Feature request: Indexing for offline volumes without drive letter

[Raindrops]

Sometimes we have HDDs that are not connected with the laptop all the time.
These HDDs typically contain data that is not in day-to-day use.
Or these HDDs are shared among multiple users, so they are not connected with any given laptop all the time.

It would be great if Everything remembers the index for these volumes, and can search these volumes even when they are offline (not connected to the laptop at the moment of searching).

When such a HDD is connected, everything should reindex it automatically.
Further, it should remember the volume by its label, not by its drive letter (because the drive letter may keep changing).
The user should be able to proactively identify HDDs that are meant to be offline.

[void]

Please make sure "Automatically remove offline volumes" is unchecked:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the NTFS tab.
• Uncheck Automatically remove offline volumes.
• Click OK.

Everything will now keep offline NTFS volumes in your index.

Any folders you add under Tools -> Options -> Folders will also stay in your index when they go offline.



Everything will immediately restart the USN Journal monitor when you reinsert an NTFS volume.
Everything will check offline folder indexes (Tools -> Options -> Folders) every minute to see if they are back online.
Everything will immediately pickup any external changes to NTFS volumes.
Folder indexes are rescanned daily to pickup external changes.



Everything 1.5 will have an "Index Volume Label" property that shows the volume label for offline volumes.

The Index volume label is shown in the folder sidebar (View -> Folders) or with the Index Volume Label column (Right click the result list column header -> Add Columns -> Index Volume Label)



Everything tracks volumes by the system assigned unique volume name. (for example: \\?\Volume{01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901})
This unique volume name persists between removals/reinsertions.
Everything should automatically detected drive letter changes. (provided the volume name stays the same)

There is a hidden ini setting auto_move_same_serial_number to automatically move volumes by serial number.
It's not enabled by default because it can cause issues for volumes sharing the same serial number.

Detecting drive letter changes by volume name can be disabled with auto_move_ntfs_volumes.



Offline volumes are shown in a slightly transparent color in Everything 1.5.
The transparency can be customized with the offline_alpha ini setting.

Everything will only detect volumes as offline if you are monitoring changes to the volumes.
There's an "online" property to show this status.
Monitoring changes is enabled by default for NTFS and folder indexes. (can be disabled under Tools -> Options -> NTFS/folders)



Thank you for the suggestions.

[Raindrops]

Wow!

This means Everything also doubles up as an offline volume catalog software!
(There is a separate category of software to cater to this need. Initially they were designed to track the contents of CDs and DVDs, but later the same concept can be extended to offline HDDs.)

This feature deserves to be advertised prominently!
Also, your explanation should be converted in a new help topic titled "Searching in offline volumes".

BTW I have a doubt: What do you mean by "Detecting drive letter changes by volume name"?
How does this feature work?

In my own workflow, I have some old small-capacity HDDs with rarely used content.
I have written their label on the tape.
So if my offline catalog software tells me that a certain file is in label xxx, I can immediately plugin the HDD that carries that label physically, and access that file.

In that context, how does this Detecting drive letter changes by volume name option affect my workflow?

[void]

BTW I have a doubt: What do you mean by "Detecting drive letter changes by volume name"?
How does this feature work?

Everything will detect a drive letter change if:

• You change the drive letter from Start -> Control -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management
• A new drive letter is assigned when inserting the drive.

Everything tracks volumes by volume name.
A volume name typically looks like: \\?\Volume{01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901}
The volume name is unique for each volume.
The volume name will always stay the same. (even when the drive is unplugged and reinserted or you change the drive letter)

In that context, how does this Detecting drive letter changes by volume name option affect my workflow?

A change in drive letter will cause Everything to perform a quick reindex.
This quick reindex may take a minute.
Everything will reuse the existing indexes, but all files/folders need to be resorted.



Automatic drive letter change detection will only work for FAT/NTFS/ReFS volume indexing.
Not folder indexing under Tools -> Options -> Folders.



There's also filelists for indexing offline media.
File lists are not really designed for media that changes. (for example: CD/DVD)
You can use the file list filename as a label. (there's a file list filename column available)