"search" utility returns wrong results in XP

[Ted Shoemaker]

Hello,

The "search" utility in Windows XP often returns double instances of
one file.

(This is distinct from having duplicate files. This is the false
report of duplicate files.)

Without noticing that the "duplicate" files were in the same
directory, I deleted one of them, thinking that I was cleaning up --
and then I had lost the file. This might have been been going on for
months now, for all I know.

And now I'm missing some files. (Surprise.)

Is there a way to fix this bug?

Thank you!

Ted Shoemaker

 

[Jack Toff]

Hello,

The "search" utility in Windows XP often returns double instances of
one file.

(This is distinct from having duplicate files. This is the false
report of duplicate files.)

Without noticing that the "duplicate" files were in the same
directory, I deleted one of them, thinking that I was cleaning up --
and then I had lost the file. This might have been been going on for
months now, for all I know.

And now I'm missing some files. (Surprise.)

Is there a way to fix this bug?

Thank you!

Ted Shoemaker

How can you confirm it's a bug?

 

[Johnw]

Ted Shoemaker laid this down on his screen :

Without noticing that the "duplicate" files were in the same
directory,

What was the file name?

And now I'm missing some files.

What are they?

 

[Nil]

I'd really recommend using Agent Ransack, or its big brother,
FileLocator Pro, instead of Windows Search. That was one of the
first things I did when I went to XP. I couldn't stand the
Windows Search in XP, which I found practically useless (and
sometimes it would skip over some files in its displayed results
as I recall).

I've never had XPs search not find something, let alone report
duplicates. Still, I like Agent Ransack a lot better - it's faster,
more flexible, and easier to use.

Agent Ransack is even more important in Windows Vista and 7, as their
file search features are nearly useless.

 

[mm]

Hello,

The "search" utility in Windows XP often returns double instances of
one file.

(This is distinct from having duplicate files. This is the false
report of duplicate files.)

Without noticing that the "duplicate" files were in the same
directory, I deleted one of them, thinking that I was cleaning up --
and then I had lost the file. This might have been been going on for
months now, for all I know.

And now I'm missing some files. (Surprise.)

What you could have done is go to the Recycle Bin and undelete them.

If you had bypassed the recycle bin, you could still run some utility
that will find and undelete them. Isn't that stil true?

I used to use Norton Undelete, part of Norton Utilities. Now there
seems to be something called Norton Unerase Wizard. In cases like
this you should try to run from a CD or a floppy rather than
installing software, because every time you save a file there is a
chance you will overlay your recently deleted file. Such utilities
can almost always be run from the CD.

Isn't this chance a lot less than it was now that harddrives are so
much bigger than they used to be? The amount of once-used but now
considered empty space on the average harddrive is bigger than the
entire harddrive in win98 days, so doesn't that make the chance of not
overlaying a deleted file much higher?

 

[Bob F]

Hello,

The "search" utility in Windows XP often returns double instances of
one file.

(This is distinct from having duplicate files. This is the false
report of duplicate files.)

Without noticing that the "duplicate" files were in the same
directory, I deleted one of them, thinking that I was cleaning up --
and then I had lost the file. This might have been been going on for
months now, for all I know.

And now I'm missing some files. (Surprise.)

Is there a way to fix this bug?

Restore the files by right clicking on them in the recycle bin?

 

[Peter Foldes]

Ted

This is not a bug but rather it is by default . This will happen if you reformat
your XP OS by overwriting the one before. To avoid this next time ,do a clean
reformat of your OS.

--
Peter
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