HDD Index ?

[george]

Do HDD's need to be indexed  and if so why?
George

[bobw]

No, they don't. Indexing supposedly makes finding things easier.
In Jaguar and Panther, indexing is automatic, and can be a pain if it happens while you're working. Indexing takes place around 5PM. Fortunately it can be disabled.

n 10.2, in /System -> Library -> Find is a file called SkipFolders. I edited it (as root or change ownership before/after editing) and added a "/" at the beginning of the file. This got me silence from then on!


In Panther, in Finder prefs, check off all the languages to be indexed. Same effect: no idexing takes place at all.

[george]

Thanks Bobw,
Sound greek to me.........................but get the gist of it
leave well enough alone!
George

[tacit]

To expand on bobw's answer:

No. Indexing is only necessary if you want to use the Sherlock Find by Content command.

Indexing does not make it easier or faster to find files by name (for example, you can use Sherlock to find all files with "letter" in their name or all files ending in ".doc"). The index is not even consulted when you search for files by name, or by type and so on.

The index is used if you search by content--for example, if you tell Sherlcok "Show me a list of files with the word "Mary" inside of them, NOT in their name."

If you do not index, you can not use Find by Content. That's it. That's all the index is used for.

[bobw]

In Panther, Sherlock isn't used to find files locally, you use the Find command under the File Menu.