{"id":1540,"date":"2015-06-06T00:05:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T05:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swildow.darktech.org\/wp\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2015-06-06T00:05:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T05:05:08","slug":"how-to-instantly-find-files-on-flash-drives-network-shares-dvds-and-more-from-how-to-geek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/?p=1540","title":{"rendered":"How to Instantly Find Files on Flash Drives, Network Shares, DVDs, and More from How-to Geek"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to Instantly Find Files on Flash Drives, Network Shares, DVDs, and More<\/a><\/h2>\n
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\nYou don\u2019t have to be a computer power user to amass a pile of backup discs, removable drives, USB hard drives, and other non-localized media. Finding a file in that mess, especially when it\u2019s not directly accessible by your computer anymore, is a headache. Read on as we show you how to build a lightning fast file index.<\/p>\n

Why Do I Want to Do This?<\/h3>\n

When every single file you have is stored directly on your computer, it\u2019s easy to find what you need. There are great search tools like\u00a0<\/span>Everything from VoidTools<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>that rip through your master file table in a fraction of a second to find exactly what you\u2019re searching for.<\/p>\n

Once you start dealing with multiple disks, removable media (such as data DVDs, flash drives, backup files on USB HDDs, etc.) and network shares, however, searching gets progressively more difficult if not impossible. If you\u2019ve come to depend on that lighting fast local search that tools like Everything provide, it can be extremely frustrating trying to find files that are beyond the reach of such tools.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re going to show you how to index everything from your network shares to your flash drive to the backup hard drive you pull out once a month. You won\u2019t have to perform any arcane edits to Windows, force Windows to jump through any indexing hoops, or any of the other nonsense many guides make you put up with in order to just get Windows to acknowledge that the file \u201cTaxes 2009 1040.pdf\u201d actually exists somewhere in your constellation of data storage.<\/p>\n

Instead you\u2019re going to enjoy dead simple searching, lightening fast catalog creation, and all in a lightweight and portable package you can pluck right off your computer and take with you. How light weight? The apps take up less than 200k of space and even indexing every local, network, and detached storage device in our entire office only yielded a collection of file indexes around 30MB in size.<\/p>\n

What Do I Need?<\/h3>\n

For today\u2019s tutorial you\u2019ll need the following things:<\/p>\n