Search doesn't find

Jason · Jun 11, 2013

On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:36:48 +0700 "Miles"

* Jason wrote, On 11-Jun-13 05:47:

Guess I'm not following you. Indexing options on C doesn't exist,
except for a few meaningless-to-me choices. One of which is to
individually change file types to "plain text filter" (index
properties & file contents), which I understand isn't necessary and
would be very laborious.

Indexing has been working for 6 hours and has indexed 225,000 files
when that is only a very small portion of the total -- drive E with
backup alone has 6 million. To ease that situation I've removed E
from indexing, although I'm uncertain if that's the way to go as I may
be looking for a file such as a contact in a backup of Thunderbird.

Also the indexing reads "indexing speed is reduced due to user
activity." How can this be eliminated? Once I restarted indexing
and with no user interface and that remark still exists. Obviously
full speed is needed

Click "Index now" in the Indexing Status window.

Initial indexing of my system, six partitions and about 600k files, takes
about 3 hours if I set Index now on. As soon as I disable that, I get the
message about speed being reduce due to ...

Miles · Jun 13, 2013

* Jeff Layman wrote, On 09-Jun-13 15:14:

"Everything" is very fast, but can only search for file/folder names:
http://www.voidtools.com/

"Agent Ransack" is also fast, but can search within files too:
http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack

Neither of the above bothers with indexing. If you want an index, try
"Copernic Desktop Search"
http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/

All the above are free for personal use.

What's up with Win Search?
It's a pile of crap. Next question...

Thank you Jeff. Installed Agent Ransack 64bit and it works great!
Had a minor problem in that it wouldn't pin to the taskbar, so
uninstalled/reinstalled and it's OK. Good-bye lousy old Windows
Search -- what happened to Windows Find which worked OK many years ago?

Now all I need to do is locate and delete the Windows Index which is
wasting space.
Miles

Jeff Layman · Jun 13, 2013

* Jeff Layman wrote, On 09-Jun-13 15:14:

Thank you Jeff. Installed Agent Ransack 64bit and it works great!
Had a minor problem in that it wouldn't pin to the taskbar, so
uninstalled/reinstalled and it's OK. Good-bye lousy old Windows
Search -- what happened to Windows Find which worked OK many years ago?

You're welcome. If you are only looking for a file or folder name
(rather than content) at any time, you might also want to install
"Everything" as well, as it is very fast.

Now all I need to do is locate and delete the Windows Index which is
wasting space.

Heh! Using another utility to find windows.edb is adding insult to
injury! It'll probably be huge on your system - well over a gig I
guess. Even if you've turned off Windows Search, you might find it
doesn't like being deleted. Might be best to try Eraser or MoveOnBoot
to get rid of it. Unless it's encrypted, I've always considered the
index to be a security/privacy hazard, which is one reason I turned off
Windows Search (and manually went into Services to disable
searchindexer.exe, as the damn thing still seemed to be running even
after I turned off Windows Search).

Ed Cryer · Jun 13, 2013

Miles said:
* Jeff Layman wrote, On 09-Jun-13 15:14:

Thank you Jeff. Installed Agent Ransack 64bit and it works great! Had a
minor problem in that it wouldn't pin to the taskbar, so
uninstalled/reinstalled and it's OK. Good-bye lousy old Windows Search
-- what happened to Windows Find which worked OK many years ago?

Now all I need to do is locate and delete the Windows Index which is
wasting space.
Miles

It tells you in Search Options/Advanced. Mine's in Program
Data/Microsoft/Search. I think that's unchanged from default.

Ed

Jason · Jun 14, 2013

On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:09:08 +0700 "Miles"

* Jeff Layman wrote, On 09-Jun-13 15:14:

Thank you Jeff. Installed Agent Ransack 64bit and it works great!
Had a minor problem in that it wouldn't pin to the taskbar, so
uninstalled/reinstalled and it's OK. Good-bye lousy old Windows
Search -- what happened to Windows Find which worked OK many years ago?

Now all I need to do is locate and delete the Windows Index which is
wasting space.
Miles

Ransack is very useful, but it does NOT replace Windows Search. It does
not create an index. If you search for content, not just filenames, it
does a sequential search of each file.

Miles · Jun 14, 2013

* Jason wrote, On 14-Jun-13 08:29:

On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:09:08 +0700 "Miles"

Ransack is very useful, but it does NOT replace Windows Search. It does
not create an index. If you search for content, not just filenames, it
does a sequential search of each file.

Am yet to test the speed of a search for content and will let you know
if too slow and another program is needed.

Miles · Jun 15, 2013

* Ed Cryer wrote, On 13-Jun-13 17:32:

It tells you in Search Options/Advanced. Mine's in Program
Data/Microsoft/Search. I think that's unchanged from default.

Ed

Ed, I don't know exactly what I am looking for. At that location find
data/app/windows/windows.eob with over 2 million kb. And there are
numerous under projects/indexes/cifiles. Should I delete 1 or all of
these?

Ed Cryer · Jun 15, 2013

Miles said:
* Ed Cryer wrote, On 13-Jun-13 17:32:

Ed, I don't know exactly what I am looking for. At that location find
data/app/windows/windows.eob with over 2 million kb. And there are
numerous under projects/indexes/cifiles. Should I delete 1 or all of
these?

In the Search folder I have only one folder, called Data. It contains
lots of stuff, all for MS search. You can delete the Data folder.

If you have other folders or files directly under the Search folder,
you'd better tell us what they are. Don't touch those yet.

Ed

Miles · Jun 16, 2013

* Ed Cryer wrote, On 16-Jun-13 00:36:

In the Search folder I have only one folder, called Data. It contains
lots of stuff, all for MS search. You can delete the Data folder.

If you have other folders or files directly under the Search folder,
you'd better tell us what they are. Don't touch those yet.

Ed

Thanks, Ed, the only folder is Data and it contains numerous
sub-folders such as Windows/windows.edb which is over a million kb.

If the "data" folder is eliminated in its entirety can it can be
readily replaced if ever wanted? Perhaps by merely creating a new index?

Ed Cryer · Jun 16, 2013

Miles said:
* Ed Cryer wrote, On 16-Jun-13 00:36:

Thanks, Ed, the only folder is Data and it contains numerous sub-folders
such as Windows/windows.edb which is over a million kb.

If the "data" folder is eliminated in its entirety can it can be readily
replaced if ever wanted? Perhaps by merely creating a new index?

Yes, just so. Switch indexing back on, and away it will go.

When you switch off System Restore it erases all the stuff. I should
have thought it would be the same with Indexing.
But apparently not.

Ed