Solved Odd (bad) search behavior

[john1955]

If, using windows explorer, I navigate to:

C:\Users\John\Documents

And search for *.pdf I got "no items match your search"

Same thing happens if I search from Libraries\Documents

But if I navigate to:

C:\Documents and Settings\John\Documents

the search is successful and I get 612 hits

These are essentially the same folders are the not? So why the difference in search results?

Sorry if this has been answered already but I cant think of a way to search for the subject to find the answer and I'm a late comer to Win7 (just now weaning myself off of XP) so I will probably be finding all sorts of "glitches" like this and coming here for answers.

Is there a LIST of odd features like this for Windows 7 that I should be reading up on?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
What happens if you just click Start and type in the start menu search pdf

 

[john1955]

Hadn't thought of that . . . I get no hits at all.

Correction. if I type "pdf" without the *. I get 10 hits

It finds one or two files in different folders with dozens of pdf documents but ignores the other 600+ files

It found nothing in the documents folder. The ones it found were scattered around in other folders.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
These files are not inside zip folders are they ?
Are these files or folder on the C drive ?
Advanced tips for searching in Windows

 

[john1955]

No! None of them are in zip files

They are on the C drive but a couple were found on the D drive where there are 401 if I search from the root of the D drive. My email program (Eudora) is on the D drive and the *attachments* folder has the bulk of them.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I edited my post did you see this link
Advanced tips for searching in Windows

 

[john1955]

Hi,
I edited my post did you see this link
Advanced tips for searching in Windows

I see it now but it does not help.

The Search and Indexing troubleshooter found no problems.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Use Clean boot,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html
Click Start and type in the search box,
msconfig
Click on the suggestion on top or hit the Enter key,
Go to the Startup section and take some screen shots for a complete list,
Go to the Services section and on the bottom left Check the box to Hide All Microsoft services,
Repeat the screen shots,
See the links above my signature on how to take and upload screen shots here,

Also if you wouldn't mind posting one of these
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[john1955]

Not much in Startup. I keep it as lean as I can.

I did run a bunch of updates today and one of them reverted my taking ownership of the C:\Windows\System32 folder which I had to fix to use Eudora MAPI without an error message.

 

[john1955]

This is why I hate new operating systems. You have to change the way you do everything. :\

So I rebooted and did the search again from the start menu and got the same results but this time I noticed a magnifying glass icon with *.pdf next to it so I clicked on it and I got a quick 371 hits only on the D drive but after about 45 seconds it found *all* my files (I assume) numbering exactly 3,000. Is that the limit because I find it almost impossible there would be exactly 3,000 LOL


My original problem still persists that it wont search C:\Users\John\Documents or in Libraries

 

[lehnerus2000]

Corrupted Files?

My setup is different to yours.

My Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures & Videos folders each have their own partitions.
I have the "Windows Search" service disabled, but searching for files using the Windows Explorer Search box still works.

Perhaps some part of Windows Search has become corrupted.

Have you tried running sfc?

Open the Command Prompt (Use the "Run as administrator" option in the context menu).
Type:

sfc /scannow
​

Tutorial
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[DavidE]

Here's a couple of tutorials that might help:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69138-search-indexing-troubleshoot-shortcut-create.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/117952-search-have-more-accurate-search-results.html

I mostly use File Locator Lite (free) for searching.
It doesn't use the index and has a lot of search options.
FileLocator Lite - Free File Searching Utility

 

[john1955]

SOLVED!

I just turned off indexing on all drives and now searching in C:\Users\John\Documents works and the results are almost instantaneous.


SFC found some problems and fixed them but I don't know how to read the log file. There were (I think) 96 if that's what "POQ 96 ends." means. Fixing them had no affect on the search issue.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Interesting I would of expected an opposite affect

 

[john1955]

Hi,
Interesting I would of expected an opposite affect

Me too.

I expect searching the entire drive will take longer but I don't do that very often and having SSDs helps. Defragmenting was turned on as well and I'm sure I turned it off when I installed the SSDs or maybe I only did that for my laptop and forgot to on the desktop computer.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Ha yea you don't use Samsung magician for your ssd ?

 

[john1955]

I thought I did. I know I did on the other two SSDs.

 

[ThrashZone]

It's a good way to at least update the ssd's firmware if nothing else