Searching external hard drive easier

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by smoothiemaker, Feb 14, 2009.

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  1. smoothiemaker, Feb 14, 2009

    smoothiemaker macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2008
    #1
    I bought a 1TB external HDD when I got my mac back in August. I use it for Time Machine and I store all my songs that I use for DJ/karaoke.

    When I first got it and I had it plugged in, I could search a lot easier than I can now. It would search just like you can when searching your internal drive and type the file name in and it begins narrowing it down. Now for some reason it will not do that, and every time I need to find a song on the drive out of thousands, I have to go in there manually and hunt it down, which is a pain.

    Anyone know of how to adjust the search settings on my external drive so I can get it working like it was at first?

    Thanks!
     
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  2. JustGretchen, Feb 14, 2009

    JustGretchen macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2008
    #2
    You could trim down the amount of things that spotlight actually displays when it searches via your system preferences. You could also have spotlight re-index the drive.

    Basically in system preferences under the spotlight>privacy area add the external. Close out of system prefs and wait like 10 minutes
    then remove it from the privacy area and it should reindex the drive.
     
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  3. Horst, Feb 14, 2009

    Horst Guest

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2006
    #3
    Did you install a new OSX, e.g. Leopard, by chance ?
     
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  4. smoothiemaker, Feb 14, 2009

    smoothiemaker thread starter macrumors newbie

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    Dec 4, 2008
    #4
    Trying that out right now. You guys are seriously the best with this kind of thing and being so nice and helpful. Much appreciated :)

    I had Leopard when I got the computer, and it is still on here. It is currently running 10.5.6
     
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