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New External Drive...Index Volumes?

ohla313

ohla313

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 24, 2010
778
0
I just got a new 1TB external drive and set up two partitions: Time Machine and Media files. After I did this Spotlight did something I did not notice, it was indexing volumes as I could see the dot in the magnifying lens in the top right blinking.

I noticed that when I go to Spotlight preferences theres a yield sign near the keyboard shortcut for activating spotlight. How do I fix this? I shut down my computer with the lens still blinking and was wondering if I should've let it finish that process before I did that? Will it be damaging to my computer?

Thanks!
 
Yes, just let it finish indexing. You can always start the indexing process again. No, it won't damage your computer or drive.
 
But I already turned my computer off last night (safely) without it finishing. It doesn't seem to be resuming now. How can I resume it?
 
Do I need to do this? What are the pros and cons to it? Also how can I get rid of those yield signs for the Spotlight shortcut?
 
ohla313 said:
Do I need to do this? What are the pros and cons to it? Also how can I get rid of those yield signs for the Spotlight shortcut?
Click to expand...
Yes, you should do this. Spotlight needs to index your drives so it can find items faster when searching. There's no reason not to do it. Can you post a screen shot of the yield signs to show where they're located?
 
ohla313 said:
Here it is:
Click to expand...
Setting Spotlight preferences
If a yellow alert triangle appears next to the shortcut you select, then the shortcut is already in use by another application. To open Keyboard Shortcuts preferences and view all the keyboard shortcuts in use on your computer, click the triangle.
Click to expand...
ohla313 said:
So for re-indexing, I would drag both partitions into the Privacy tab and then drag them out and it will re-index them?
Click to expand...
Yes
 
That's strange though because whenever I use that keyboard shortcut, it goes to spotlight. it is not used by another other program.

EDIT: I just dragged and removed my drive from the privacy tab but still don't see any signs of it being indexed..No blinking dot in the magnifying lens.
 
Last edited:
Is there any other way to check if Spotlight is indexing volumes?
 
How would I go about fixing the keyboard shortcut problem? I checked keyboard settings and nothing is conflicting with that shortcut.
 
ohla313 said:
How would I go about fixing the keyboard shortcut problem? I checked keyboard settings and nothing is conflicting with that shortcut.
Click to expand...
Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts and click "Restore Defaults".
 
hmm..I did that and it still shows the yield sign.

Also there's still no blinking in the lens after I dragged and removed the partitions. Did this system chance in Snow Leopard?
 
ok I rebooted and will do it again. should I turn off time machine when I re-index the volume? as it is part of the hard drive.
 
I did both and it still won't index! Yesterday, it did index for some time and then I shut it down. It was still blinking when I was shutting it down though. Perhaps it got a good chunk done?

Also when I search for files on the external it shows up in spotlight.
 
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