USB volumes?

[terrypin]

I would like my searches to include files on USB sticks when there are one or more inserted. Should I be able to add these in advance (D:, E:, L:, etc) or only when they are present?

[void]

To add your USB sticks to your Everything index:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Folders tab.
• Click Add....
• Select your USB stick drive (eg: E:) and click OK.
• Click OK.

To search your USB stick, simply include the drive letter followed by a colon (:)
For example, to search for files on your E: drive, include the following in your search:

e:


To search multiple USB sticks, use the OR operator: |
For example, to search for files on your D:, E: or L: drive, include the following in your search:

d:|e:|l:

[raccoon]

@void: Would it be possible to create a new Options tab that allowed users to add volumes by Drive Letters (and have the FAT, NTFS, ReFS tabs as child-tabs) so that users can easily add their Drive Letters without having to be unreasonably knowledgeable about these particularities? Let Everything figure it out for them?

Honestly these Index tabs seem like they should be Advanced Options that 99.996% of users should never look at ever.

How do we know that @terrypin's USB drives are not NTFS volumes? Then they belong in the NTFS tab and not the Folders tab.

[void]

The first versions of Everything only supported NTFS volumes.
Support for folder indexes, ReFS and FAT have been added over time.

I have put on my TODO list to add a Index menu -> Choose volumes wizard option.
This ideally would show a treeview of volumes with checkboxes.

I will consider a basic view for the options window.

Thanks for the suggestion.

How do we know that @terrypin's USB drives are not NTFS volumes? Then they belong in the NTFS tab and not the Folders tab.

They will most likely be exFAT.

[raccoon]

I just now opened a brand new PNY 256 GB Turbo Attaché 3 from its blister pack and it's formatted FAT32.

My TV DVR recorder formats them as NTFS.

MicroSD tends to be exFAT only per spec standard for mobile devices.

[terrypin]

To add your USB sticks to your Everything index:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Folders tab.
• Click Add....
• Select your USB stick drive (eg: E:) and click OK.
• Click OK.

To search your USB stick, simply include the drive letter followed by a colon (:)
For example, to search for files on your E: drive, include the following in your search:

e:


To search multiple USB sticks, use the OR operator: |
For example, to search for files on your D:, E: or L: drive, include the following in your search:

d:|e:|l:

Thanks. But only when the USB stick is present, yes? I never know what the drive name is until I insert it, so was asking if I could enter all the likely names and then forget about it.

[therube]

I never know what the drive name is until I insert it

You can (semi-permanently) assign drive letters to removable media (so long as the picked letters don't result in collisions, are high enough in the alphabet).

Like I use (assigned, through Disk Management) W: to my WD external & S: to my Seagate external, & K: to my Corsair...
So any time I plug them in, they're seen that way.

If you plug in some odd drive, by default it picks up the next available drive letter.
If you then specifically assign a drive letter to that particular drive, it will stick, so the the next time you plug it in, it's the same drive letter.

And if it's a drive that doesn't matter, if it becomes D: or E: or whatever, doesn't matter if that should happen to be different the next time you plug it in.

[raccoon]

Another wandering thought. It would be nice if the stored offline indexes were not recognized by drive letter, but by their GUID which is already on file but seemingly unused. This ought to resolve the issues surrounding automatically assigned and re-assigned drive letters, and letter collisions.

For prettyness, we could display the volume's 32 bit "Volume Serial Number" hex value as an identifiable name the user can become familiar with seeing in their list of offline volumes.

Removable Disk (E:) 4CF0-98E2
Removable Disk (F:) 292A-C13A
ShellyUSB (F:) 83BB-CF0E
Removable Disk (F:) 6761-29A1
DAILYBACKUP (G:) AA1A-7137
Removable Disk (G:) 39B2-1CFE

The drive letter would no longer become SET IN STONE but would change to whatever the drive letter it was last seen as. F becomes E, E changes to G, and so on. As recognized by its GUID / VSN.

(Use the DIR or VOL commands in Windows CMD terminal to look at your volume serial numbers.)

[therube]

There is on the todo: option to use serialnumber:xxxx-xxxx in the GUID field for NTFS volumes.

(Also, [Sysinternals] VolumeID, "lets you change the labels of disk volumes".)

[raccoon]

Thanks therube.

Is there anything about using GUID or VSN to resolve drive letter collisions?
This would negate our need to instruct users to assign a permanent drive letter.

[void]

I have put on my TODO list to automatically detect the drive letter based on the volume GUID.
I suspect in this case the GUID is also changing.


Consider indexing all FAT volumes by default:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the FAT tab on the left.
• Check Automatically index new fixed volumes.
• Check Automatically index new removable volumes.
• Check Automatically remove offline volumes.
• Click the Folders tab on the left.
• Remove any FAT volumes.
• Click OK.

To search for fat volumes in your index, include the following in your search:

indextype:fat

Consider creating a filter from Search -> Add to filters...

[raccoon]

Is it normal for a thumbdrive's GUID to change on a given Windows machine? Could it actually be more reasonable to track drives by their Volume Serial Number, that only changes when the drive is reformatted by the user?

[void]

The volume GUID should persist when the device is removed and reinserted.

I will consider detecting moved volumes by tracking the volume serial number.
Thanks for the suggestion.

[terrypin]

I never know what the drive name is until I insert it

You can (semi-permanently) assign drive letters to removable media (so long as the picked letters don't result in collisions, are high enough in the alphabet).

Like I use (assigned, through Disk Management) W: to my WD external & S: to my Seagate external, & K: to my Corsair...
So any time I plug them in, they're seen that way.

If you plug in some odd drive, by default it picks up the next available drive letter.
If you then specifically assign a drive letter to that particular drive, it will stick, so the the next time you plug it in, it's the same drive letter.

And if it's a drive that doesn't matter, if it becomes D: or E: or whatever, doesn't matter if that should happen to be different the next time you plug it in.

Thanks, very helpful.

[therube]

While we're here...

(Nirsoft's) DriveLetterView "is a simple utility that allows you to view the list of all drive letter assignments in your system, including local drives, remote network drives, CD/DVD drives, and USB drives - even if they are not currently plugged. It also allows you to easily change a drive letter of USB devices and remote network shares, as well as to delete a drive letter of USB device that is not plugged.".