Vista - Help. Cannot stop Vista Index from indexing everything.

I was surprised when running a search to find that I was given details of files that were on external drives that had been connected at different times but no longer were. I presumed first that these files were selected to be indexed by default but when I checked they had not been. I am wondering why and how details of files on these drives appear. It seems almost as though the system indexes everything by default.

As an experiment I rebuilt the index which I understood would remove all existing records of files etc.and then rebuild only the the selected locations which do not include these drives. I then connected the drives again. Once the indexing options tab showed indexing complete I tried the search once more. I found I could search for the same files and locate them as before. I am wondering why details of files on these drives appear although the drives are not selected on the indexed locations and how I rectify the situation? Nothing so far appears to stop the system indexing everything.

Hello Phmc,

You can use OPTION TWO in the tutorial below to select to turn off the Index for a selected drive.

Index - Enable or Disable

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks for that Shawn. Unfortunately when I go to properties there is no entry
Index this drive for faster searching. Any thoughts?

If you're not set on using windows search you can open the services applet in control panel, scroll down to windows search, stop the service, then right click on Properties and set it to disabled. I use locate32 and do indexing manually.

Also you may find windows media player wants to index everything. Also mobsync wants to index everything in case you want to sync files to your laptop. I don't have a laptop and don't need to 'sync' stuff using the Windows method so I use an app killer that kills mobsync, media player, and internet explorer whenever they try to pop up.

Also caching of network files for using them offline will cause this kind of stuff.
SP1 turns a lot of this crap off or sets it to manual but I had to do it all by hand.

edit: btw if you do use locate32 make sure "track file system changes" is disabled or it will run your HD for minutes after every copy of a bunch of files to your external drive. I don't know why Windows tries to act like a multi-user system when it's not even a server edition. It's a bit silly.

If you have Search auto running and a Search does not find a file that you know is somewhere how do you start the old fashion type search of the disk?

Hello Wmcsnow,

The easiest way is to disable the index and adjust the Search settings to what you want to be searched. This way Vista will always search how you wanted.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Any chance anyone can tell me why there is no " Index this drive for faster searching" dialogue showing on my external drives? As I've said all drives seem to be being indexed and without disabling the index there seems to be no solution.

Other than rebuilding the index while the external drives are connected to force a faster update of the index, all you can do is to disable the index to use non-indexed searches instead.

What you may be seeing could be results from the write caching feature for speeding up access to external drives...

http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/in...ost&pid=235598

Many thanks for trying to help but each piece of advice seems to lead to another blind alley. I followed the links for the write caching feature but unfortunately none of the external drives is selected for write caching so that's not the issue.
More frustrating is the fact that I have disconnected the drives and rebuilt the index and still the search function brings up files that are on the disconnected drives. Just how can I clear this information from the system!!!