help please!!! windows explorer problem

[AP2686]

To other members

I am having a problem with windows explorer. I recently bought a external hard drive for my pc and store music, pics and videos. The hard drive is a life saver as i can keep my computers memory free so it can run smoothly but as i have acquired well over 3000 mp3 files, the computer takes a long time to search and read the external drive so searching through is a nightmare waiting for it to load. Is there any thing i could do to sort this problem out?? But this problem is not the one im here to really ask you about

I use windows explorer alot as this is where my hard drive is stored, where I have well over 500 music albums aswell as 10 movies stored. The drive is not very organised so I have no way of remembering each song individually so I seem to be randomly selecting folders and files or choosing the ones i know. Now i know in media player you can rate a file or song but the media player is slow and i buy alot of music so dont have time to update playlists and all the rest when they are stored neatly and easily accessible from windows explorer.

Now i need a way to rate, highlight or add an icon to an individual file in a folder, even changing the colour so that when you open that folder you can separate the decent tunes to the not so decent. Say when u highlight a file it goes blue, is there any way of keeping that file highlighted so when i re-enter that folder I can clearly see which has been rated.

If there is any third-party software, plug-ins or add-ons to explorer. Please help, have been searching for software and stuff but do not know where to start. I really appreciate very time, patience and wisdom and i would be happy to help you if needed!



Thanks for reading and hope to see a response

ANDY PO

[Ant]

Andy, I think the easiest way (initially at least) is for you to add a column to Windows Explorer which will sort your filles according to your criteria.

When you open Windows Explorer, you can see your files listed under Name, Size, Type, Date Modified etc.

If you right-click on any of the column headings at the top of the window, you can add (or delete for that matter) columns which are more appropriate for your needs.

Take a look at that and see if it helps.

[AP2686]

Dear sir

Thank you for your info about the columns, I think they will work very well but there is one thing, I cant seem to find how you make these columns in the folder.

I access My computer (windows explorer) this brings up all the drives on the computer and select the external drive (G:/) then I get all my albums music and videos come up.

Now how do I put the columns in from here. I really appreciate all your help but need more guidance so please get in contact.

Thanks once again
ANDY

[Miz]

With the G drive open in My Computer, click on the word "View" at the top of the window. Then click on "Details." The columns will appear.

Then right click on any column header and you will see a list of available columns. Once you have the columns checked you want, click again on View, point at Sort By and choose which criteria you want it to use to sort. (The same "Sort by" option can be accessed by right clicking on an empty space in the file listing)

[AP2686]

sorry its ok i didnt have the view in details, i think it has basically solved the problem