Search software and SSDs

[athiker]

Prior to installing a SSD I used a search software that I think was
named Everything. A free download.

I didn't install it after the switch to the SSD because I wasn't sure
about how many read & writes it might do.

I need that program or something like it so I did a google search on
using an indexed search engine on a SSD and the opinions were varied.

Does anyone have an strong opinion on this.

Thanks

 

[Rene Lamontagne]

Prior to installing a SSD I used a search software that I think was
named Everything. A free download.

I didn't install it after the switch to the SSD because I wasn't sure
about how many read & writes it might do.

I need that program or something like it so I did a google search on
using an indexed search engine on a SSD and the opinions were varied.

Does anyone have an strong opinion on this.

Thanks

Yes, it works fine and no indication of shortening drive life , Besides
its so fast and good at what it does I wouldn't be without it.

Regards, Rene

 

[Laszlo Lebrun]

Prior to installing a SSD I used a search software that I think was
named Everything. A free download.

I didn't install it after the switch to the SSD because I wasn't sure
about how many read & writes it might do.

I need that program or something like it so I did a google search on
using an indexed search engine on a SSD and the opinions were varied.

Does anyone have an strong opinion on this.

Thanks

Just not to die idiot: what does that do, that Windows Search does not?

 

[Mike Barnes]

(e-mail address removed):

Prior to installing a SSD I used a search software that I think was
named Everything. A free download.

I didn't install it after the switch to the SSD because I wasn't sure
about how many read & writes it might do.

I need that program or something like it so I did a google search on
using an indexed search engine on a SSD and the opinions were varied.

It's worth considering whether it's the indexing or the searching that
is clocking up the usage. I probably use Search about once a year on
average, so the usage would far outweigh the benefit, and I have
indexing turned off. The same obviously doesn't apply to you but the
indexing/searching balance is something to think about.

 

[The Other Guy]

Just not to die idiot: what does that do, that Windows Search does not?

It's FAST, AND easy, but only searches folder and file names.

And it works fine, from my so far limited test.
Searched my laptop and 5 external drives with
over 5 terabytes of space (on USB2 connections) in
about 5 minutes, and found what I asked it for.









To reply by email, lose the Ks...

 

[Paul]

You mean it has specialised itself on searching for unindexed files?

Try the Voidtools.com FAQ page and forums ?

1) It indexes NTFS file systems.
2) It has to do an initial scan, when first installed. No magic there.
It hooks the file system, to be alerted to new files.
It uses the USN journal at startup, to ensure it knows about new files.
This scheme isn't perfect and can miss stuff. But, it is lightweight.
The tool supports a command line "-reindex" option, to
start the database over again. This would be for people who want
it to build a fresh index, at every reboot.
It focuses on NTFS file systems, because they're equipped
to make economical updating possible (easy to gather data).
3) On the minus side, the everything.db file is stored in the
Program Files folder, which is deprecated on newer Oses.

I would say, to reduce the impact of the tool to (near) zero,
you'd move the Everything.db file to some other hard drive.
Then the SSD gets little of the work. I could not find
any info on the algorithm used to write to the Everything.db
file - whether it gets updated one time at shutdown (i.e. RAM
resident normally), or every little file event causes a
new record to be written to the end of the file. Moving the
file elsewhere, might solve that concern.

Paul

 

[Laszlo Lebrun]

It's FAST, AND easy, but only searches folder and file names.

You mean it has specialised itself on searching for unindexed files?

 

[athiker]

Try the Voidtools.com FAQ page and forums ?

1) It indexes NTFS file systems.
2) It has to do an initial scan, when first installed. No magic there.
It hooks the file system, to be alerted to new files.
It uses the USN journal at startup, to ensure it knows about new files.
This scheme isn't perfect and can miss stuff. But, it is lightweight.
The tool supports a command line "-reindex" option, to
start the database over again. This would be for people who want
it to build a fresh index, at every reboot.
It focuses on NTFS file systems, because they're equipped
to make economical updating possible (easy to gather data).
3) On the minus side, the everything.db file is stored in the
Program Files folder, which is deprecated on newer Oses.

I would say, to reduce the impact of the tool to (near) zero,
you'd move the Everything.db file to some other hard drive.
Then the SSD gets little of the work. I could not find
any info on the algorithm used to write to the Everything.db
file - whether it gets updated one time at shutdown (i.e. RAM
resident normally), or every little file event causes a
new record to be written to the end of the file. Moving the
file elsewhere, might solve that concern.

Paul

Thanks. I do have a 2nd drive -non ssd- and will use it if possible.

 

[Ashton Crusher]

Yes, it works fine and no indication of shortening drive life , Besides
its so fast and good at what it does I wouldn't be without it.

Regards, Rene

How does it compare to Google's Desktop Search?

 

[s|b]

Maybe it does not phone everything to Google?

 

[The Other Guy]

You mean it has specialised itself on searching for unindexed files?

No, just that it doesn't search IN files, just the names.

And it does index it's data.






To reply by email, lose the Ks...

 

[Laszlo Lebrun]

How does it compare to Google's Desktop Search?

Maybe it does not phone everything to Google?

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

No, just that it doesn't search IN files, just the names.

And it does index it's data.

[]
Can Windows Search not be constrained _not_ to look inside files then?

 

[Paul]

Can Windows Search not be constrained _not_ to look inside files then?

I tried this on Windows 7... and it failed

I specifically set it to not index content, and it still took
three hours to index ~150000 files. If it was looking at
file and folder names, that should take three minutes. It
basically just ignored the setting, and did whatever the
hell it felt like Like all truly great software.

Paul

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Prior to installing a SSD I used a search software that I think was
named Everything. A free download.

I didn't install it after the switch to the SSD because I wasn't sure
about how many read & writes it might do.

I need that program or something like it so I did a google search on
using an indexed search engine on a SSD and the opinions were varied.

Does anyone have an strong opinion on this.

You can use Windows 7's own built-in search indexer. I think the indexed
search is still necessary on drives with a lot of little files,
scattered all over, and usually the boot drive is that drive.

My desktop system has one SSD and several HDD's. The HDD's hold huge
multi-megabyte and multi-gigabyte files, while the SSD holds the OS, and
the User folder. The HDD's had no more than a few 10,000's of files on
them, but they were huge. The SSD held literally millions of files on
it, almost all of them a few kilobytes or less. So yes, you definitely
still need the indexer on an SSD.

Don't worry about write cycles on the SSD, that's a completely overblown
concern.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

It's FAST, AND easy, but only searches folder and file names.

And it works fine, from my so far limited test.
Searched my laptop and 5 external drives with
over 5 terabytes of space (on USB2 connections) in
about 5 minutes, and found what I asked it for.

Sounds good, but does it integrate into the Windows Explorer Search like
Windows 7's indexer does?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I tried this on Windows 7... and it failed

I specifically set it to not index content, and it still took
three hours to index ~150000 files. If it was looking at
file and folder names, that should take three minutes. It
basically just ignored the setting, and did whatever the
hell it felt like Like all truly great software.

Paul

That might explain why it was taking so long on one my SSD's.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Paul]

You can use Windows 7's own built-in search indexer. I think the indexed
search is still necessary on drives with a lot of little files,
scattered all over, and usually the boot drive is that drive.

My desktop system has one SSD and several HDD's. The HDD's hold huge
multi-megabyte and multi-gigabyte files, while the SSD holds the OS, and
the User folder. The HDD's had no more than a few 10,000's of files on
them, but they were huge. The SSD held literally millions of files on
it, almost all of them a few kilobytes or less. So yes, you definitely
still need the indexer on an SSD.

Don't worry about write cycles on the SSD, that's a completely overblown
concern.

Yousuf Khan

You can actually store the search index files on Windows 7, on another
partition than C:. So if you want, the writes can be redirected to
another storage device. The only thing I couldn't redirect on Windows 7,
was VSS related activity (volume shadow). The purpose of me doing
stuff like that, was to make C: storage requirements small. My Windows 7
runs on a 40GB C: partition. The ability to move VSS output elsewhere,
exists on server OSes, but they didn't throw in the necessary DLL
to do it on the desktops.

Paul

 

[Ken Blake]

Prior to installing a SSD I used a search software that I think was
named Everything. A free download.

I didn't install it after the switch to the SSD because I wasn't sure
about how many read & writes it might do.

I need that program or something like it so I did a google search on
using an indexed search engine on a SSD and the opinions were varied.

Does anyone have an strong opinion on this.

I strongly recommend two search programs, both free:

1. Search Everything, which you already know, for searching on file
name.

2. Agent Ransack, for searching on content.

I use both of them.

I wouldn't worry about how many read & writes either might do.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Sounds good, but does it integrate into the Windows Explorer Search like
Windows 7's indexer does?

Yousuf Khan

You can right click on a folder (but not a filename) and choose Search
Everything.

That's good enough for me, but I can't speak for you