Windows 7 Search Will Not Search outside of bootable hard drive
Hello, all. I'm writing to try and find a solution for the Windows 7 search. I've read a number of the forums listening to other people's problems and solutions regarding Windows 7 search and have tried just about all of them. Let me explain my situation: I recently upgraded the hard drive in my computer from an HDD to an SSD. My laptop was originally configured as a RAID 0 array, where Windows 7 Search always worked. I could type in the names of Word Documents, MATLAB files, music, pictures, etc. and everything would come up, no problem. I could also search for the contents of certain files, such as a MATLAB script that contained the function "num2str," and Windows Search would find it for me, no problem. This was particularly useful for me as I'm a graduate student and it was very easy for me to search for a paper with a previous cite, etc. and find it. However, when I upgraded, my SSD is fairly small (120 GB) and I have a 20 GB of documents/data from experiments, as well as all my music, pictures, and videos. So I elected to scrap the RAID array, do a clean install, and use the SSD as my boot drive (C:\), where Windows, Office, and all my other programs would be installed, and use the second hard drive in my computer (a 500 GB HDD) as my Storage Drive (B:\), where I could keep all of my personal files and not have to worry about space issues. The B: has a file structure that mirrors that of the C:, with Program Files and Users folders, as well as My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and My Video folders that are referenced using the Libraries feature to the B: instead of the now empty folders on the C:. However, for whatever reason, Windows Search refuses to find anything on the B:, even if, while I am in the Documents Folder which contains a folder Work (Documents\Work), and I search for Work in the Documents Window, I return no search results. Windows Search will still work on C:, though. In fact, when I search for something from the start menu, any results are explicitly from C:, despite the fact that B: is searchable and has been indexed. Here's what I've tried up to this point: 1. Checked to see if I have the invalid registry entry referred here. http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/cc378149-8765-498a-9480-b1b494e1a1a9 My system doesn't have it. 2. Used the Indexing Options to add the B: to the search, (I currently have Windows Search looking through both B: and parts of C:), and have rebuilt the index several times. 3. Ensured that the entire B: has Full Control file permissions for Authenticated Users, System, and Administrators. The Users profile has Read & Execute, List, and Read permissions. 4. B: Properties include the checked box: "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed..." 5. Both drives are formatted to NTFS (Read somewhere that might be an issue) 6. Search Troubleshooter says it can't find a solution, asks me to look online. My apologies for the verbose post, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible. I'm really stumped as to what to do from this point on. I find it particularly frustating when I am looking right at a file, search for it, and return no search results. My friend, who has a similar setup with the SSD/HDD configuration, has lamented that "Windows 7 Search has sucked" and that he never uses it. I know that Windows 7 Search works, and is a valuable tool I use every day, so I'm hoping someone can possibly come up with a solution I have not already listed.
January 28th, 2012 3:59pm

This first thing I'm going to tell you is more of a housekeeping thing than anything else, but I personally don't think it a good idea to have operating system files and programs and applications on the same hard drive if you have multiple drives installed. I will ask you a question though. When you switched the drives and made the new configuration, did you follow your manufacturers instructions on how to set up the drives correctly? Building the raid correctly using their provided disc management tools and all of that? I just ask because a misconfigured drive can cause issues. And where did you read that both drives formatted as NTFS would cause search issues? I'm trying to get more information to see if I can lead you to the right resources to solve this problem.
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January 30th, 2012 12:37am

Cron, with regard to building the RAID array, I don't have one configured. With a mixed state array (SSD and HDD), it doesn't make sense to use a RAID array, so as it stands, my computer uses one drive to boot from(SSD), solely, and uses a second drive solely as storage (HDD). No programs are executed off of the second drive. No RAID array of any type is configured. And I recall my friend talking about how if you have two different drives indexed of different formatting types, there may be indexing issues. However, that's not the case for me. Both drives are formatted as NTFS.
January 30th, 2012 4:37pm

I see what you mean. That's what i'm telling you though. Applications and operating system files should not be on the same drive. Applications can go on your storage drive as well. This is really strange, and i'll run a couple of searches for you later to see what I can come up with that is relevant. But in the end, you might be better off contacting support if you have it. I have never seen this before, I'll be honest about that, but considering I have two drives in my server, I figured I might be of use, though both of those are hard disc drives and not solid state drives. Expect some links later if I can find something.
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January 31st, 2012 12:11pm

Thank you very much. I mean, the strangest part is that the drive that search does not seem to work on is a HDD, and that NOTHING is searchable on the drive. I mean, NOTHING. Like, if you plug in an external and search, you'll get the message that searching is slow and to add it to the index, but it still returns results. For my storage drive, every search returns no results. I just can't figure out. I have tech support with Dell, but they're not going to help me with a Windows 7 search question. Any idea how much does it cost to pay for a Microsoft Windows 7 support ticket?
February 1st, 2012 12:18am

I don't know that, but I can look for you. But there's one more thing I never thought of. Try running chkdsk on the drive that is not allowing you to search. You could very easily have sectors that need to be looked at since this particular drive has run through a few different configurations over the past few months. And remember that when running the command line tool, to use the /f switch to ensure that any errors that are found are fixed. I always use chkdsk when I need to evaluate the performance of a drive.
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February 1st, 2012 12:01pm

Tried Chkdsk, no problems found. Pretty much at my wits end here...Ugh.
February 2nd, 2012 3:56pm

I have exactly the same problem. My setup is is identical to yours (except the HDD on B: is 2TB instead of 500GB). If someone could solve the problem this would be much appreciated!
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May 13th, 2012 5:13am

OK, I think I have found a solution. I changed the letter assigned to my HDD from B to S. Search now appears to work. Maybe Windows isn't set up to search drvies that begin with A or B or something. Weird... It would be interesting to know if this works for BigOlBilliam.
May 13th, 2012 6:32am

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