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Topic: Good hard drive search tool here |
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 31 Aug 2009 1:28 am |
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I have been annoyed by the slow speed and clumsiness of Windows built-in search capabilities for a long time and accidentally ran across what appears to be a great replacement: Everything--available at no charge at www.voidtools.com.
Here is the FAQ:
http://www.voidtools.com/faq.php
It gives results just about as fast as you can enter the search term.
It works only on file and folder names--not contents.
I indexed 145,000 objects on my hard drive in less than 10 seconds. The index is updated every time the application is opened.
Drive space occupied in my case is about 2 megabytes.
Memory utilization is around 20 megabytes.
Everything will only work on local NTFS partitions, not network drives. As far as I know, it will work on both internal and external drives. It can be set to index all NTFS drives or only the ones you choose.
It seems to find hidden files OK. It found io.sys and pagefile.sys on my C drive, even when I had folder options set to not show hidden and system files.
You can search entire drives or just certain folders and can of course search by extension, partial file names, wild cards, etc.
The results can be sorted by column and exported to a text file through the simple uncluttered interface.
I have only been playing with it for a couple of hours, so it may have some shortcomings. But so far, it is a welcome replacement for the hopeless capability in Windows itself.
Here is an example of the results window, which came up instantaneously:
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2009 10:02 am Re: Good hard drive search tool here
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| Mitch Drumm wrote: |
| I have been annoyed by the slow speed and clumsiness of Windows built-in search capabilities |
Yep, Windows XP search pretty much stopped working here a couple of years ago. It returns zero or very few results despite my extensive efforts (wasted time) to understand/debug it.
The tool you recommend ("Everything") is somewhat better, and managed to find about 20 files on my C drive containing "steel" in the filename. It cannot find most files despite my deleting and rebuilding its database, etc etc (more wasted time.)
The best free tool that I found is called Agent Ransack, and it finds more than 1000 files with "steel" in the filename. I think that Agent Ransack finds all of them. |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2009 10:52 am Re: Good hard drive search tool here
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| Earnest Bovine wrote: |
Yep, Windows XP search pretty much stopped working here a couple of years ago. It returns zero or very few results despite my extensive efforts (wasted time) to understand/debug it.
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FYI: Microsoft has replaces the XP search with Windows Live Search, which is greatly enhanced over its predecessor. Any licensed XP user can download and install it for free.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 31 Aug 2009 11:25 am Re: Good hard drive search tool here
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| Wiz Feinberg wrote: |
FYI: Microsoft has replaces the XP search with Windows Live Search, which is greatly enhanced over its predecessor. |
Thanks Wiz, I see dozens of things to download, but I can't find anything about a disk search feature or app in the Windows Live link that you posted, or in any of the descriptions of other parts of Windows Live that are described here or in here in Windows Live Essentials.
Can you point me toward the new Search app? |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 2 Sep 2009 9:34 am
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Wiz,
Windows Search 4.0 lists Vista SP1, but not Vista SP2, as install requirements.
I've got SP2.
Will WS 4.0 still work with SP2?
Thanks.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 2 Sep 2009 4:19 pm
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| Chip Fossa wrote: |
Wiz,
Windows Search 4.0 lists Vista SP1, but not Vista SP2, as install requirements.
I've got SP2.
Will WS 4.0 still work with SP2?
Thanks. |
Maybe somebody who uses Vista, with SP2 can help you, but I'm still running on XP. Or, try to install it yourself and let us know.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 2 Sep 2009 5:14 pm
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Gosh,
What a call.
You check it out; OH, and BTW? Let us know if we should stick our necks, too.
You're the man, Wiz.
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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John Cipriano
From:
San Francisco
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Posted 2 Sep 2009 7:44 pm
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| SP1 should be read as SP1 or later. And usually service pack levels don't matter that much, but if they do, the installer will let you know. |
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 2 Sep 2009 8:55 pm
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Yet again...
_________________
Chip
Williams U-12 8X5; Keyless; Natural Blonde Laquer. |
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