Windows Vista ultimate x64 Search engine issues - Search fails to index

I've got an apparently "broken" search installation. So that I can skip
through the normal "click the folder you want to index" type of answers,
it's way beyond that. Let me give some background first. This is a new
installation of Vista x64 Ultimate on this machine. I just installed it a
little over a week ago after I got a blue screen of death that wouldn't
allow any type of system restore, etc on the prior install. My prior
installation on that machine was a Vista Ultimate x32 bit. The prior
installation had the OS on the C: drive and I had moved "My Documents" out
of a Windows XP onto the D: drive (D:\My DOcuments). In that prior
installation, I left all Music, Videos, documents etc. under the original
layout and just pointed the Vista "music", "documents", etc folders to the
sub folders. I had no problem indexing on my prior version. I have a Vista
64 bit Ultimate at work as well and IT has no problem indexing even under
the default locations.

On the NEW installation I just did, I decided to put everything on my C:\
drive and leave everything as default. I created the machine under a local
user (an administrator acct) and then after all the security patches
completed, and I had applied service pack 2, I joined it to my Small
Business Server 2003 network at home (different user, but also an
admistrator both on the domain and on the local machine). I moved all of my
original documents from the original D:\ drive into the Vista Users folder
for my main network logon (Music, documents, videos, etc).

Problem: This machine *cannot* see the Users's directory through windows
explorer. It does, sort of, see my local logon profile directories, by that
I mean see user TMontague and Documents, Videos, etc thorugh the start
menu -- but, if I right click and do "explore", no folder for Users shows
up.

However, using a command window, I do see a C:\Users folder with 3 other
folder profiles within. If I go to Windows Explorer and choose the View menu
and show all files, and also show hidden system files, *then* I see users
show up. That behavior is NOT the same as my work 64 bit machine. On my work
machine I do not have to show hidden system files just to see the other user
profiles. Remember, I am a full administrator with my logon and I have full
control of all files and folders.

And this strange hidden C:\USERS folder behavior seems to be impacting
search because Search/indexing options sees the users folder (it's there in
the search window, and it says exclude default) but there is nothing
indexed. Indexing completes at about 1200 items -- it found my outlook
folders and my onenote offline folders and those seem to have indexed, but
nothing comes up from within my normal documents, music, or video folders
where all my index items should reside. If I do a search for a Word
document that's within my documents folder, nothing. If I navigate to my
documents folder and choose search non-indexed locations, then it comes up
by doucment name. I've even moved the indexing store to a different
location and done a full rebuild but once again, it only finds about 1200
items when it should be finding about 50,000 items.

If I go to indexing options where I could click the USERS folder there -- it
doesn't behave as at my work machine. On my work machine, if I click USERS
in the lower pane, on the top part of the panel I am presented as list of
users profiles I can chose to index and search. On the Vista x64 machine I
am dealing with at home, nothing appears. Nothing at all.

So I believe that the two issues of not being able to see other users
profiles on a right click EXPLORE on the start bar is tied into why the
Search also can't find it. I've tried doing a full reset of all search
routines to the orignal default to no avail. Also, I have no security policy
that would exclude this at my domain level. Also, I have the Windows7 RC 64
bit ultimate on my laptop also joined to the same domain and it has no
issues with indexing the user folders either.

Anyone have any suggestions? Is there some registry key that might have
gotten damaged?

Todd

Really productive answer. Thanks.

"JEWboy" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Vista = garbage

Vista = garbage

On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:54:42 -0500, "cprTodd" <>
wrote:

>Anyone have any suggestions? Is there some registry key that might have
>gotten damaged?
>
>Todd

1. Make sure the folders are not really hidden
2. Dump that assinine Vista search indexing and well as the useless
Vista search interface. Install Agent Ransack. All better.

I may have stumbled on the answer. Thought I'd share what I found out. Not
all of the steps below may be necessary but I was throwing a lot of possible
things to it and one or more of the following combinations of things seemed
to do it.

First, the folder/s C:\Users was somehow showing as hidden. That appears to
be the root cause of the problem. How it got that way, I have no idea. But I
stumbled on how to unhide it with a command which is this: attrib -h -s
yourusernsame .

I opened a command window through the start> programs file and did the
command windows choosing as "run as administrator" rather than just clicking
on it or typing CMD.

Then I entered this command: attrib -H -S c:\Users.

I also entered it for the other two profiles I wanted as well as a recursive
one for my personal profile: attrib -H -S c:\Users\<username> /S /D

Suddenly I saw the USERS folder appear in indexing, but when I attempted to
look at it, indexing showed that it couldn't index because I needed to right
click and select "index this folder" from the properties window. So I did
that. I opened a windows explorer, now suddenly showing the users folder/s,
right clicked on Users, clicked advanced and then chose Index this folder.
Clicked apply and told it for that folder plus all sub folders and files.
That finally done, the folders unghosted themselves in the indexing
properties from control panel and I began to see the index counts increment.
It hasn't totally completed so I can't absolutely say for certain everything
is great, but my counts are now at 8700 and climbing where before it
wouldn't go past 1200.

Todd


"cprTodd" <> wrote in message
news:E42583A3-9BDF-4B77-BBAC-...
> I've got an apparently "broken" search installation. So that I can skip
> through the normal "click the folder you want to index" type of answers,
> it's way beyond that. Let me give some background first. This is a new
> installation of Vista x64 Ultimate on this machine. I just installed it a
> little over a week ago after I got a blue screen of death that wouldn't
> allow any type of system restore, etc on the prior install. My prior
> installation on that machine was a Vista Ultimate x32 bit. The prior
> installation had the OS on the C: drive and I had moved "My Documents" out
> of a Windows XP onto the D: drive (D:\My DOcuments). In that prior
> installation, I left all Music, Videos, documents etc. under the original
> layout and just pointed the Vista "music", "documents", etc folders to the
> sub folders. I had no problem indexing on my prior version. I have a Vista
> 64 bit Ultimate at work as well and IT has no problem indexing even under
> the default locations.
>
> On the NEW installation I just did, I decided to put everything on my C:\
> drive and leave everything as default. I created the machine under a local
> user (an administrator acct) and then after all the security patches
> completed, and I had applied service pack 2, I joined it to my Small
> Business Server 2003 network at home (different user, but also an
> admistrator both on the domain and on the local machine). I moved all of
> my
> original documents from the original D:\ drive into the Vista Users folder
> for my main network logon (Music, documents, videos, etc).
>
> Problem: This machine *cannot* see the Users's directory through windows
> explorer. It does, sort of, see my local logon profile directories, by
> that
> I mean see user TMontague and Documents, Videos, etc thorugh the start
> menu -- but, if I right click and do "explore", no folder for Users shows
> up.
>
> However, using a command window, I do see a C:\Users folder with 3 other
> folder profiles within. If I go to Windows Explorer and choose the View
> menu
> and show all files, and also show hidden system files, *then* I see users
> show up. That behavior is NOT the same as my work 64 bit machine. On my
> work
> machine I do not have to show hidden system files just to see the other
> user
> profiles. Remember, I am a full administrator with my logon and I have
> full
> control of all files and folders.
>
> And this strange hidden C:\USERS folder behavior seems to be impacting
> search because Search/indexing options sees the users folder (it's there
> in
> the search window, and it says exclude default) but there is nothing
> indexed. Indexing completes at about 1200 items -- it found my outlook
> folders and my onenote offline folders and those seem to have indexed, but
> nothing comes up from within my normal documents, music, or video folders
> where all my index items should reside. If I do a search for a Word
> document that's within my documents folder, nothing. If I navigate to my
> documents folder and choose search non-indexed locations, then it comes up
> by doucment name. I've even moved the indexing store to a different
> location and done a full rebuild but once again, it only finds about 1200
> items when it should be finding about 50,000 items.
>
> If I go to indexing options where I could click the USERS folder there --
> it
> doesn't behave as at my work machine. On my work machine, if I click USERS
> in the lower pane, on the top part of the panel I am presented as list of
> users profiles I can chose to index and search. On the Vista x64 machine I
> am dealing with at home, nothing appears. Nothing at all.
>
> So I believe that the two issues of not being able to see other users
> profiles on a right click EXPLORE on the start bar is tied into why the
> Search also can't find it. I've tried doing a full reset of all search
> routines to the orignal default to no avail. Also, I have no security
> policy
> that would exclude this at my domain level. Also, I have the Windows7 RC
> 64
> bit ultimate on my laptop also joined to the same domain and it has no
> issues with indexing the user folders either.
>
> Anyone have any suggestions? Is there some registry key that might have
> gotten damaged?
>
> Todd
>

Thanks for the info Bob. See the post I submitted back about the time you
did. It did have to do with somehow the folders getting hidden. After
unhiding it with a command and then applying indexing to the C:\users
folder, it seems to be working.

Was not aware of Agent Ransack. Will take a look.

Todd.


"+Bob+" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:54:42 -0500, "cprTodd" <>
> wrote:
>
>>Anyone have any suggestions? Is there some registry key that might have
>>gotten damaged?
>>
>>Todd
>
> 1. Make sure the folders are not really hidden
> 2. Dump that assinine Vista search indexing and well as the useless
> Vista search interface. Install Agent Ransack. All better.

Thanks all. I've been running Vista Ultimate 32-bit for the past year
and a half, fighting problems with seeing my user directory the whole
time. I did not realize it had been marked as SH by default, so it
didn't show up in lots of situations, such as trying to browse when
defining ODBC entries. I do not understand why Microsoft decided to make
one's own user directory invisible to everything but the system. I guess
they figured if they gave me a couple of folders from that user
directory, it would cover all possible needs. Using ATTRIB to remove the
hidden and system flags makes life a lot easier.

cprTodd;1287295 Wrote:
> Thanks for the info Bob. See the post I submitted back about the time
> you
> did. It did have to do with somehow the folders getting hidden. After
> unhiding it with a command and then applying indexing to the C:\users
> folder, it seems to be working.
>
> Was not aware of Agent Ransack. Will take a look.
>
> Todd.
>
>
> "+Bob+" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:54:42 -0500, "cprTodd"
> <>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>Anyone have any suggestions? Is there some registry key that might
> have
> >>gotten damaged?
> >>
> >>Todd
> >
> > 1. Make sure the folders are not really hidden
> > 2. Dump that assinine Vista search indexing and well as the useless
> > Vista search interface. Install Agent Ransack. All better.


--
tripap
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com