To add (or catalog) a new disk to the database file, you select option 1, from the Main Menu. Disk Master then prompts you to insert the disk you wish to catalog. It then reads the disk's BAM and asks you to confirm that this is, indeed, the disk you wish to catalog. If it discovers the same disk I.D. and name/label already in its database, it will warn you that this disk has already been cataloged and then ask you to confirm that you wish to re-catalog the disk. If everything is a “go”, it then proceeds to read the disk's directory into memory.

You are then prompted to re-insert the Disk Master disk, when it then indexed and cross references the disk information into its database. And that's all there is to it.

Once you have a few disks indexed within the database, you can do some pretty cool things with the data. For example: one of the things we, as Commodore 64 users, are told to avoid is formatting any floppy disks with the same ID code. Each disk should have a unique ID, or the Commodore 64's disk operating system can get very confused, resulting in loss of data.

With Disk Master, you can create a list of all of the indexed disks, along with their IDs. Then, you can easily see if there are any disks with the same ID number. To do this, you execute option 4, from the Main Menu.

From here, you can get a list of disk names and IDs, as well as see what disks have some free space on them.

However, one of the more interesting reports (all of which can be printed out onto the printer) is the ID Usage Chart. This chart makes it really easy to see which two digit combinations that have already been used on other disks, but more importantly, which IDs are available to use. This chart helps you to format diskettes and not accidentally use an ID number that has already been assigned to another disk.

There is one issue I have found with this ID usage report. If you happen to have more than one disk with the same ID number, the report will not indicate any more used IDs past the one that has a duplicate. It's nothing major, but it is a drawback in regards to how the report functions. However, doing a search by disk ID will notify you of disks that happen to have identical IDs. Apparently, Disk Master database doesn't get confused by disks with the same IDs, as it seems to link a disk's ID with its name/label to produce a unique record identifier.

Another really useful function that Disk Master can perform is a search for a particular file on any of the disks contained in its database. This is really helpful for those of us who have many floppy disks, but cannot recall on which of the disks a particular file is stored.

Example: I have a several gaming disks, but cannot recall which disk contains the game, Pac Man. Using Disk Master, I choose option 5 from the Main Menu, to search for a specific file. I am then prompted for the name of the file I wish to find. The nice thing about this search feature, is that you can use wildcards in the searches.