Indexing?

Jekyll and Hyde · Nov 9, 2008

Just out of curiosity, is it advisable to leave indexing on as when I right click "My Computer" I have a box checked for "index this drive for faster searching" and I was wondering if this should be left on or turned off and if off is the answer, what benefits would I notice, or is it best to leave on, and does it really do what it says on the tin?

Cheers

Jekyll and Hyde

Brink · Nov 9, 2008

Hello Jekyll and Hyde,

I suppose it depends on your searching needs. If you do not do a lot of searches, then you can gain some of your resources back by turning the Index off. This tutorial can help explain this in more details.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Jekyll and Hyde · Nov 10, 2008

Hello Shawn,

Thank you for the help, its mainly games as my machine is built for that purpose only, well that and a bit of internet use from time to time, can't say I actually search a great deal on my PC no

Thanks again

Not meaning to nit-pick Shawn, but in your Tutorial you have put this: "Dot"

"Dot Apply changes to drive, subfolders, and files." and I am not quite sure whether you mean "Don't" or "Do" :D just a typo but I dare not say yes or no until I know what you meant, sorry, I don't mean to be a pain

Not to worry I took a chance on you meaning yes (to do it for subfolders, and files)

Chris

archie123 · Nov 10, 2008

I have indexing off , im a gamer too my pc is a glorified X Box , my hard drives aint that big and if i need to find something it doesnt take that long anyway

I do have Superfetch Running though

Jekyll and Hyde · Nov 10, 2008

Ah your a saint Archie! I'll tell you why, although I am no expert on Vista or anything else come to that but...........I read in a Vista Tweaking guide some time ago that leaving Superfetch on thrashes your HD, and when my system was built it had a new 500 Gig Barracuda in it, and the activity was immense, constant grumbling etc, so I searched the net and found alot of other people that were not too happy about it going on like that, and according to my search the Superfetch does this with all new drives and can go on for a good 2 weeks, not that you may have this but anyone who gets a new HD should be aware that this might happen or will happen if Superfetch is on.

Please note that this was in the article I found at the time, and is not me who found this and is advising, I take no responsibility for it, it may be true but it may also be nonsense, but since having had my formats done, the HD was going at it again and that is because I forgot about it being on, so thank you for reminding me......if you find it is not giving you an issue then I'd leave alone, but when having new HD's this does happen and I was straight there to turn it off, and it has to be said it helped straight away.

Jekyll and Hyde

archie123 · Nov 10, 2008

yes mate i had the same problem with superfetch , noisy hard drive , but it does speed up file access if left on , Vista is better with it than without it :D

Your hard drive will calm down and it wont take 2 weeks

after much research and asking the general concensus seems to be to leave superfetch running , i think it also helps boot time though i may be making that up :P

Brink · Nov 10, 2008

Jekyll and Hyde said:
Hello Shawn,

Thank you for the help, its mainly games as my machine is built for that purpose only, well that and a bit of internet use from time to time, can't say I actually search a great deal on my PC no

Thanks again

Not meaning to nit-pick Shawn, but in your Tutorial you have put this: "Dot"

"Dot Apply changes to drive, subfolders, and files." and I am not quite sure whether you mean "Don't" or "Do" :D just a typo but I dare not say yes or no until I know what you meant, sorry, I don't mean to be a pain

Not to worry I took a chance on you meaning yes (to do it for subfolders, and files)

Chris

You're welcome Chris.

That's ok, nit-picking helps to improve the tutorials that much more to help other better. Sorry for any misunderstanding with it.

It should be Dot, since you will be dotting (click on circle) the Apply changes to drive, subfolders, and files option instead of checking a box or clicking on a link for it.

Thank you,
Shawn

mike-cow · Nov 10, 2008

I'd say select instead, not so much room for misinterpretation.

Brink · Nov 10, 2008

Hi Mike,

Sounds good. The tutorial has been updated. :geek:

Jekyll and Hyde · Nov 10, 2008

Hi guys,

Well it looks like I will have to eat my words then and go put it back on

I also make a bad habit of mis-understanding

although seeing as I find it hard to pick things up easily I have to use that as my rather pathetic excuse

I also should'nt believe absolutely everything I read in articles, some fair enough, but I always believe the lot! lol :confused:

Jekyll and Hyde

Brink · Nov 10, 2008

LOL, that's ok Chris.

In previous versions of Windows, Superfetch was a problem. In Vista, Superfetch seems to help improve performance with it turned on instead.

Jekyll and Hyde · Nov 10, 2008

At least I have learnt something that I did'nt know and I just hope that whoever wrote the article I saw has updated it

Its now back on or will be shortly, thank you Shawn

Chris :D

jeff_rys · Nov 10, 2008

hi guys,

i reuse "indexing". When off, impossible to do a search in your Excel folders.

When i do a search for a specific unique given, like a name, the search gives me every document with that name in. When indexing is off, you can forget this. So in my case i leave it on.

jeff

Brink · Nov 10, 2008

You're welcome Chris.

stormy13 · Nov 10, 2008

archie123 said:
i think it also helps boot time though i may be making that up :P

That and ReadyBoot (no not a typo), which you lose if you disable ReadyBoost.

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