Windows 7: Do you index your entire HDD?

does indexing your entire disk for all files hinders performance? is it recommended doing it or not doing it?



thanks.

I find that I rarely search for anything on my PC...so half the time I just shut down indexing entirely.

I dont index the entire C: drive where the OS is, just certain parts. Basically heres whats indexed for me:

Internet Explorer history
Offline files
Start menu
Users [as in c:\users] (excludes the appdata folders)
Windows Live Mail
Windows Media Center

Those are the only items indexed on my c:. I have added 2 whole drives for indexing:

F: (user accounts, downloads, general dumping ground)
Z: (music)

as you can see theyre not in any way connected to the OS so wouldnt affect resources quite so much.

Hello Xan K,

The purpose of the index is to help do searches faster for only locations that you search frequently. It is not recemmended to index the entire hard drive.

See: Index Locations - Add or Remove

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I have turned off indexing (disabled Windows Search service) and I believe it saves CPU cycles on an on-going basis. If you want it running but not constantly indexing setup a dummy directory structure with a single file and restrict indexing to that directory. This approach works.

thanks guys for the useful info.
now, how can I remove Windows Live Mail from the indexing. I can't find a way to remove it.

Hello Jeremy,

I agree. Just to let you know though, when index is disabled, searches cannot be done in library folders. If this is not a problem, then disabling the index can save resources and help the hard drive not run as much.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I keep all of my indexing to the system defaults. I do Doc redirects, use outlook data files, and I find that the defaults have never failed me and imporve my search times considerably and never hinder my perforamnce.