Use Everything on external HDDs

[Archimede]

Everything v1.4.1.1026 (x64)

On some of the largest external HDDs I keep a special folder that contains Everything to search specifically ONLY the content of the external HDD (not the volumes of the host laptop to which I connect the external HDDs).

Using (Uwe Sieber) USB Drive Letter Manager, those external HDDs are assigned a specific letter across various laptops.

For each of the HDDs, Everything is (probably WRONGLY) configured to monitor and index ONLY that specific assigned letter.

However I noticed that (despite the configuration) Everything automatically adds the volume letters/partitions of the host laptops to which I connect the external HDDs.

Basically what I would like to figure out is :

Can I assign to a specific Everything (placed/run on/from an external HDD) the task to monitor changes and to index (and rebuild the database ONLY if a volume has changed too much) the content of ONLY 1 specific volume letter without even detecting the partitions of the host machine? Can that be done even by manually editing the Everything.ini file?

Moreover, is there a quickly accessible menu or a hotkey to force rebuilding the database? Perhaps David already has that on his to-do list? Currently I use a simple .bat to manually delete the Everything.db file on the specific HDD for which I need to update the database (please note that I don't need to often reindex and I do not wish to reindex automatically every single time I plug in the external HDD, unless the volume content has changed too much).

My feeling (please correct me if I am wrong) is that to quickly achieve my objective perhaps an older version of Everything would probably be more suitable. I am thinking when Everything was indexing based on volume letters rather than on volume signatures.

I am just now testing v1.3.4.686 (x64) and -for that specific purpose- it seems to work better than v1.4.1.1026.

It would be great if David could kindly consider adding the option "Index volume letters" (when such option is checked, Everything would index volume letters and not volume signatures).

Looking forward to reading some creative feedback

[therube]

Rather then looking back at 1.3, you might want to see how Everything 1.5 Alpha behaves.

You can certainly have Everything only monitor certain drives.
The auto detection of other drives, I see that too, & not sure if the detection can be stopped, but monitoring of other drives certainly does not need to occur.

The -no-auto-include switch will cause Everything to open & not automatically add any drives.
(They will be shown, but not automatically set to be monitored.)
And at that point, you can manually add your wanted single drive, & set that to be monitored, & that is then all that will be indexed.

(Without -no-auto-include, all would be seen & monitored, initially, & then you'd have to go in & manually disable all the drives you did not want.)

Everything.exe -no-auto-include
Everything.exe -no-auto-include -instance USB_DRIVE_R
...

[Archimede]

Thanks for the appreciated feedback, friend

I totally see where you are coming from (I am very grateful for your kind advice) however, please note that I am using the same external HDDs with several laptops and I feel that handling volume letters (rather than volume signatures) would be a lot easier.

Just a quick example : Say that on most laptops I have 3-4 partitions (C D E F). Excluding these 4 letters from indexing it's a piece of cake and a one-time config change will work across all of the laptops. Whereas the configuration to exclude volume signatures (that will be all different for each partition/laptop) would require a lot more fiddling, if you see what I mean.

[void]

Can I assign to a specific Everything (placed/run on/from an external HDD) the task to monitor changes and to index (and rebuild the database ONLY if a volume has changed too much) the content of ONLY 1 specific volume letter without even detecting the partitions of the host machine? Can that be done even by manually editing the Everything.ini file?

Yes, to set Everything to index a only specific drive letter:

• Please make sure Everything is in portable mode:
• Exit Everything (File -> Exit)
• Run Everything from your external disk.
• Uncheck Tools -> Options -> General -> Store settings and data in %APPDATA%\Everything.
• Exit Everything (File -> Exit)
• Open your Everything.ini in the same location as your Everything.exe
  
• Change the following lines:
  
  auto_include_fixed_volumes=1
auto_include_removable_volumes=0
auto_remove_offline_ntfs_volumes=0

  
  to:
  
  auto_include_fixed_volumes=0
auto_include_removable_volumes=0
auto_remove_offline_ntfs_volumes=0

  
  (this will prevent Everything from indexing any new volumes and gives you full control over what is indexed)
  
• Change the following lines:
  
  ntfs_volume_guids="\\\\?\\Volume{...}""
ntfs_volume_paths="C:"
ntfs_volume_roots=""
ntfs_volume_includes=1
ntfs_volume_load_recent_changes=0
ntfs_volume_include_onlys=""
ntfs_volume_monitors=1

  
  to:
  
  ntfs_volume_guids=
ntfs_volume_paths="E:"
ntfs_volume_roots=
ntfs_volume_includes=
ntfs_volume_load_recent_changes=
ntfs_volume_include_onlys=
ntfs_volume_monitors=

  
  (where E: is your external drive)
• Save changes and exit your text editor.
• Optionally make your Everything.ini readonly. (this will prevent Everything from updating the volume GUID, so the volume is only tracked by drive letter)
• Restart Everything.

File lists might be the way to go.
Create a file list from the command line

For example:
Everything.exe -create-file-list "My file list.efu" "E:"
Store the file list on your drive.
Create a BAT file to automatically update your file list.

I recommend editing your EFU file lists and removing the drive letter.
For example:

Change:
C:\Windows\notepad.exe
to:
\Windows\notepad.exe

This way it doesn't matter if the drive letter changes when you open the file list.



Alternatively, there's multiple instances.

Setup a BAT file on each drive to run in its own instance.

For example:

Everything.exe -instance "My drive"

Disable Tools -> Options -> NTFS -> Automatically index new fixed volumes.
Disable Tools -> Options -> NTFS -> Automatically index new removable volumes.
Manually setup which volumes are indexed under Tools -> Options -> NTFS .



Everything 1.5 makes this easier with the -volumes command line option.

For example:

Everything.exe -instance "My E: drive" -volumes E:

Moreover, is there a quickly accessible menu or a hotkey to force rebuilding the database?

To set a keyboard shortcut to reindex under Tools -> Options ->
Keyboard
Search for rebuild
Select Indexes | Force Rebuild and add a keyboard shortcut.

[Archimede]

Many thanks for your prompt and kind feedback.

This coming weekend I will be thrilled to test Everything 1.5 and I am so grateful for the appreciated (excellent) support I have received.

All the best