NTFSearch

[Zero3K]

Description of it from its webpage:

Normal program searchs directory for directory, that needs a lot of time. Some programs create an index, but then they work in the background and need system resources.
NTFSearch searchs in partition datas to get the file information within several seconds. A typical search request then takes about 15-35 seconds!!!. On fast hard discs a query can also go down to 5 seconds!!
NTFSearch is designed extra lean to provide a fast and easy usage.

Screenshot:



Homepage - http://www.nollsen.de/index.php?page=NTFSearch&language=en
E-Mail - webmaster@nollsen.de
Download - http://www.stud.uni-karlsruhe.de/~usbho/Downloads/NTFSearch_Setup.exe
Filesize - 228 KBs
License - Shareware
Price - $5

[f0dder]

Hm, there was a Russian guy who did a NTFS search in this lowlevel way as well. I wonder if this German app is a rip-off, parallel research, or something?

Anyway, a thing like this would imho be most useful as an (optional!, since it could very well break with next NTFS revision) indexing module for an app like locate32, rather than used as your main search.

[Armando]

I find that locate32's indexing -- and even farr's searches (without taking the launch history into account) for that matter -- already very fast. Even XYplorer, when I last tried it was pretty damn fast! What do they use instead? and how slow would they be, compared to that NTFSsearch tool...? Do you know, f0dder? Zero3K?

[Cuffy]

http://www.indexyourfiles.com/

I've been playing with this for the last couple of days. Once the indexes are complete it's faster than a speeding bullet. Very impressive and freeware from Portable apps!

[f0dder]

I find that locate32's indexing -- and even farr's searches (without taking the launch history into account) for that matter -- already very fast. Even XYplorer, when I last tried it was pretty damn fast! What do they use instead? and how slow would they be, compared to that NTFSsearch tool...? Do you know, f0dder? Zero3K?

Locate32 indexing does feel pretty fast indeed, and it doesn't even use any fancy tricks - in fact, it even uses (iirc) a depth-first instead of arguably slightly faster breadth-first indexing. I guess the reason it's so fast is that it doesn't try to index metadata/file contents, but only the basic stuff.

My guesstimate is that reading the NTFS metadata directly (like ndff and ntfssearch) is roughly as fast as locate32, perhaps a bit slower. Totally unscientific guesstimate. So I guess indexing could be sped up quite a bit by reading NTFS metadata directly. Thing is, this only works with NTFS and only for local drives, and considering how fast locate32 already indexes... well...

[Armando]

hummmm... I see. Thanks for your deductions and guesstimates f0dder! 

[Armando]

http://www.indexyourfiles.com/

I've been playing with this for the last couple of days. Once the indexes are complete it's faster than a speeding bullet. Very impressive and freeware from Portable apps!

Did you compare it  to locate32?

[Cuffy]

No. I ran across it playing with a new pen drive and a download of portable applications. Using an indexer or search app never entered my mind prior to this but I was curious about the speed so gave it a shot. It takes longer to get the index open than it does for it to search out the requested file.
I'm fascinated by the speed! I've got about a quarter of a million files on this machine and IYF finds any of them instantly. Haven't been able to fool it even once!
I may reverse the sort order and try again to fool it. I doubt it though....... it's really paying attention. I wonder if it plays Three Card Monty?

[Darwin]

What I like about Index Your Files is that it compresses the index when it's not in use. I'm not aware of any other indexer doing that. I also like that it doesn't require installation.