How to Catalog and Search Offline Drives with File Hunter on Windows 11

What File Hunter is, and what it isn't​

The project calls it a self-hosted, web-based file manager that remembers everything, even drives you disconnect. It catalogs files across USB drives, backup disks, DVDs, network mounts and local folders, and you can browse and search them while the media is offline. The maker says it catalogs everything into SQLite.

The catalog holds saved information about your files. It does not hold the files themselves. When a drive is unplugged you can see where a file lives and what its stored details are. You can't open, download or move the file until the drive is back.

The review behind this guide is a hands-on account by MakeUseOf's Oluwademilade Afolabi, not a benchmark. Treat its numbers as one person's results.

Setting it up on Windows 11 with WSL​

The project says it works on macOS, Linux, and WSL and requires Python 3.10 or newer. The steps below follow the MakeUseOf walkthrough, which used Ubuntu under WSL.

1. If you don't have WSL, open PowerShell as administrator and run wsl --install. Restart if prompted, then finish the Ubuntu setup.
2. Start Ubuntu with wsl -d Ubuntu.
3. Install the prerequisites: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y python3-venv curl.
4. From Ubuntu's home folder, run the project's installer: curl -fsSL [!/usr/bin/env bash](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zen-logic/file-hunter/main/install.sh) | bash. Accept the default install folder.
5. Run cd ~/filehunter, then ./filehunter.
6. Open the address the terminal prints in your Windows browser. The author saw [url]http://localhost:8000[/url], but use whatever your terminal shows. Then create your account.

Per the README, the first run prompts for host and port, creates a virtual environment and installs dependencies. The project also says everything stays in the install directory. That covers the database, config and virtual environment. Moving the folder still works, and deleting it removes everything. That is the project's own claim, not an independent audit.

Piping a script from the internet into bash is common but needs some trust. If that bothers you, the README also offers a manual download from the releases page. You extract it and run ./filehunter.

Adding and scanning a drive​

1. Plug the drive in first.
2. Click + Add Location, give it a name you'll recognize, and enter the path where WSL can see its files. In the review, Windows D: appeared at /mnt/d.
3. If the drive doesn't appear in Ubuntu, the author mounted it by hand:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/d
sudo mount -t drvfs D: /mnt/d

1. Check inside Ubuntu that your files are visible at that path before scanning.
2. Select the location and start a scan. The author chose Full Scan, saying a Quick Scan skips subfolders. I couldn't find that mode distinction in the project documentation I reviewed, so treat it as the reviewer's account.

The project says a scan stores file metadata and hashes in the catalog. It doesn't copy your data.

How long will it take?​

That depends on the drives. The reviewer cataloged 101,464 files totaling 538.7 GB across two drives. One scan took about ten minutes. The other took nearly four hours, partly because of hashing and duplicate processing. Later scans are quicker, because the documentation says incremental rescans skip unchanged files in the project's feature list.

Searching with the drives unplugged​

After the reviewer unplugged both drives, each showed a red "offline" badge. A search for folders named "Music" returned six matches. Each came with its original drive location and folder size.

The project's documentation lists these search filters:

• Filename, with wildcard, starts-with, ends-with and exact modes
• File type
• Tags and descriptions
• Size range and date range
• Duplicate count
• Scope limited to one location or folder

You can save searches for reuse. Tags and descriptions you add stay searchable while a drive is disconnected. They are useful for files that don't fit your folder structure. The project's site says results span online and offline locations.

Pitfalls and cautions​

• A stale mount folder in WSL. The reviewer found that an empty mount directory stayed behind after unplugging a drive. File Hunter didn't show the drive as offline until that folder was deleted. This is one person's observation, not a documented WSL behavior. If a drive looks stuck online, check for a leftover /mnt/ folder.
• The catalog is a snapshot. It reflects the last successful scan. If you change files on another computer, reconnect the drive and rescan. The project says stale-file detection marks files that have disappeared since the last scan.
• Duplicate cleanup can hurt. The tool flagged 35,884 duplicates across the reviewer's drives. That is not a delete list. The project documents two consolidation modes. Copy mode leaves originals in place. Move mode replaces duplicates with small stub files that record where the kept copy lives. Know which mode you're choosing, and make sure the copy you keep is the one you want. A stub is not your photo or song.
• It isn't a backup. A catalog tells you where things are. It doesn't protect them from a failing drive.
• Optional features need more setup. Content search inside documents and image-similarity search need a separate embedding service. They don't work after the basic install. Features such as video transcoding need extra tools like ffmpeg.

Beyond the basics​

The project says it runs on Linux, macOS, WSL and Raspberry Pi, with no cloud services or telemetry. It also documents a storage treemap, a duplicate view and in-app previews for supported file types. Previews only work when the drive is connected. The project also sells File Hunter Pro, a paid extension for multi-machine remote agents. The free core is MIT-licensed. The README also discloses that AI tools helped write the code, and says the output was manually reviewed and tested.

The project's own comparison table lists a few other tools as lacking offline catalogs. That is the vendor's marketing, so weigh it accordingly. Dedicated offline catalog apps already exist, including a paid Mac-only one. What File Hunter offers Windows users is a free option, at the price of a WSL setup and a browser-based interface.

Is it worth the setup?​

If you keep years of backups on several disks in a drawer, a searchable catalog can save you from plugging in each drive to find an old album. You pay with a terminal-based install and a long first scan. The result is a catalog that tells you which drive to fetch. You still have to fetch it.