Windows Explorer Search only finds files in C:\ and My Documents

[Tubman]

Windows Explorer Search only finds files in C:\ and My Documents

I noticed this the first time last night. When I try to search for
files, the search ends very quickly and the only files found are in
the C:\ (root) directory and My Documents. Some directory displays
changed from detail view to Large Icon view after I rebooted. My
paging file was in three fragments and I do not remember it being
fragmented previously. I defragmented to fix the paging file,
which did not solve the searching problem.

The last update was to Windows Defender, but I can't see how that
would have caused the problem. The last major update was to Java 2 JRE
(update 9) but that was several days ago and I probably would have
noticed the problem earlier if that had caused it.

I use EZ Antivirus real-time virus scanner. I did a virus scan with EZ
Antivirus and the Symantec free on-line virus scanner, and with
Windows Defender. None found problems.

OS: Windows XP Home SP2 with all known software updates.
Computer: 4-yar old home-brew using 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 1GB ECC DDR,
200GB and 250GB Samsung disk drives 1 to 2 years old, C partition
127GB, D partition 63 GB, E partition 250GB, all partitions about 75%
full.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Double click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop. Can you see
all drives. If you select Search what does it default to? My Computer
or?


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Windows Explorer Search only finds files in C:\ and My Documents

I noticed this the first time last night. When I try to search for
files, the search ends very quickly and the only files found are in
the C:\ (root) directory and My Documents. Some directory displays
changed from detail view to Large Icon view after I rebooted. My
paging file was in three fragments and I do not remember it being
fragmented previously. I defragmented to fix the paging file,
which did not solve the searching problem.

The last update was to Windows Defender, but I can't see how that
would have caused the problem. The last major update was to Java 2 JRE
(update 9) but that was several days ago and I probably would have
noticed the problem earlier if that had caused it.

I use EZ Antivirus real-time virus scanner. I did a virus scan with EZ
Antivirus and the Symantec free on-line virus scanner, and with
Windows Defender. None found problems.

OS: Windows XP Home SP2 with all known software updates.
Computer: 4-yar old home-brew using 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 1GB ECC DDR,
200GB and 250GB Samsung disk drives 1 to 2 years old, C partition
127GB, D partition 63 GB, E partition 250GB, all partitions about 75%
full.

Have you examined the search options?

Also, you may find that Agent Ransack is a *much* better (and faster) search
utility.

http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

HTH
-pk

 

[Tubman]

Double click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop. Can you see
all drives. If you select Search what does it default to? My Computer
or?

I can see all drives. Default search is My Computer in that situation,
but it will not find anything anywhere. If I make the search "Local
Hard Drives (C:;D:;E" it will find things but only in My Documents
and C:\.

Another anomaly: A command prompt window displays a maximum of 51
lines regardless of how large the buffer is set, which is normally 300
lines with 56 lines in the window. None of the other 249 lines are
available.

The first anomaly I found was actually that Empty Norton Protected
Files in Norton Protected Recycle Bin showed there were 24 files in
the protected recycle bin, but Norton Unerase showed no file names
there. That is from System Works Pro 2003. Its only features that I
use are Ghost (occasionally) and the Protected Recycle Bin.

Another thing I have not noticed before is that my original message
did not appear in this reply. That might be caused by Forte Agent
settings but now I am suspicious of everything.

 

[Tubman]

Have you examined the search options?

When was it modified?: "Don't remember"
What size is it?: "Don't remember"
Type of file: "(All files and folders)"
Other More Advanced Options: unchecked

Also see my reply to Gerry Connell. My original message appears here,
different from my reply to him.

Also, you may find that Agent Ransack is a *much* better (and faster) search
utility.

But Windows Explorer search should work. Now it doesn't.

 

[Tubman]

Have you examined the search options?

They are all defaults:
When was it modified? "Don't remember"
What size is it? "Don't remember"
More advanced options -
Type of file: "(All files and folders)"
others: unchecked

Also see my reply to Gerry Cornell. My original message appears here,
different from my reply to him.

Also, you may find that Agent Ransack is a *much* better (and faster) search
utility.

But Windows Explorer search should work.

 

[Tubman]

I can see all drives. Default search is My Computer in that situation,
but it will not find anything anywhere. If I make the search "Local
Hard Drives (C:;D:;E" it will find things but only in My Documents
and C:\.

Another anomaly: A command prompt window displays a maximum of 51
lines regardless of how large the buffer is set, which is normally 300
lines with 56 lines in the window. None of the other 249 lines are
available.

That turns out to be a feature of the DOS program I was using.

 

[Tubman]

Windows Explorer Search only finds files in C:\ and My Documents

I noticed this the first time last night. When I try to search for
files, the search ends very quickly and the only files found are in
the C:\ (root) directory and My Documents. Some directory displays
changed from detail view to Large Icon view after I rebooted. My
paging file was in three fragments and I do not remember it being
fragmented previously. I defragmented to fix the paging file,
which did not solve the searching problem.

The last update was to Windows Defender, but I can't see how that
would have caused the problem. The last major update was to Java 2 JRE
(update 9) but that was several days ago and I probably would have
noticed the problem earlier if that had caused it.

I use EZ Antivirus real-time virus scanner. I did a virus scan with EZ
Antivirus and the Symantec free on-line virus scanner, and with
Windows Defender. None found problems.

OS: Windows XP Home SP2 with all known software updates.
Computer: 4-yar old home-brew using 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 1GB ECC DDR,
200GB and 250GB Samsung disk drives 1 to 2 years old, C partition
127GB, D partition 63 GB, E partition 250GB, all partitions about 75%
full.

This turned out to be almost a no-brainer. "Search subfolders" in the
"more advanced options" had gotten unchecked. I don't know how that
happened because I would not have done it. A houseguest could have
done it but that is also unlikely.

Checking "search subfolders" restored the search to the expected
behavior, searching all three partitions in about 20 seconds, but
searching with "search system files" or "search hidden files or
folders" checked takes 13 to 15 minutes, which might or might not be
normal (?). There are about 2GB of such files on partition C, most of
which are compressed (zip) folders.

I still do not know why Norton Protected Recycle Bin acted strange
(see another branch of this thread), but it probably was unrelated to
this problem.