menu Index, Rescan All does not list all partitions?

[ChrisGreaves]

MenuSearch09.png (77.71 KiB) Viewed 1988 times

Three questions, possible related. I was studying the menu system and found Index, Rescan All, where (shown above) I see only drive T:, my FAT data partition. Where is drive C:, my NTFS boot partition?
And behind that menu we can see files in the C:\$Recycle area.
(1) As the standard user Chris077 I empty my recycle bin; the files C:\$Recycle re-appear when I reload Everything 1.5.0.1341a (thank you!)
(2) I switch users to become Chris_Admin with administrator privileges, and empty the recycle bin there too.
(3) Switch back to Chris_077 (non-administrator), and reload Everything and see, still, the C:\$recycle. NOTE: I see from the image that the datestamp is march 15th, the day I Factory-reset my HP15 laptop with Win11. Coincidence?
(4) Tools, Options, Indexes, FAT shows that only the data partition T: has “Include in database” checked ON. Drives B, E, V, and W (SUBST and Ram disk) are checked OFF
(5) Tools, Options, Indexes, NTFS shows that only the boot partition C: has “Include in database” checked ON. But it is checked ON. Drive A (SUBST) is checked OFF
(6) The remaining items under Tools, Options, Indexes are empty/null.

Question 1 Why does Everything appear to be indexing my boot partition C: and populating the index with C:\$Recycle files

Question 2 Why does C: not appear as a contributor to my indexes? According to (5) above it should be presented in my little list under “Index, Rescan All”

MenuSearch10.png (66.54 KiB) Viewed 1988 times

Subsequent to all this I searched for “everything ini files:” and as expected, appropriate files showed up for both partitions C: and T:, so Everything is locating files on both partitions.

Question 3 Why do I not see partition C: in the menu item Index, Rescan All?
As usual, I assume that I am doing something wrong, through pure ignorance.
But as a beginner, I really expected to see both partitions appear in the menu.

MenuSearch11.png (30.08 KiB) Viewed 1988 times

Postscript: So why not use Everything 1.5a to locate the recycle bins? Hah hah! 7,257,501 KB seems like an awful lot of debris to be lying around in a boot partition that Win11 shows as being 98.21GB. (About 7% if I've done my sums right)

Thanks, Chris

[void]

NTFS volumes do not need to be rescanned.

Everything can detect all changes to NTFS volumes with the USN Journal.

Only FAT volumes, network drives and folders indexes can be rescanned.

(1) As the standard user Chris077 I empty my recycle bin; the files C:\$Recycle re-appear when I reload Everything 1.5.0.1341a (thank you!)

Sometimes the index files ($i files) like to stick around. (even after emptying the recycle bin)
You can delete these files as administrator.

Question 1 Why does Everything appear to be indexing my boot partition C: and populating the index with C:\$Recycle files

Everything will include your C: drive in your index because “Include in database” is checked for your C: drive.
Your recycle bin is full of files.

Question 2 Why does C: not appear as a contributor to my indexes? According to (5) above it should be presented in my little list under “Index, Rescan All”

Question 3 Why do I not see partition C: in the menu item Index, Rescan All?

As above, only FAT volumes, network drives and folders indexes can be rescanned.
Your NTFS C: drive does not need to be rescanned.

[ChrisGreaves]

NTFS do not need to be rescanned.
Everything can detect all changes to NTFS volumes with the USN Journal.
Only FAT volumes, network drives and folders indexes can be rescanned.

Thank you Void; this makes sense.
I think that part of the difficulty for a beginner is the assumed knowledge embedded within Everything.exe. This difficulty is surmountable, but usually by a posted question such as mine.
Everything.exe “knows” that it need not rescan my partition C:, and so Everything.exe “knows” that it is pointless to include that partition in the “Rescan All” list.
The beginner user (me!) however, struggling to master the use of Everything.exe still thinks of “My collection of indexed partitions is C: and T:”, and hence feels discomfort when only one of the two anticipated partitions appears in a list.

I do not know how to resolve this.

Including C: in the list with a checkbox preset ON would lead the user into thinking that C: can be not-rescanned at this time, but the design of Everything shows that this is not possible.
Including a disabled (grayed-out) C: partition in the list will prompt the question “Why can’t I mark partition C:?”
That is, re-designing the menu item

Index, Rescan All

does not suggest a solution.
I shall think about it.

Sometimes the index files like to stick around. (even after emptying the recycle bin); You can delete these files as administrator.

This I do not understand. Why do the index files stick around? Are they not under control of Everything?
I did try, as administrator, to delete those $Recycle files. I shall try again today, using a heavier hammer (a.k.a. Asking in Eileen's Lounge)

Thanks again for elevating my knowledge
Cheers, Chris

[void]

To reindex all volumes (including all NTFS volumes):

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Indexes tab on the left.
• Click Force Rebuild.
• Click OK.

To reindex a specific NTFS volume:

• Type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /reindex c:
  where c: is the drive to reindex.

Why do the index files stick around? Are they not under control of Everything?

Using the undelete verb on a recycle bin item will leave orphaned $i files.
The undelete verb is handled by the system, not Everything.

[ChrisGreaves]

Using the undelete verb on a recycle bin item will leave orphaned $i files.
The undelete verb is handled by the system, not Everything.

Hello Void; I think this means that Everything uses a Windows feature/function to handle some aspects of recycle bins, and the Windows feature/function will leave orphaned deleted(recycled) files.
Is that correct?
Thanks, Chris

[void]

I was trying to avoid saying it's an issue with Windows.
I'm still learning more about the issue.

Here is what I'm seeing:
Without using Everything, the $i file is not deleted:

• Delete a file.
• In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-1234567890-1234567890-1234567890-1234
  (Using the Normal Recycle Bin has the same issue)
• Right click the deleted file and click restore. (this invokes the undelete verb)
• The $r file is restored.
• The $i file remains.

If the file is not restored, emptying the recycle bin will delete the $i file.
Once the file is restored, the orphaned $i file will persist, even after emptying the recycle bin.

$i files don't take up much room, it's basically storing the original filename.

[ChrisGreaves]

I was trying to avoid saying it's an issue with Windows.

But Void, you can level with us; we're your friends!

More to the point, once you have identified it as a failure in Windows, I think that you should say so, let the Windows experts (not me!) resolve it, and get back to your true passion and labour of love.

$i files don't take up much room, it's basically storing the original filename.

Thanks for this. I have noticed over the past couple of days that the $i files are typically only 1 K or so.
As is often pointed out: 7 GB out of 1,000 GB is not a big issue, and I go along with that. It is the 7GB size though that draws my attention to a relatively large chunk of "missing" space.
My concern is more about there being (apparently) a flaw in the way Windows is managing files.

Given that "managing files" is what an operating system is all about (getting rid of the guys in white coats who mounted tapes and loaded card decks), then Windows should be seen as a dismal failure. Win11 and Explorer still can't remember my chosen layout preferences (View, Details).

As far as I am concerned, you have done your best on the $Recycle bin issue. I continue to pursue it on Eileen's Lounge, and have resources on two other technical forums housing experts on the internal workings of Windows.

Thanks for your help on this
Cheers, Chris