Search For Files or Folders skips large files

[Mark Fineman]

I am running Windows XP Professional.
Both of the partitions used are NTFS.

I have indexing turned off.
I have the search animation turned off.
I have the following checked in "More advanced options":
Search system folders
Search hidden files and folders
Search subfolders

I did
Start | Search | For Files or Folders...
clicked on the button for
All files or folders
left "All or part of the file name:" empty
put the following in "A word or phrase in the file":
junk
I set "Look in:" to show:
LABEL(C
I hit "Search"

Many files were read, but it didn't find what I
was looking for.

I then formated a new NTFS partition on an external
drive and copied the file that had the string I
was looking for to the new parition.

I repeated the seach, but put:
NEW(G
in "Look in:"

There was only a brief delay before the search completed
without the string being found. I rebooted and repeated
the search. The string still wasn't found. I safely
removed the external drive and tried the searc on another
Windows XP Professional system and the search once again
completed in too short a time and failed to find the
match.

The file containing the string is about 513 MB and
is "binary". The file is found when searching for
matches on filenames with no text search string or
a text search string that would match the filename.
(i.e,, if I look for "largefile" the file named "largefile.lst"
is found even though the string "largefile" is not
in the actual file largefile.lst; this is the proper action.)

Is there a limit in the size of files that are checked
for strings even when no such limitation is specified in
the search dialog?

 

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

(snip)
Is there a limit in the size of files that are checked
for strings even when no such limitation is specified in
the search dialog?

Hi

WinXP's search function filters out files to search in based on file
extensions (see further below).

Install the free Agent Ransack, it searches for text strings in *all*
types of files, and not just in a selection of "approved" file extensions
as the built-in search does. It's a *much* better search tool as well...

Download it from here:
http://www.agentransack.com/default.aspx

Agent Ransack can save the search result to a file (or clipboard), as text,
comma separated text or tab separated text. E.g. Excel reads comma separated
text (csv) very well.

When searching for text inside files, Agent Ransack is also able to do a
preview of the lines the text was found in (just do a single click on the
found file).
Also, you can use regular expression on both the file name part and the find
text in files part.


If you still want to use the not so good search tool that comes with WinXP to
search for text in files, take a look at this:

Using the "A Word or Phrase in the File" Search Criterion May Not Work
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;309173

Or this:

Add Files to Containing text Searches
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_fix_search.htm