (like shn/flac) ROIOAD is "audio data (like silvers and stuff from the old days.) ROIODVD is for video....anyways...then if I want as I said before, can combine them to see what all I have and where it it (since my digital discs are kept in a separate location from regular audio discs and stuff.)

See, I ended up going on forever anyways....sorry! Hope this helps you or anyone else out. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm hit or miss in the forums anymore but I'll try to help as possible.