Solved Problems Searching For Folders and Files

[DayTrader]

Hi, I've just built a computer for my father's home business, and installed Win7. On this computer, there are stored customer folders containing invoices, proposals etc. Previously, we were running a computer on Vista and had no problem simply typing in the first few letters of a customer's name in the main search on the desktop or a search within a folder and the folder would pop right up in the search, but now in Win7, it's not working out that way. I've googled around and read that it's a problem with Win7 and indexing or something, but I wanted to come here and ask if there is a way to fix this where it will work. Perhaps, I should mentioned that the files are stored on a separate partition from the main system.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Brink]

Hello DayTrader, and welcome to Seven Forums.

This may be able to help you get search setup to work properly for you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/129437-windows-search-configure-use.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[DayTrader]

Thanks Shawn for your very quick response. I'll give this a try first thing in the morning.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome. Please let us know how it went.

 

[DayTrader]

Ok, I read the tutorial and did as it said. I indexed the folders containing the files which I would want searched, but for some reason it's still not working. When I do a search for a customer's name, both from the Start Menu and from within the folder itself, it returns no results. It's probably something very simple that I'm overlooking but I can't seem to figure it out

 

[Brink]

After you included the location in the Index, did you rebuild the Index to update it?

 

[DayTrader]

Yea, I rebuilt it the first time and just tried it again, and still nothing

 

[Brink]

Double check to see if you have the search settings set like in the tutorial below for using the index to see if that may be able to help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/117952-search-have-more-accurate-search-results.html

 

[DayTrader]

Ok, I did it. Now, I'm able to find files when I do a search within the folder that contains the files, but from the Start Menu I'm not able to find those files. Maybe this is because the files I'm searching for are on a different partition?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

If you need to search ONLY for file names and folders, take a look at Everything, a very fast search tool from Voidtools.com.

It's easily configured. Search all drives or just one drive. It re-indexes the database every time it starts.

Results are near-instantaneous. Just type your search term into the single box.

The only drawback is that it does NOT search file contents. So if you put your spaghetti sauce recipes in a file called "How To Repair Putty Knives", it won't help you at all.

 

[Brink]

Ok, I did it. Now, I'm able to find files when I do a search within the folder that contains the files, but from the Start Menu I'm not able to find those files. Maybe this is because the files I'm searching for are on a different partition?

Yeah, I believe the Start Menu will only include files on the C: drive (Windows drive) instead.

 

[DayTrader]

If you need to search ONLY for file names and folders, take a look at Everything, a very fast search tool from Voidtools.com.

It's easily configured. Search all drives or just one drive. It re-indexes the database every time it starts.

Results are near-instantaneous. Just type your search term into the single box.

The only drawback is that it does NOT search file contents. So if you put your spaghetti sauce recipes in a file called "How To Repair Putty Knives", it won't help you at all.

Ok thanks! I'll give this a look

 

[DayTrader]

Ok, I did it. Now, I'm able to find files when I do a search within the folder that contains the files, but from the Start Menu I'm not able to find those files. Maybe this is because the files I'm searching for are on a different partition?

Yeah, I believe the Start Menu will only include files on the C: drive (Windows drive) instead.

Ok that makes sense. I think searching within the folder will suffice. i appreciate all your help and your tutorials are great!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Thank you.

 

[Hopalong X]

This is the explanation of difference by Microsoft.

Find a file or folder