how do i search for files.

jfoldbar said:

i recently bought a new pc with windows 7. i am used to xp and so cant for the life of me work out how to search for a file on external hdd that i cant find. ive tried start> seach. but its not searching for files.

Windows 7 Search is an advanced cmd interface. Use FileSearchEX is you want the XP style GUI.

ignatzatsonic said:

jfoldbar said:

4wd said:

I'll refrain from expressing opinions on w7 search. Some alternatives that works out of the box and digs up anything, anywhere, always: Agent Ransack & the search in Free Commander.

what does this mean?

It means exactly what it says.

Windows Search works pretty well if you care to devote the time necessary to ascend its learning curve.

If you don't, alternatives include the above mentioned and Everything, from voidtools.com.

Absolutely NOPE, I have a public folder, 1,300,000 files or so in a large heap of subfolders, and in the toplevel I can see a file sage.ova 1.4GB, I do a search for gigantic files and I get 4 files, 3 are HP spectrum analyser and oscilloscope manuals, but it cannot find a HUUUUUUGE file right there in the top level.
I also know that there are about another 40 files larger than 200Mb to be found, but it cant.
I had to jump through hoops even to get that far.

I am going for the agent ransack and the everything search engine. This win 7 search is just too brain dead for words.

I am getting fedup with the useless moving around of everything compared to previous versions.

next step UBUNTU and virtualise Win7 for the programs I cant do without.

I am glad this forums old post covered how bad the search really is, and I will have some of the stuff that the posters who like the search are using please.

fedup said:

I am going for the agent ransack and the everything search engine. This win 7 search is just too brain dead for words.

I am getting fedup with the useless moving around of everything compared to previous versions.

Personally, I can't live without Everything.

99.99999% of my searches are simply to find a file by name. Everything finds it INSTANTLY. As you type more an more characters, the "hit list" narrows.

Perfect file name search engine for me. You can't go wrong. You'll love it.

dsperber said:

fedup said:

I am going for the agent ransack and the everything search engine. This win 7 search is just too brain dead for words.

I am getting fedup with the useless moving around of everything compared to previous versions.

Personally, I can't live without Everything.

99.99999% of my searches are simply to find a file by name. Everything finds it INSTANTLY. As you type more an more characters, the "hit list" narrows.

Perfect file name search engine for me. You can't go wrong. You'll love it.

Well I am trying to sort a collection of backups to make some sense of it, I am trying to find files where I dont always know the full name.
I have done a *.* search and it has returned 0 files, I have done gigantic and huge, where once it found a few of the files I knew were there, most of the time it found nothing, I force windows to know about .dmg files and it still cannot find any.

I think it is a rubbish search, not worth the time and space to include it, I cannot trust the results it returns.

I had endless woes with it already. I know enough about what types and sizes of files are in there, but not always where they are, and how many near duplicates there might be.

fedup said:

I think it is a rubbish search, not worth the time and space to include it, I cannot trust the results it returns.

The Everything search engine works very well.

You set it to index the drives of your choice. Each time you open it, it re-indexes your drives--typically taking under 5 seconds.

Then just enter whatever you remember of the file name in the single search box.

Fran will find frank, frantic, francis, etc.

Fran jpg will find frank sinatra.jpg, george in france, 1957.jpg and so forth.

All virtually instantaneously.

It accepts wild cards, but I rarely use them.

I have heard of it missing some items, but that has not happened to me.

fedup said:

Well I am trying to sort a collection of backups to make some sense of it, I am trying to find files where I dont always know the full name.

Exactly!

As Ignatzatsonic said, you just start typing whatever you remember of the name. Can be the start of the name, the middle of the name, a portion of the name, drive/folder limited, * wildcard types, etc.

As you type the Everything index is simultaneously being examined and the Explorer-like presentation "hit list" appears in the window area below. The more precise is your file name, presumably the smaller and more refined is the "hit list".

You specify what drives you want Everything to "watch over" and as long as it's running (which starts when Windows starts) the real-time index on every single partition you've included is real-time updated as you work. Every file add, change, delete, rename, etc., the Everything index is simultaneously and instantly made current. You will not see any overhead at all.

You can also use the "hit list" to open files (double-click or right-click context menu, just like with Explorer).

Try it. You'll like it, I'm sure.

It is EXACTLY what we all wanted, for pure file name searching.

I seem to have quoted the wrong link, everything works for me now that I have tried it, the Win 7 search gets a -20 vote from me, much too misleading, and it lies to me too much.

disk space fan 4 has been loaded and unloaded already as it gave an out of memory error on first use!! 8Gb of main memory here.

fedup said:

I seem to have quoted the wrong link, everything works for me now that I have tried it

Are you commenting on Everything?

Are you saying now that you've played with it a little and realized how to use it (and how SIMPLE it is to use it) that it has returned the type of search results you were looking for, with the almost-zero effort it takes to start typing the full/partial file name you're looking for?

So you've happily settled on Everything (at least for now)?

dsperber said:

fedup said:

I seem to have quoted the wrong link, everything works for me now that I have tried it

Are you commenting on Everything?

Are you saying now that you've played with it a little and realized how to use it (and how SIMPLE it is to use it) that it has returned the type of search results you were looking for, with the almost-zero effort it takes to start typing the full/partial file name you're looking for?

So you've happily settled on Everything (at least for now)?

Hi,

yes the "Everything" package seems to do what I need, thanks to all for that tip. It is seriously slow with 1,500,000 + files though , but at least it doesn't actually tell lies like the MS offering.