Windows 10: Windows search won't allow me to add "C" as a drive for indexing. I click "C," I get "F."...

Windows search has died on yet another machine. Try to modify indexing, cannot add C drive. I click on C, the windows says I clicked on F. Click on F i get F, click on C I get F. Restart the service, no change. Rebuild indexes, no change. Once again, Windows provides the most unpleasant operator experience.

:)

 

File Explorer Will Not Search New SSD C: Drive. Searches Old HDD Drive. Index / Indexing Settings Bug?

HI Greg,



Thanks for the detailed suggestions.



I can say I have done many index rebuilds and know how to select directories and file types if desired. The indexing troubleshooter is of no use. Most of the links you sent have similar suggestions. I have been through most of the suggestions and they have not made a difference



The problem still remains – For some reason, when the K drive is active, the Indexing rebuilds using K drive and not C drive.



From the info/screenshots below, I was able to successfully rebuild the index against C: Drive after I opened my PC and disconnected power and SATA cable to the K Drive. The search and indexing are working as desired. BUT, when I re-connect the K drive, the indexing re-starts and rebuilds an index against K drive. Somewhere in the system, for indexing, the computer is assuming K drive is my C drive. That is re-inforced by the steps above where I check the checkbox for C drive, and K drive then shows in the selected locations.

Demonstration of How Indexing Works When Disconnecting Old HDD (K Drive)

First, I disconnected the power and SATA cable from my K Drive. I then re-start the PC

When I look at the the "Searching Windows" in Settings, I can see the system is indexing files against C Drive





As mentioned above, the Excluded folders now show C Drive. This screen previously showed the same paths but with K:\ when the K drive is connected

After indexing is completed, I have many more files as expected





When I search now using File Explorer, the search bar again says "Documents on C", but now the results below show the correct C drive files as expected - and there are more - as expected.





So leaving the K drive disconnected provides the results I want for a C drive search. But ultimately I want to search both C and K.

So I want to re-connect K drive.

BUT, when I reconnect the K drive, the computer rebuilds the index and then I am back to where I started - all searches return files from K drive and not C drive.

Gonna have to try calling Microsoft and see if I get any help other than "re-install Windows"....

Any other thoughts appreciated.

 

Windows Search and - allow contents on this drive to be indexed

If I disable the setting "allow contents on this drive to be indexed" does it impact the windows search feature?

My C drive is an SSD. I have been having issues with windows explorer being very slow on all drive so been researching possible issues.

I came across that I should disable "allow contents on this drive to be indexed" on an SSD and am curious if that impacts Windows Search or if windows search is a different indexing. Since I have my files stored on another drive, it may not be a big deal to disable this on my C Drive since I have no contents under by C drive that I need to search. I also have no locations on my C drive set to be indexed under the indexing options in control panel.

thanks,

Mike

 

Windows not indexing the C drive

Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is William. I'm a Windows technical expert. I'll be happy to help you out today.

When you say your search feature does not work in explorer, do you mean you cannot type into it? Either way, this likely has nothing to do with indexing. For starters, searching doesn't require indexes, it just optimizes searching. And if your primary system
drive is an SSD, then you can actually disable search indexing since SSDs are fast enough to mitigate the benefits of search indexes.

Your issue may actually be related to broken UWP app settings. To reset/repair the Search app, you can use Windows PowerShell. To do this, right-click the Start Menu > select Windows PowerShell (admin) > paste the following command:

The above will focus only the Search app the UWP. I often recommend cleaning the entire shell experiences with a more inclusive script: