Question about Windows Indexing USB Drives

tfwul · 12 Jan 2021

Windows Indexing of external discs.

If such discs are being powered off and maybe powered on again a couple of days, or even a week later, does Windows' index 'remember' what is stored where on these drives?
Or will Windows start indexing them from scratch?

One might argue that basically it would not matter, after all internal HDD's are also powered off when switching off the PC.
OTOH, after booting Windows will continue to keep the index up-to-date, but then again only as far as internal HDD's is concerned.

Just curious to know what will happen with the index data of the external drives.

Are they safeguarded against overwriting?

Thanks.

dalchina · 12 Jan 2021

Hi, this becomes somewhat messy.

One basic requirement would be that a given drive always be allocated the same drive letter. This is possible to do using disk management.

Note that searching such a disk requires that file explorer be open at PC level or at the drive itself. If it's open somewhere on C:, say, there will be no finds from the external disk.

The index is retained, and indexing will resume if the drive is plugged in.

Of course, if files have been changed using a different PC, for example, this creates a discrepancy.

If file explorer is open at PC level (all drives visible and searched) then expect a slow green progress bar unless every drive is fully indexed.

tfwul · 13 Jan 2021

Many thanks indeed.

All clear.
Drive letters remain the same. OTOH searching with Explorer isn't really fast.
Using Everything (Voidtools) for that.

I more or less got to this question whilst searching for possible tools that would compare large folders and might use the Windows Index to improve the speed, rather than to start each compare, of the same folders, all over again, which take ages.
Anyway, AFAIK, there are none.

Again, thanks for the above.

dalchina · 13 Jan 2021

Windows search is pretty fast- if everything you're searching is indexed. It also includes content indexing.

But, like you, I use a 3rd party search tool that's lower on resource usage than Everything- and can index networked locations and be specified to search in several specific locations.

tfwul · 13 Jan 2021

I don't use network things like you, so I wouldn't know.
FWIW, I found this on Voidtools (FAQ) :

"
How do I index a mapped network drive/NAS/Network share?

To add a mapped network drive/NAS/Network share to your Everything index:

In "Everything", from the Tools menu, click Options.
Click the Folders tab on the left.
Click Add....
Select the mapped network drive/NAS/Network share and click OK.
Click OK.

If network drive is not listed in Everything, please try running Everything as a standard user:

In "Everything", from the Tools menu, click Options.
Click the General tab on the left.
Check Everything service.
Uncheck Run as administrator.
Click OK.
Restart "Everything" (right click the Everything tray icon and click Exit).

"
I use Everything because it is quite straightforward. Years back I also used Listary for a while. It is a matter of taste, I guess. Listary made me puzzle sometimes, so it is Everything since then. As said, matter of taste though. Both are very fast.