I typically disable indexing but Im getting a 16TB external drive for storage and will be searching for files quite frequently so I will enable indexing on this drive. Since it probably takes hours to rebuild the index, I was wondering if there is a way to backup and restore the index database of the external drive in case of a windows reinstall or just moving the index to another pc.
Hi, whilst Windows search can be formidable when used properly, my view of it indexing external drives is simple- don't.
Far better in that case to use a 3rd party tool... and I'd suggest you avoid looking for one that indexes content in this case.
As you probably know, such tools can index the files and folder quite quickly, adding on content search on found files.
As to whether you can back up the index for your external disk- as far as I'm aware there is one edb index file- no distinction between internal and external disks.
3rd party search software both index and search on-the-fly, eliminating the 2 step separate process of indexing and searching that Explorer uses
Try these freeware options
- Everything
- Ultrasearch
- Agent Ransack
From my experience, I wouldn't worry too much about the building of the index file, whenever necessary on a PC that has been "newly introduced" to the 16 TB drive.
Just give it a few days, with a few hours a day, for the index to build on all the PCs that need the 16 TB drive's index.
Suppose you reinstall Windows on a PC and you want that index to be available there, just have the small inconvenience of not finding things in the newly installed Windows PC of the 16 TB drive, for just a few days. That newly installed Windows should now be fine, and you're not going to reinstall Windows on that PC anytime soon, hopefully.
You can do the above, or... Plan B:
(Let's try this one out.)
After the 16 TB drive's index completes on one of the PCs, you can go to:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data
and copy everything there, especially the very big Windows.edb, located in: ...\Applications\Windows
to a new PC.
BUT BE AWARE that this file contains indexes of other drives from the first PC. Technically speaking, that shouldn't be an issue in the new PC,
...BUT...
that will replace the index of the other drives in the new PC.
So it wouldn't be suggested to do Plan B; I'd stick with Plan A
Here's more info about Windows Indexing:
Change Search Index Location in Windows 10
I saw some 3rd party software but feels like a bit of a trouble having to switch between explorer while organizing many files.
What if I open the property of the drive and uncheck "Allow files on this drive to have contects indexed in addition to file properties" ? Will that practially make it equivalent to those softwares?
And thank you for your reply. Short answer: no.
If you read my post, (unacknowleged) I commented on content indexing.
Obviously disabling content indexing will speed indexing and reduce disk access, but Windows is FAR FAR slower indexing drives than 3rd party tools.
Further, Windows' indexing 'backs off' (pauses) at the slightest user activity.
Give a 3rd party tool a try.
Note: it encourages respondents if you are polite and acknowledge posts.
I read your reply but probably didnt fully understand it. I will try out some 3rd party software and see how it goes. Thanks.
Most (All?) of the 3rd party options have right-click context menu inclusion for use in Windows Explorer
The sun doesn't shine out of everything Microsoft, just because it comes built-in with Windows. Windows Explorer is a dinosaur, and has been a perfunctory token file explorer offered in Windows for many versions. If you are constantly organising files, and some of large volume, then you couldn't do worse than try a 3rd party file explorer in conjunction with the 3rd party file searching options.
(There! That piece of diatribe should get the purists rallying)
Directory Opus
One Commander
Xplorer2 (free version Xplorer2 Lite)
come to mind immediately
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