Offline Drive Inventory for Cross-Drive Duplicate Detection

[filipfilm]

Problem

Many users have files spread across multiple external drives, USB drives, or network storage that can't all be
connected simultaneously. Currently, Czkawka requires all drives to be mounted at once to find duplicates between
them.

Proposed Solution

Add an "offline mode" that works in phases:

1. Scan Phase: Scan and inventory each drive individually when available
2. Analysis Phase: Analyze duplicates across all inventories while drives are offline
3. Execution Phase: Apply cleanup actions when drives are reconnected

Example Workflow

Create session and scan drives one by one

czkawka offline new-session --method hash --session-name "cleanup-2024"
czkawka offline add-drive --session cleanup-2024 --path /mnt/drive1 --scan-now
czkawka offline add-drive --session cleanup-2024 --path /mnt/drive2 --scan-now

Analyze duplicates across all scanned drives (offline)

czkawka offline analyze --session cleanup-2024

Execute cleanup when drives are available

czkawka offline execute --session cleanup-2024

Benefits

• Manage multiple drives without simultaneous connections
• Plan cleanup operations while drives are offline
• Resumable sessions - scan drives over time, analyze later
• Leverages existing code - reuses current duplicate detection algorithms

Would you be interested in this type of functionality? I'd be happy to try to implement.