Windows 10: Windows Search is confusing two of my HDDs -- how can I correct this?

I recently added a drive to my computer and moved all the data from the old drive to the new drive by cloning it. Now, Windows Search is confusing the old and new drives. My setup is as follows:


C: - SSD boot drive
D: - New HDD, with all User folders (Documents, Pictures, etc.) relocated to it.
I: - Old HDD


In "Indexing Options" I choose Modify to open "Indexed Locations" and then I click the box next to the new drive. However when I close "Indexed Locations" the "Indexing Options" window lists the old drive instead of the new drive. If I then reopen "Indexed Locations" I see paths listed that are on the old drive instead of the new drive, even though I never clicked on the old drive or any of its folders.


Windows seems to be confusing the two drives with one another. Perhaps Windows has mixed up their volume GUIDs somewhere?


I tried to reset Windows Search by editing the Registry to set SetupCompletedSuccessfully to 0 and then letting Windows Search build a new index with default parameters. Unfortunately, Windows then indexes only the few User folders that are still on the C: drive. Most of my User folders were relocated to D:, and when I try to add D: (the new drive) to "Indexed Locations" I run into the problem above. I think the confusion is occurring at a more fundamental level than Windows Search.


If I disable the old drive in Device Manager, indexing seems to work normally on it. But I want to keep both drives in my system. What is the best way to make Windows "forget" about the old drive entirely so it no longer confuses it with the new drive?

Thanks!

:)

 

Paging file

Hi

I have two HDD on my PC, How to configure Windows paging settings to get the best performance and speed? Currently i enable paging on both HDD but i think if disable it on first HDD which Windows installed and only enable it on the second HDD can have better
speed is this correct?

 

Windows 10 migration

Hello Microsoft,

Recently my HDD broke down and need to be replaced,

I am confused on how do i activate my windows again when i used new HDD later.

How can i do this? do i just need to log in to my microsoft account which is linked to this copy of windows 10 that i have currently in my broken HDD

or do i need to retrieve my product key? which i do not know how since i upgraded my OS from win 8.1 to 10

Any advice is appreciated

Regards

 

Hi. Presumably your sequence was:
a. with old drive as D:, relocate folders to it.
b. clone D: to new drive.
c. Reletter new drive as D: and old drive as I:, deleting the content of the old drive.

I would guess the problem is to do with your relocating the folders, and however Windows records the relocation, cloning the drive and swapping it in this manner has created an inconsistency.

Given your attempt at rebuilding the index, I would suggest your way forward might be to relocate the user folders back to default, then to your new drive.

However, given your experience to date, you may have a problem in doing so.

What would be interesting would be to see if you can relocate one folder back to its default on C: (with I: disabled)

If you can't, you may have to reverse what you've done and swap the drives back again, set all folders back to default, swap the drives, then relocate the folders.

In the above, take due precautions to have an adequate backup.

Note: the above is surmise- others hopefully know more! But the test as to whether you can successfully relocate a folder to default in your current configuration could be revealing.

 

Honestly, I cloned the drives a couple of months ago but only now noticed the Windows Search problem. I guess I don't use Windows Search that often.


The new drive is exactly the same capacity as the old drive (long story there.) Moreover, some of the User folders had already been moved to the old drive before I installed the new drive. I think the actual sequence of events was more like:


a. Clone entire old drive onto new drive (outside of Windows, booting from a Clonezilla CD) to make a bit-for-bit copy.
b. Physically swap old drive for new (since new is an exact replica of old.)
c. Boot Windows with new drive in place of old, and move all remaining User folders to the new drive (using merely Window's built-in Move command on the Locations tab of each folder's Properties page.)
d. Re-install old drive in computer, to use as expansion space.


So my computer went from:


C: - SSD boot drive
D: - Old HDD, with some User folders (Documents, Pictures, etc.) previously moved to it.


to:


C: - SSD boot drive
D: - New HDD, with all remaining User folders (Documents, Pictures, etc.) moved to it.
I: - Old HDD


So maybe the problem arose when I swapped the old drive for the new one, leaving Windows thinking that the HDD assigned to D: is still the old drive with the its old volume GUID? And when I re-installed the old drive, maybe Windows recognized the old volume GUID, and it thinks that Search's reference to D: is still associated with the old drive's GUID, even though it no longer is?


I suspect that if I could just get Windows to completely "forget" any reference to the old drive's volume GUID, the problem might go away. Do you know where in the Registry a drive's volume GUID is maintained? Maybe if I uninstall the old drive and delete those keys, Windows will think it's a brand new drive when I re-install it?

Or maybe I'm on the wrong track thinking about volume GUIDS...

 

...and now I think I am completely off the track thinking this has anything to do with GUIDS, because if I remember correctly these HDDs are both MBR, not GPT. (I'm not in front of the computer at the moment.)

Reading up on it more, I'm starting to suspect the problem might be a Disk Signature collision. Still don't know how to resolve it, though.

 

Hi Samizdat!

Using two cloned drives in same computer isn't very good idea. And your last post confirms that.

Do you still use the old drive (I: ), if not remove it and try rebuilding searching indexes.

 

The problem is the disk signature when windows get a new drive it writes a signature to the drive so it know what it is if you clone the drive you have 2 with the same signature you need to change it How to Change the Disk Signature of a Drive Without Losing Existing Data or Reformatting (howtohaven.com)

 

Yes, I think the problem is indeed that the old and new drive both have the same Disk Signature. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices show the same four byte identifier (44 4d 49 4f) for both the new drive (\DosDevices\D*Smile and the old drive (\DosDevices\I*Smile.

My next question: I don't actually need any of the data currently on the old drive. If I reformat it in Windows, will that generate a new, unique Disk Signature for it? Seems safer (and easier) than trying to change it manually.

Thanks!

 

Ah- I see- you're saying you hadn't even wiped the old drive...

 

Yes, that's right: I had not wiped the old drive. In fact, not only did I not wipe it, I didn't even delete the old copies of the files it contains, i.e., the files that I'd cloned onto the new drive.

When I run diskpart and look at the Disk ID reported for both the old and new drives, I see two different 16-byte GUIDs, so I assumed Windows would be able to tell the drives apart unambiguously. But looking at HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices in the Registry, I see that the first 8 bytes displayed for the old drive (at \DosDevices\D*Smile and for the new drive (at \DosDevices\I*Smile are identical. So I guess even though their Disk IDs are unique, their Disk Signatures are the same, which is presumably causing a collision.

When I have time I'll yank out the old drive, get Windows Search running properly on the new drive, and then completely wipe the old drive before re-installing it. I *hope* a full wipe will erase the drive's current Disk Signature.

 

Ok, new question: Where do I find the actual Disk Signature? I see two possible places:

1. Run DISKPART and find Disk ID, which reports a genuine GUID that looks like: 360a067b-95b0-4d92-a1f9-aa3baed00027.
2. In the Registry, look at HKLM\DosDevices\D:, and see the first 8 bytes reported, which look like: 44 4d 49 4f 3a 49 44 3a.

When I do #1, the GUIDs for the two disks are different, but when I do #2, the 8-byte sequences are the same for both disks. Which is the Disk Signature? If the values in the Registry are the same, does that mean there will be collision?

I tried deleting the volume on the old drive and reformatting it in Windows, but it keeps displaying the exact same 8-byte number in the Registry. How can I force this to change or be completely erased?

Thanks!

 

P.S. I'm wondering if I need to run fdisk /mbr on the old drive in order to reset its Disk Signature (which I gather now is only the first 4 bytes of that sequence.) But I'm worried I might accidentally overwrite one of my other drives, so I think I'll try removing them and maybe booting from a recovery CD with only the old drive installed. Is there a simpler (safe) way to reset the MBR on the old drive while keeping all my current drives installed?

 

I realize I'm kind of talking to myself here, but I just discovered that the string of numbers I see for both drives in the Registry under HKLM\DosDevices:


44 4D 49 4F


turns up on the web a lot and so is not unique to my drives. I'm wondering it's used by Windows in the Registry to identify drives that are GPT, as are mine? Though so far I haven't found anything on the web explicitly referring to this sequence of bytes being used for that purpose.


In any case, I tried erasing the old drive by using DISKPART and running CLEAN. For the moment, Indexing Options is behaving normally again, meaning that if I add the new drive to Indexed Locations, it stays that way, whereas before I would see the old drive in its place the next time I checked Indexed Locations. Fingers crossed!

 

That is probably because you just come to point everybody suggest in the first place *Smile

Crossing my fingers for you *Smile