Windows Search can't search data drive

[ochadd]

I have three drives in my PC and one of them can't be searched against. No results is always returned. It works on the other drives just fine.
C:\ = Windows 7 OS
B:\ = Data drive
F:\ = Old data drive

Nothing in B:\ comes up in search results. It has never been searchable since I built the machine a few weeks back. Worked fine before pulling out of my old PC. I've verified the SYSTEM account has full access. Changing ownership, reinstalling Windows Search, adding and removing B:\ from index, and reindexed several times. Lots of restarts and restarting the indexing service. Out of ideas short of a format. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Edit: Should also add that Windows Search works if I disable indexing.

Edit 2: The fix turned out to be the drive letter. Changing it from B: to W: followed by reindexing fixed the problem.

 

[bigdogchris]

Type in "Indexing" into Start\Search and click on Indexing Options. Click Modify, then put a check box next to B:\ then hit OK and Close.

 

[Dogs]

The indexing service might need time to rebuild the B+ trees. Give it a day or so of use. All of that unindexing and reindexing could be wiping out the tree and not giving it enough time to rebuild itself.

Edit: Should also add that Windows Search works if I disable indexing.

For whatever reason, it probably wasn't working right the first time. Now that you've messed with the indexing service, you probably fixed it, but haven't given it enough time to get the index all set up. Turning the indexing service off will make it naively visit each file until it finds the right one, which might be slow, but doesn't require anything to be set up. If you then turn indexing back on, it's going to try to look in the tree first, but if the tree isn't built yet, it could be getting confused. If you'd like to test this, search for a file on the B drive with indexing on and wait a really long time to see if it eventually finds it.

 

[JasonPC]

I've had a similar problem on my work PC and the IT department can't figure it out. Didn't happen to a drive but rather my Outlook inbox. This is especially annoying because this is Outlook's primary method of search. You have to jump through a few hoops to go back to the old windows search. It would only index a certain amount of emails up to a certain date and it wouldn't index anymore. I'm going to get them to reimage my system soon anyway since AutoCAD dropped 32-bit support and we have a subscription.

 

[ochadd]

Type in "Indexing" into Start\Search and click on Indexing Options. Click Modify, then put a check box next to B:\ then hit OK and Close.

Tried this several times. I'm letting the index complete before calling it still broken. An example is if I start an index rebuild and try to search B: it returns results and warns of unindexed files. Once the indexing completes I stop getting results.

I'm trying it again now though. I never wrote down the number of indexed files before and after. Without B:\ indexed the file count is 351,095. Added it under Modify and chose to rebuild. Should increase by around 96k.

 

[ochadd]

IT actually indexed fewer files. 349,959.

 

[Quartz-1]

Try giving your B: drive a later letter. B: was the letter for the second floppy drive so Windows may be marking it as a removable or network drive and so not index it.

 

[DPI]

if you want instantaneous search of all your drives then hard to beat "Everything" by voidtools. Indexes a fresh install of Windows (approx 20,000 files) in about a second, and 1 million files in about a minute. Reads straight from MFT and tracks changes via USN Journal so its a little more advanced than running a "dir /s" on your disk and cataloging it. And results of searches are the kind of "realtime" where you start typing letters for a search, and the results list instantly changes after every keypress. Fast. Can also be run in a client/server mode, like install on server, install on client, connect to server from client - also instant search results.

http://www.voidtools.com/

 

[Deleted member 133315]

Try giving your B: drive a later letter. B: was the letter for the second floppy drive so Windows may be marking it as a removable or network drive and so not index it.

I think this is related to the OP's problem, as B was always used for a second floppy drive, maybe windows search doesnt like hdds listed lower than C:

Try the above advice and see if that helps after letting windows index the new location.

 

[B00nie]

if you want instantaneous search of all your drives then hard to beat "Everything" by voidtools. Indexes a fresh install of Windows (approx 20,000 files) in about a second, and 1 million files in about a minute. Reads straight from MFT and tracks changes via USN Journal so its a little more advanced than running a "dir /s" on your disk and cataloging it. And results of searches are the kind of "realtime" where you start typing letters for a search, and the results list instantly changes after every keypress. Fast. Can also be run in a client/server mode, like install on server, install on client, connect to server from client - also instant search results.

http://www.voidtools.com/

Mmm free software for windows. Sounds like the best idea in a long time lol.

 

[ochadd]

I think this is related to the OP's problem, as B was always used for a second floppy drive, maybe windows search doesnt like hdds listed lower than C:

Try the above advice and see if that helps after letting windows index the new location.

Thanks Quartz and EvilScotsman. You guys were right. Changing the drive letter from B:\ to W:\ and reindexing solved the problem.