OS X Leopard: Spotlight isn't finding some files

[sparkie7]

I have a MacBook Pro 17" with Apple SSD, and spotlight is not finding all my files. Finds most but not all. I havechecked my permission and they are fine. I did the drag HD to Spotlight prefs to delete and added back the HD for spotlight to rebuild -— no luck.

Downloaded onxy to rebuild permissions and spotlight etc.. still didn't work

I downloaded Easyfind, and it didn't find the specific files I was after

The files are definitely on my machine, as I can find them manually by going into the folders and locating them.

The weird thing is that my clone of this SSD on an external mechanical HD works find when i boot off it. The spotlight works! -- So i'm thining its maybe the SSD thats playing up and not indexing properly?!?

I'm currently resorting to zero'ing out my SSD with Disk Utility right now and then cloning back the entire system and documents from my external HD. I shouldn't have to do this

Any ideas whats going on, and how to fix this?

 

[Salvatore.Dali]

Select the kind of file you want spotlight to look for.

From your post, I wasn't sure if you are aware of the spotlight's option which allows you to choose what kind of files it looks for:
Open spotlight in window mode (hit ALT+COMMAND+SPACE or COMMAND+F or just type your search into spotlight's text field and hit "Show All", which should be at the very top). Once the windows opens, you'll see a grey bar at the top of the window. On the upper right you'll see a circular "+" button right next to the "Save" button. Hitting that will bring up another bar, which should have 2 drop-down menus. Hit "Other.." under the first menu. Here you will be able to select what kind of files spotlight searches for. System files, for example, will not be displayed in the search results unless you manually select that option.
Let me know if this helps..

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

Another problem might be where you have files stored. If you have an iDisk and external HD perhaps you have it tweeked that spotlight does not index those volumes.

Worth a try.

 

[sparkie7]

From your post, I wasn't sure if you are aware of the spotlight's option which allows you to choose what kind of files it looks for:
Open spotlight in window mode (hit ALT+COMMAND+SPACE or COMMAND+F or just type your search into spotlight's text field and hit "Show All", which should be at the very top). Once the windows opens, you'll see a grey bar at the top of the window. On the upper right you'll see a circular "+" button right next to the "Save" button. Hitting that will bring up another bar, which should have 2 drop-down menus. Hit "Other.." under the first menu. Here you will be able to select what kind of files spotlight searches for. System files, for example, will not be displayed in the search results unless you manually select that option.
Let me know if this helps..

thanks for your reply. the problem is that my files are basic documents or PDFs. they aren't system files or anything 'under the hood' so to speak. just normal files filed under Documents. Which should be easily searchable

Another problem might be where you have files stored. If you have an iDisk and external HD perhaps you have it tweeked that spotlight does not index those volumes.

Worth a try.

hi, all my files are on one drive only. I don have multiple volumes which I'm asking spotlight to search. which makes it more annoying and puzzling