photo, movie, movie etc management database

[SavannahLion]

Wifee decided to dip into the harddrives and do a little spring cleaning. I guess I didn't foresee that she and I would have vastly different ideas on how those files should be organized. 

No point in getting into details on how they should be organized, gist of it is this:

I have multiple users accessing the same files.
Each of the users wants to organize them differently.
I want to do it without duplicating the files for each of the users.

And in an ideal world, the interface would be transparent. Giving all appearances as being just another HDD or folder in the Windows hierarchy. I know it's perfectly feasible in Linux but Windows is a bit of a cow about that. But I can at least ask.

Any ideas about my options? Been browsing photo forums and most solutions are either crap or they use web browser interfaces losing that transparency.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

Like you say, In Linux it would be a doddle.

If memory serves (It's been a while since I bothered with WinDoze), Windows 2000 and XP used a program called Linkd to create junction points and Vista onwards can handle 'proper' symbolic links just like Linux. I'm sure a wee Google of Linkd, Junction Points or Symbolic Links should tell you what is or isn't do-able in Windows.